SLAUGHTERDAY unleash a video single of the crushing title track from their forthcoming new album „Dread Emperor„. The sixth full-length of the East Frisian death metal veterans has been scheduled for release on February, Friday the 13th, 2026.
Slaughterday – Dread Emperor [Official Music Video]
SLAUGHTERDAY comment: „The title track, ‚Dread Emperor‘, represents quintessential Slaughterday“, guitarist Jens Finger points out. „It takes you on an unrelenting journey through old school death metal, from slow, crushing doom to blistering aggression, which is crowned by soaring melodic solos.“
Bernd Reiners adds: „The song’s lyrics portray the ‚Dread Emperor‘ as the ultimate embodiment of fear itself, a timeless force that rules through terror and despair“, the frontman writes. „With a world consumed by oppression, hopelessness, and submission, this track channels darkness and chaos to mirror the raw power of fear unleashed, making it both a sonic and thematic assault.“
With their sixth full-length „Dread Emperor“, SLAUGHTERDAY deliver everything that they excel in, which is also precisely what their fans want from the duo: perfectly executed old school death metal with a wicked twist.
>From crushing doom-ridden ultra-heavy parts to calculated outbreaks of utter brutality, this record offers everything a still beating death metal heart could ask for. And of course, those cosmic horrors of the Great Old Ones, forbidden sounds, and tentacled death metal are still rising. The German band has also added more deeper meaning to their tales of cosmic terrors as a healthy antidote to stereotypes.
SLAUGHTERDAY were formed in the East Frisian city of Leer in 2010 and this heavy powerhouse comes with a pedigree that amounts to death metal nobility in the northwestern corner of their native country. The original and still remaining core duo consists of string-shredder Jens Finger, who served as the guitarist of Oldenburgian death metal legends OBSCENITY from 1994 until 2010, and is also the growler of new label mates TEMPLE OF DREAD. The other half of the duo is personified by vocalist and drummer Bernd Reiners, who has also lent his voice to Aurich based death thrashers BK 49 among other acts.
>From the start, SLAUGHTERDAY have channelled the raw, morbid spirit of such old school giants as AUTOPSY, DEATH, and MASSACRE. Yet while they always deliver crushing riffs and brutal pounding, the duo comes with captivating choruses and haunting melodies that set them apart from many of their deadly peers.
With the visceral debut album „Nightmare Vortex“ (2013), the no-less massive „Laws of the Occult“ (2016) and „Ancient Death Triumph“ (2020) as well as their latest crusher „Tyrants of Doom“ (2022), SLAUGHTERDAY cemented their position as one of the top acts within the German death metal scene.
Lyrically, SLAUGHTERDAY have always built on the well-established foundations of their genre by taking inspiration from American author H. P. Lovecraft and other masters of horror. And while sinister things crawl and creep through the duo’s timeless brutality, they have always portrayed them with a sinister flair of their own. These days, the band has repurposed those monstrous creatures as metaphorical ciphers for relevant contemporary topics.
SLAUGHTERDAY present new horrors and more brutal madness than ever that make „Dread Emperor“ essential listening for any self-respecting old school death metal afficionado!
