A New Chapter for Iceage

Danish post-punk stalwarts Iceage have officially announced their sixth studio album, For Love Of Grace & The Hereafter. The highly anticipated follow-up to 2021’s Seek Shelter is set for release on May 29 via Mexican Summer. To mark the announcement, the band has shared the album’s opening track, ‘Ember’, a song that captures the group’s renewed sense of urgency and raw energy.

• READ MORE: Iceage on growing up: “The longer you live, the more nuance gets added to the palette”

The band’s return follows the release of ‘Star’ last month, their first new music in five years, which will also feature on the 12-track record. Frontman Elias Rønnenfelt described the creative impetus behind the new material, stating: “The songs needed to be immediate, urgent, raw, and fast. We wanted to try to shed any unnecessary weight. Catching outlets of energy is what excites us the most.”

A Tight, Unfiltered Sound

For Love Of Grace & The Hereafter is being positioned as the band’s most focused work to date. While described as “glossy at times,” the production remains sharp, designed to maintain the band’s signature intensity. Listeners can expect a sonic landscape filled with “wordless howls, nastily detuned riffs that bend into harmony, breakdowns, handclaps, and a chaotic choral break seemingly played on pennywhistles.”

Produced and mixed by the band alongside Nis Bysted, the project reflects a deep trust in their collective instincts. The album was recorded at Silence Studio in rural Sweden—the same location where the band tracked their 2014 breakthrough, Plowing Into The Field Of Love. By returning to this familiar environment, the group aimed to recapture the intense, visceral energy that defined their earlier work.

The Creative Process

In a deliberate effort to avoid fragmentation and maintain a sense of risk, the lyrics for the album were written only weeks before the band entered the studio. This approach ensured that the record remained a cohesive, high-stakes document of their current creative state. As the band noted, “There is no affectation or prescription to this record – no palette of curated influence or sought sound. It is the sum total of inspirations, shared openly in the name of playing and playing’s pleasures.”

The lead single, ‘Ember’, serves as a perfect introduction to this ethos. Beginning with a delicate glockens with a delicate glockenspiel and guitar intro, it quickly accelerates into a raucous, driving indie-rock anthem. Rønnenfelt’s lyrics—”I love you in an ominous way / Are you willing to pay? Are you willing to break?”—perfectly encapsulate the tension and release that define the new record.

Tracklist: For Love Of Grace & The Hereafter

1. ‘Ember’
2. ‘Match Head Girl’
3. ‘The Weak’
4. ‘No Fear’
5. ‘Salve For Every Sore’
6. ‘mother-of-pearl’
7. ‘Tender Blades’
8. ‘1835’
9. ‘Star’
10. ‘Lifetime’
11. ‘Holy Water’
12. ‘True Blue’