Covenant’s ‘The Blinding Dark’ turns 10 on 4 November
Dependent Records released Covenant’s “The Blinding Dark” on 4 November 2016. The Swedish EBM act’s ninth studio album turns 10 this year.
Covenant released their ninth studio album, “The Blinding Dark”, through Dependent Records on 4 November 2016, with Metropolis Records handling the North American release. The Swedish electronic body music duo’s record turns 10 this year.
Joakim Montelius described the record around release as the band’s bleakest work to date, but not a resigned one: “It’s a very dark one, probably the darkest music we have ever made. […] But it’s not a beaten, sullen darkness. It’s a defiant one.” He called the album “much more introspective” than its predecessor, the “Sound Mirrors” EP, and described the shift as consistent with the band’s approach: “Covenant’s basic principle is to always evolve: change is the only constant.”
“The Blinding Dark” runs eleven tracks: “Fulwell”, “I Close My Eyes”, “Morning Star”, “Cold Reading”, “A Rider on a White Horse”, “Interlude”, “Dies Irae”, “Sound Mirrors (Fulwell)”, “Interlude”, “If I Give My Soul” and “Summon Your Spirit”. Eskil Simonsson handled songwriting and vocals, with Montelius on programming. Daniel Myer and Daniel Jonasson joined the touring line-up on live keyboards. Dependent issued the album on CD, a deluxe 2CD edition adding a bonus disc titled “Psychonaut”, and a limited vinyl pressing, alongside the digital release.
Side-Line tracked the release through 2016: the “Sound Mirrors” EP in August, the boxset pre-order in September, and a release-week interview in which Montelius discussed the album’s tone directly. The accompanying European tour, with support from Faderhead and Iszoloscope, opened in Odense on 29 October 2016 and continued into the following spring. “The Blinding Dark” follows two other Covenant anniversary pieces on Side-Line this year, for “Leaving Babylon” and “Northern Light”.
About Covenant
Eskil Simonsson, Joakim Montelius and Clas Nachmanson formed Covenant in 1986, three friends from Helsingborg, Sweden who were then studying in Lund. They settled on the band’s name in 1988. After attending one of Front 242’s first Scandinavian shows, the trio built a studio in Nachmanson’s bedroom and began recording. “The Replicant” appeared on a Memento Materia compilation in 1992, leading to the debut album “Dreams of a Cryotank” in 1994 and the “Figurehead” EP the following year.
“Sequencer” followed in 1996, backed by a tour with Haujobb and Steril, then the “Theremin” EP in 1997 and “Europa” in 1998. The band moved labels in 1999, joining Dependent in Europe and Metropolis Records in the United States after Metropolis took over their prior US distributor’s catalogue. “United States of Mind” and the live album “Synergy” both followed in 2000, and Sony’s Ka2 division handled the European release of “Northern Light” in 2002.
“Skyshaper” arrived in 2006. Nachmanson left the band the following year and was replaced by Daniel Myer of Haujobb. The road-movie DVD “In Transit” came out in October 2007. “Modern Ruin”, released in 2011, was the first studio album with Myer as a core member. “Leaving Babylon” followed in September 2013, after the “Last Dance” EP that June.
“The Blinding Dark” arrived in November 2016, trailed by the “Sound Mirrors” single and carried on tour across Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Greece and Finland into 2017. The “Fieldworks: Exkursion” EP followed in 2019, the year Covenant headlined the Terminus Festival in Calgary. Touring member Andreas Catjar-Danielsson died in July 2024. Covenant released the charity EP “Andreas” on Dependent Records in his memory in October 2025. Ten years after “The Blinding Dark”, Simonsson and Montelius remain the band’s core songwriting unit.
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