Volume V

This is the band's first record since Down IV - Part I and Down IV - Part II, the two six-song halves of 2012 and 2014, and their first full-length album since Over the Under in 2007 -- nineteen years. The line-up is the founding one of Phil Anselmo on vocals, Pepper Keenan and Kirk Windstein on guitars and Jimmy Bower on drums, with Pat Bruders on bass since 2011. Windstein left in 2013 and was back by the end of 2019. Most of the songs came out of two writing sessions. The place was Anselmo's home studio, Nodferatu's Lair, as it has been since Down II, and the method was the same one: everybody in a room, playing at each other until a song exists. The material took its shape through 2025, and Keenan and Windstein recorded their guitars at the same time. Eddie Mapp produced with the band, Dave Fortman mixed and Maor Appelbaum mastered it in California. King Diamond trades lines with Anselmo on the second song, "Merciful Fate", and King Diamond's wife Livia Zita sings on it too. Of the closing "Twice-Told Tales", Anselmo has said that he felt Ozzy Osbourne's influence on him in the strangest way. The lead single "Blood Oath" came out with a video on 19 August 2026 and, by his account, carries references to New Orleans that people from the city will recognise. February's Dr. John cover, "Right Place, Wrong Time", is not on the album. The CD is a jewel-case import, EAN 4065629770402, and no Japanese edition had been announced as of September 2026. The running order here is the label's announcement as printed.