Music videos were made for the cover of the medieval piece "Herr Mannelig" (with lyrics in Swedish and featuring the making-of footage from the recording sessions) and for "The Purple Sky", directed by Michael Rother and Tim Loeschmann.
A limited edition was released with a bonus track.
Background
The Aftermath represents the band's return to the recording studio, after a seven-year break. Midnattsol singer and main songwriter Carmen Elise Espenæs was involved in a side project called Savn,[3] as well as raising her sons, born in 2012 and 2014. Additionally, differences between band members caused a greater delay in the production of the new album.
In December 2017, Carmen Elise's older sister Liv Kristine was introduced as the band's second official singer, following her departure from Leaves' Eyes in 2016.[4][5] Previously, bassist Birgit Öllbrunner, drummer Chris Merzinsky and guitarist Matthias Schuler left the band for personal reasons before the recording sessions began at the end of 2017.
Replacing them, producer and new member Stephan Adolph played all their instruments as a session musician. Adolph had already worked with Midnattsol on their debut album Where Twilight Dwells (2005)
Musical style and writing
The album is characterized by its great compositional variety, including some slower songs than in previous works in a doom metal style such as "Herr Mannelig", energetic themes such as "Syns sang", folk ballads such as "Vem kan segla", and a greater number of lyrics in Norwegian.
Lyrically, The Aftermath has Nordic folk influences, including gothic metal songs like "Ikje glem meg" and "The Aftermath". In relation to the writing, Espenæs said:
[...] There were folk elements on the other albums as well, but on our new album The Aftermath I definitely think it's even more, and this is a direction where we definitely are heading more and more. I feel inspired by folk songs and tales, and I love learning more about the earlier days. We didn't have any restrictions when we were writing the album, just total freedom to let the creativity flow, so we sang and played things we haven`t done before. That was a fantastic feeling, I really loved writing the songs together with the other ones.[6]
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