Dark Funeral is a Swedish black metal band from Stockholm, founded by guitarists Blackmoon and Lord Ahriman in 1993.

In 1993, guitarists David Parland, also known as Blackmoon, and Mikael Svanberg, also known as Lord Ahriman, established Dark Funeral, recruiting Paul Mäkitalo, also known as Themgoroth, formerly of the band Scum, as bassist and vocalist, and Joel Andersson, also known as Draugen, shortly thereafter.

In January 1994, Dark Funeral recorded their self-titled EP at Unisound Studio with Dan Swanö of Edge of Sanity fame as producer, subsequently being released on 4 May, 1994.

In 1995, Dark Funeral signed with No Fashion Records, subsequently composing songs in anticipation for their debut full-length album.

Initially, the band recorded several tracks that would appear on The Secrets of the Black Arts at said Unisound Studio with Swanö as producer, but opted to re-record the album with Peter Tägtgren of Hypocrisy fame at The Abyss Studio, composing a further track, "When Angels Forever Die", and incorporating a cover of Von's "Satanic Blood", for their debut album.

[2] Shortly after recording their album at The Abyss, Dark Funeral played their first festival gig, Under the Black Sun I, in Berlin.

A few weeks prior to this gig Emperor Magus Caligula (Magnus 'Masse' Broberg, the original vocalist of Hypocrisy) replaced Themgoroth, becoming a permanent member during the summer of 1995.

[4] On 28 January 1996, The Secrets of the Black Arts was released, with the album thence being licensed to Metal Blade in North America and Mystic Productions in Poland.

The Ineffable Kings of Darkness Tour with Enthroned and Liar of Golgotha took place with Dominion joining the band as a session bass player.

The band returned overseas for another mini-tour, Black Plague Across the West, when they played in Mexico for the first time before they headed to the US and the state of California.

After the departure of Gaahnfaust, Matte Modin (Defleshed) joined the band as a permanent member and made his debut at the With Full Force festival.

Due to the overwhelming positive response to the new album from both the public and the press, the band was able to secure deals that brought their music across to a much wider audience, with licenses in Japan (Soundholic Co. Ltd), Brazil (Hellion Records), Poland (Mystic Productions), Romania (Rocris Disc), Bulgaria (Rocris Disc), Thailand (S.Stack Co. Ltd), Russia (Irond Records Ltd), Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China (Magnus Music).

After the Asian tour, guitarist Dominion felt it was in the best interests of both the band and himself to resign his position, due to commitment to studies.

After a successful gig at the Wacken Open Air Festival in Germany, the band headed down to South America for a tour through Brazil, Chile, and Colombia.

After sifting through the recorded material with their live sound engineer (Erik Lidbom, Hitfire Productions), De Profundis Clamavi Ad Te Domine was born.

The band appeared as the headlining act at Germany's Party San, Swedish Nordic Rage, and LA's Gathering of the Bestial Legions Festival.

The band concentrated on writing material for a new full-length album, yet made time to perform at the Metal Mind Festival in Poland, before joining the No Mercy Tour with Six Feet Under, Nile and Dying Fetus, among others.

After returning from the Metalferry show in Sweden in between, Matte announced to the rest of the band that he could not go to the Baltic states, as it was his son's birthday.

The band had a special appearance playing live on the pornographic film Club Satan: The Witches Sabbath, to which they also contributed their song "King Antichrist" off Attera Totus Sanctus.

On 24 October 2008, it was announced that the Supreme Court of Sweden had ruled in favour of Dark Funeral in the dispute with MNW/No Fashion Records.

The latter half of 2010 saw the band consisting of only Ahriman and Chaq Mol on guitars, following the departure of Emperor Magus Caligula in July 2010, and B-Force and Dominator in the coming months.

Caligula's was arguably the most significant: after being in Dark Funeral for fifteen years as vocalist and lyricist, he had spent the longest time in the band, aside from Ahriman.

The video revealed a new vocalist, Heljarmadr (Gra, Domgård, Cursed 13) and bassist Natt (Angrepp, Withershin) to the group's ranks, although by the time the band started recording in February 2016 for their sixth album Where Shadows Forever Reign, which was released on 3 June by Century Media, Natt was no longer in the group, having Lord Ahriman record the bass for the album.

[15] In a Facebook post from November 2021, the band stated their seventh studio album will be entitled We Are the Apocalypse and is scheduled to be released on 18 March 2022.