Lawless Darkness is the fourth studio album by Swedish black metal band Watain, released through Season of Mist, on 7 June 2010. The cover art was made by Zbigniew M. Bielak, who also painted The Wild Hunt cover art. The album sold around 1,000 copies in the United States in the first week of its release, reaching no. 42 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart. The single "Reaping Death" was distributed in their home country of Sweden in the Sweden Rock magazine, and was certified gold in the band's home country on April 21 by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry for sales in excess of 10,000 copies. The album received very positive reviews from music critics, and in 2011 the band were awarded the Swedish Grammi for 'Best Hard Rock' album for Lawless Darkness.

In regards to the album's title, Erik Danielsson said that "It’s an expression about liberating all bonds. To question everything around you, to break down all barriers that are around you. Some call it salvation and others liberation. Lawlessness can mean liberation." Danielsson has also explained that he sees the band's previous album as the "foundation stone" of Lawless Darkness, "because with Sworn we had finally reached the artistic self-knowledge required for such a giant of an album. With that in our backs, we knew we could venture far into the dark… And we did." He described the album as a "thorough musical exploration of the darkside", and explained that the album's lyrics are based on the "exploration, glorification and adoration of the Devil; the eternal adversary and enemy of the world as we know it." Expanding on the meaning behind the album, he said:

The idea of Lawless Darkness is based upon the thought that light is a impulse of restriction and definition. Darkness, in turn, is the absence of light, and therefore the absence of the same restrictions. Note that Darkness in this context is also used as a spiritual and archetypal concept, not only the physical absence of light during, for example, night-time. The darkness that we refer to is the primordial wellspring of Chaos that is the abode of our gods, and unto which their children, the bloodline of fire, shall return.

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