Metal-dielectric coatings consist of extremely fine metal particles embedded in dielectric matrices are considered promising as materials for high-temperature spectral selective absorption coating applications owing to their excellent thermal stability and integrated optical properties. However, during long periods of annealing under high temperatures, metal particles are prone to agglomerating, coarsening, oxidizing, and diffusing across different layers, resulting in changes in composition and microstructures. Correspondingly the metal-dielectric coatings would experience irreversible degradations in optical properties. Hence, a Cr/AlCrN/AlCrON/AlCrO multilayer solar selective absorbing coating has been designed and deposited on stainless steel by cathode arc ion plating to solve the above mentioned issue. This coating exhibited excellent thermal stability as the absorptance increased to 0.922, whereas, the emittance decreased to 0.114 after annealing at 500^oC for 1000 h in air. Microstructural characterization indicates that the increase in absorptance is attributed the formation of small amounts of AlN, CrN, and Cr₂N nanocrystallites in the amorphous matrices of AlCrN and AlCrON, which can effectively scatter the incident light into a broadband wavelength spectrum by increasing the optical path length in the absorbing layers, resulting in a pronounced enhancement in the absorptivity. A handful of Cr₂O₃ and Al₂O₃ nanograins are embedded in the amorphous AlCrO antireflection layer, which can effectively reflect solar infrared radiation and thermal emittance from the substrate, resulting in relatively low infrared emissivity. Besides, good thermal stability is attributed to the excellent thermal stability of the dielectric amorphous matrices and slow atomic diffusion of nanoparticles, which could effectively slow down the inward diffusion of oxygen and avoid the agglomeration of nanoparticles. However, during high-temperature annealing, aluminum atoms in the nanoparticles appear to agglomerate on the surface. These aluminum atoms would oxidize in air and form a layer of Al₂O₃ covering these nanoparticles, preventing agglomeration and coarsening of nanoparticles.