Just gave it a listen. Not much of an Enslaved fan, but this album is actually pretty good. Death in the Eyes of Dawn is the best track by far. Some of the tracks are a bit draggy, and Roots of the Mountain has a stupid mellotron section that sounds like Stawberry Fields Forever, but for the most part, it's a good album. Might have to check out some of their other stuff.

Yeah...of Enslaved's discography, I've only listened to Eld and mostly everything prior to it. I might have to check out some of the other later releases as I am quite digging RIITIIR.

Its great to see one of the founding bands of Norwegian Black Metal having progressed so well.

The album is incredible, just as I expected. It'll most likely end up in my top 10 list of best albums this year.

Enslaved are one of the few bands in their peer group who haven't had a single period of their activity in which someone could legitimately say "meh, they're a bit shit now".

Anyways, I've pre-ordered the CD, and I've never been so resistant to listening to a leak before, so I'll be back with an opinion when it comes in the post.

Crazy that these guys always manage not to get stale.

This is so fucking phenomenal I can barely comprehend it. Someone needs to harness the mental powers possessed by this band and utilize them for the greater good of mankind. Seriously, how is it even possible to be so good?

Out of curiosity, has Enslaved joined bands like Bolt Thrower as being "Metal Archives Favorites" recently, or has it been like this for a long time? I've never seen such a positive response to an artist.

I'm perhaps influencing this!

Well I don't know about that but I have noticed the Opeth hate has cooled since your promotion. Hmm.

Yeah, I actually barely dare to mention that I don't like most of Enslaved's discography, especially not the newer stuff. There, I said it. There must be others here who feel this way, but well, I guess this isn't really the ideal thread to bitch about it.

Fuck Opeth. Perhaps the most insipid band on the archives. Also, not much of an Enslaved fan, but this album is pretty cool. Not sure about it being the best album of this year though, but its definitely solid.

There are 2 reasons why one would consistently listen to an album.
1. Because they enjoyed it instantly.
2. Because the album needs more listen.

Axioma Ethica Odini was an album that I really enjoyed on the very 1st spin. However, Riitiir was abit disappointing, perhaps the lack of black metal elements. Not much of a progressive metal listener, so it would definitely be tough for my ears to adapt to it.

Hyperbole much? But yeah, they suck. So does Enslaved, for that matter.


Just throwing that out there to make sure Ancient_Sorrow doesn't get any ideas.

*leaves quietly*

Yeah, Terri just wants to piss me off, trolling Tony is so fun, he even likes Opeth. I think you should give Enslaved another chance, Morri. Check Eld and Below the Lights, I think it would be your kinda stuff.

I've been paying attention to all the praise found in here and I only hope the music exceeds or matches. I'm confident it will.

Giving it a first listen now. I'm sure it's great like all their material.

Yeah, if you don't like at least some Enslaved, well, yeah....haha Looking forward to hearing this new album.

Roots of the Mountain is really an entertaining song. I'm beginning to enjoy the album as a whole.

I love Enslaved, but this album feels like a step backwards in terms of quality. I'll give it more spins for sure, but as a first impression, it's not as good as Axioma or Ruun, maybe in the Vertebrae level or even a bit lower.

You really thought Ruun was superior to Vertebrae? Wow.

Heh, I think so too, Fusion of Sense and Earth is a magistral song!

I like "Entroper" and "Heir to the Cosmic Seed" best on that album, and it is indeed great. The psychedelic overload of the latter is simply entrancing. Is Ruun better than Vertebrae overall, though? Not even close as far as I'm concerned.

I'd have to second that. The only track that stuck out to me from Vertebrae was New Dawn, where as I spin Ruun all the way through on a regular occasion. However, my last playthrough of the former was over a year ago so I may have to give it another listen now that I've gone through the rest of the band's discography...

I like Ruun a lot more than Vertebrae.

I'm not big on either album, but I will side with Ruun being better. They're like two placeholders for Axioma.

Ruun goes a bit too overboard with the proggy shit, while Vertebrae sounds like them trying to move away a little, but not enough to be really interesting. Never did bother checking out Axioma.

Axioma is pretty much the best thing ever. Also, Vertebrae is proggier than Ruun by a long shot, so I don't know what you mean there...

Vertebrae is lighter, but not necessarily proggier to me.

I'm sure given enough time, I'll appreciate Ruun a lot more than I do right now unlike Frost which to this day has never come close to capturing my fancy. I expected Vertebrae to be a big letdown but, man, was I impressed. It gives Axioma a run for its money. A very intoxicating album-both of them.

That's amazing how Frost hasn't made you more interested in it. If there's one Enslaved album that hasn't done anything, it's the debut. That album's boring as dogshit for me. Can't get into after 6 years of listening to it. Can't even get through the first track half the time. Sounds too goofy. Then there's something like Monumension, which I have to be more patient than I was when taking the SAT in order to get a kick out of it.

Other than a couple decent tracks, I found that second album to be just directionless clanging of a folk/black metal sound with none of the atmosphere I was expecting from the band. I can see how Vikingligr Veldi might be boring to some but it totally locked down the Norse vibe perfectly for me.

Can someone please bring up a link to an old thread that posted photos from the Enslaved/Alcest concert(with some other band on the bill)? I can't seem to locate it on the search. I don't know if it was one or two years ago.

Don't forget Essence, which is a sort of microcosmos of the band on 7 minutes, like Eit Auga Til Mimir is from their former black metal days.

Ruun is consistently awesome from start to finish, whereas Vertebrae has some good tracks and others kinda forgettable. Axioma is a really memorable album where the prog elements seems to be better implemented than the previous album, without losing energy. RITIIR suffers from the same thing than Vertebrae: it lacks energy.

Listening to it for the first time today - Really enjoying it, although it's a bit more ponderous than some of their albums, I think it probably works that way. I think I'll spend most of today listening to it in one way or another, before I can properly think about it. It seems very, very well written and immersive so far.

I seriously can't comprehend that. How are you into black metal?

"goofy"

I'll be honest, I still can't get into Vikingligr Veldi at all yet either; I'd imagine I will, but it's one of those albums which doesn't really come across as rewarding to listen to; it may sound good when I do, but it's sort of dense, unwieldy and all the songs seem to blend into one. I love Hordanes Land and Frost, and see a similarity between them, and not Vikingligr Veldi, which makes me think it may well be a stylistic departure anyway.

VV is their best, Hordanes ain't far behind though. I like most of their 1990s stuff (although, I remember not liking Frost but it's ages since I've heard that one). I really couldn't care less about their neo-Opeth prog phase, though, I guess they're still better than Opeth.

And you can safely disregard OzzyApu's opinion on anything.

So it seems concerning their first albums there is a sharp divide between those who love Frost and think VV is boring and those who love VV and think Frost is directionless. Personally I can have non of that. They are both fundamentally different but phantastic black metal albums. VV is focused on epic melody and does have an undeniable ambient touch while Frost is more folk paired with complex rhythm which almost feels like blackish death metal. I can dig both.


There's something I can sign.

For some reason the production on Vertabrae didn't click with me, even though when I think about it there's nothing that much different sounding about it than, say, Isa or Ruun. I dunno, the vocals sound more processed or something, overall less natural. Also, the songs just seemed like a slight step down. To the Coast and The Watcher are awesome, but there's nothing on it that beats the Ruun title track or most of the other songs off Ruun. Still, Below the Lights and Axioma are their two best albums, I'd say, and I can't wait to get balls deep up in this new one.

Frost is probably my favourite of their black metal stuff. I like the debut a lot, but I'm not sure I understand the unanimous worship of it. It's a great album, but I think Frost and Eld are better.

It's saddens me that people always seem to forget about Mardraum, which is easily my favourite Enslaved album. I also never really understood the unconditional love for Vikingligr Veldi because beyond the awesome first track, I've always found that VV is flat-out boring. I do understand that VV and its follow-up, Frost, are completely different albums, but I've always felt that Frost was a big step up from the debut in terms of songwriting.

Edit: I still haven't listened to Axioma, I am a terrible person

I agree that Mardraum is a very underrated album. Even I don't listen to it as much as I should but every time I do I'm blown away.