Has anyone seen them recently? How far back do they go in their sets? Last I saw them was on a tour for 'Vertebrae'. I will be seeing them again soon and want to know what to expect in terms of setlist.

Setlist.fm is a good place to check out this kind of info. I just picked a random date of theirs from a euro tour earlier this year and it looks like this: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/enslaved ... cbee3.html

1. Storm Son
2. Roots of the Mountain
3. Return to Yggdrasil
4. The River's Mouth
5. Convoys to Nothingness
6. Vetrarnortt
7. One Thousand Years of Rain
8. Sacred Horse

Enc:

9. Drum solo
10. Allfǫðr Oðinn
11. Isa

This thread inspired me to work my way back through their discography. It's really pretty daunting with so many relatively long albums, and I haven't done this sort of thing with Enslaved in probably eight or nine years.

My favorite is Vikingligr Veldi. Many of the newer albums I've listened to have been good while I listened to them, but didn't leave a huge impact. However, I can definitely see how they're the sorts of things that take quite a few listens to really sink in, so I'm giving myself a chance to listen to everything a lot and hear albums in chronological context a bit better.

I am planning to do the same when I get the chance. Looking through their discography, I realized I've been very selective about which albums I have focused on by them, probably because they have so many. But I haven't paid much attention to some of the early to mid albums like Blodhemn, Mardraum, or Monumension, not sure if I've given Ruun a proper listen either. Based on the praise a lot of those are getting in this thread though, I will definitely check them out.

I have listened to the last 3 albums maybe 1-2 times each, which is a shame because they were really good, but just didn't stick for some reason. The 'Thorn' and 'Sleeping Gods' EPs are probably among my favorites of what they've come out with in the last 10 years or so. But other than that, I mainly find myself listening to the first two albums, Vertebrae and Axioma.

This post makes me think maybe I should check out In Times. I think its cool that the posts in this thread basically list every period of Enslaved's career. Personally I lost interest after Isa. I could see that album was a clear transition phase, but Ruun hit like a boring stack of bricks. Nothing else since has stuck with me.

Do check it out. In Times feels very rejuvenated, even compared to Ruun, which I feel is still quite energetic. They seriously lost steam with Vertebrae, but in Times seemed to bring it back, and in a very cohesive way.

I also really enjoyed Storm Son from the latest album.

Isa.

Totally agree! Similarly, I was getting into Satyricon when I found Enslaved via their split and they became one of my all-time favorites because of it... Enslaved was completely different from the other bands of that era and that made them stand out to me.

My Enslaved deep delve has given me a newfound appreciation of both Frost and Eld. Both are really great albums. Far more aggressive than I remembered. Those drums! Blodhemn is just a bit of a step down. It picks up in the second half actually but for much of the running time I just thought it wasn't quite as inspired as the albums that came before it. I do still love the debut though I'm not huge on the circus sounding synths in the opening track.

Mardraum, though...I dunno, I'm just not feeling it as much. There are some super cool, heavy riffs on there that are definitely great and the highlights of the album, but I just feel like the tonal shifts aren't as graceful or natural seeming as the ones on the previous black metally albums. I can see how, at the time, people would've really liked this as the shift to both heavier sounds that border on death metal and weirder outside elements would be really refreshing after the somewhat lacking Blodhemn.

I am definitely in the minority on this. I can safely say that while all their albums range from not bad - great, RIITIIR is absolutely my favorite.

I have made it through Eld so far and I totally agree. I did not remember both of those albums being so damn good! Frost seemed to be where they really started to experiment with the folky/viking elements and more clean vocals so it was interesting to revisit that. Eld is a fantastic album, and I don't know why I didn't listen to it more. It has proggy elements, but it is a fantastic black metal album, and as you mentioned, the drums make it. Also, special shoutout to Hordanes Land, don't know why I never checked that out! I guess I assumed that since their two demos were such shitty quality, that one would follow suit. But, no. It is absolutely on par with Vikingligr and the other early albums. I almost dare say it's better, simply because it packs in everything that's good about those early albums but with no filler!

Definitely looking forward to delving into the albums after Eld, as I have not hear those as much. With all of their albums being so different, I expect going through them all will be a fun journey.

I would tend to go with Frost as my favorite Enslaved album despite liking Hordanes Land, Eld and Vikingligr pretty much too.

Enslaved is a band with such a diverse back-catalogue. "Below The Lights" as mentioned by some others is the perfect mixture of old and new and the height of the band's creativity in terms of combining different ideas and gaining great results from it, given its age now. "Isa" is also emblematic of the same traits. For Old Enslaved, I'd rate "Eld" among their best, only being beaten by their debut. Still the experimentation of Enslaved began to run very deep on "Eld" and continued down that stream. As also mentioned by others "Vertebrae" is a low point in Enslaved career considering Enslaved's incredibly high credentials. However, by its own merit it is a very good album; compared to the rest of the band's career, not so much. If I had to pick a favourite I couldn't pick between "Below The Lights" and "Isa" as they are in an extremely closed race.

Mardraum is such a front-loaded album for me. I mean, I can tell a similar amount of care went into the whole thing so it's not like the back half is boring filler, I just like the songs in the front half much better and think many of the experiments in the second half fall kind of flat. Man, "Det Endelege Riket"? Definitely Enslaved's first unabashedly bad song to my ears. Super aggro thrash but let's throw in some Eric Clapton solos over dumb country music basslines in the middle for some reason.

It's difficult to pick a favourite, because Enslaved has such a big catalogue of great releases that are great for different reasons. I am struggling between two.

Frost is one of the best albums in all of music. It usually gets called "the most brutal and in-your-face" of the Enslaved albums, but I think Blodhemn holds that title. Frost is just perfect in every way, pure black metal riffing with cheesy keyboard lines, excellent harsh vocals, and chanting choirs here and there.

The other is Mardraum. I love it for the same reason I love Goatlord by Darkthrone, it's just a pile of different ideas thrown together. Truly experimental extreme metal. You have riffs from black metal, death metal, doom metall, thrash metal etc, with weird solos and keyboard effects. The vocals doing deep growls, high screams and high-pitched falsettos and yells. It's like they fired every sylinder at once, and I think it paid off. I find it much more interesting than their "prog phase" from Below the Lights onwards, though they are all good to excellent as well.

Their "prog phase" started with Monumension. And I don't get that love for Frost; a mediocre album at best. Enslaved have released much better albums since. Case in point: Eld.

I forgot to say I 100% agree Borknagar's clean singing is a lot better than Enslaved's but I'm not sure if it's a fair comparison because Vintersorg and Lazare are the best at what they do (specially Lazare). My main problem with Axioma Ethica Odini, RIITIIR and In Times are the clean vocals, I can't stand them and instantly turn the music off as soon as they start (even though I dig the music a lot). Oddly enough the clean singing in E is OK, I still think the album could be better with just harsh screams but I don't hate the new guy doing the clean vocals. Sacred Horse is one of their best songs too.

I've been revisiting Isa and it's aged better than I expected, almost as good as Below the Lights. The went downhill since Ruun imho.

I'm a massive Enslaved fan and i've yet to be disappointed by their music, so asking to pick only one album it's a crime

Of the early era my favorite is without doubt Frost, wich was one of my very first experiences with black metal and literally froze me on the first listens. The guitar playing is insane (i love those high pitched chords, the dissonance, the tight rhythm playing and the little acoustic bits) and the sparse keyboards work so well (the intro of Svarte Vidder is one of the most chilling things i've ever heard) also Trym Torson unleashes some of the most wild drumming i've ever heard

For their prog era i pick their often maligned Vertebrae: it's like a dream put into music and i just can't believe that an album that mixes black metal, Voivod, early pink floyd and tool exists and manages to sound so perfectly cohesive. I personally think that is one of the most creative albums on the whole genre, and sits well alongside milestones like Elegy and Imaginary soniscape

Dang, I had never actually listened to Enslaved prior to looking at this thread - thanks dudes! So far I'm digging Below the Lights ("Havenless" is like a viking metal "Spheres of Madness"), Frost and Isa quite a bit. Will be buying all three.

I often forget Blodhemn exists. But when I do hear it I'm reminded how good the songs are. I guess its often forgotten due to its short running length and more straight forward riffing. I also feel like the production doesn't do it any favours. Peter Tägtgren has produced some classics in his time, but the sound here just doesn't really suit Enslaved I reckon.

It's a bit short for an Enslaved album, but it's still a respectable length, I think. Tägtgren's horrible production style in the turn of the millennium certainly does no favours to any record.

I'd almost agree with you, but I think the production helped make At the Heart of Winter what it was.

'RIITIIR" or the Trinacria album. I never feel compelled to listen to "black metal" Enslaved.

True, that album's production does work. And it's not that the album sounds good in spite of the production - it actually suits it really well.

Wow. That has to be the least graceful and most dubious certificate of authenticity i've ever seen.

...Are you lost?

I wasn't there but this was their setlist in Vegas last night:

Roots of the Mountain
Ruun
Storm Son
Isoders Dronning
Sacred Horse
Gylfaginning
Loke

Not just one, but three tracks from Frost. I've seen them five times and they usually only do one old song, so it's really fucking cool that they're constantly switching things up like this.

I saw them few years ago and i was surprised too, they even played Fenris!

Saw them live a couple of years ago and all I wanted to happen is for the show to be over so I could get out and buy some cold beer...
Anyway, their best era of musical exploration as far as I'm concerned is somewhere between Eld and Below The Lights, the former and latter included.

I remember a couple years ago Ivar did one of those discography rundowns with some site (look it up) and it leaned a lot more toward the newer era. Then they had problems with the keyboardist and he left the band and then he did another discography rundown with another site (look that up too) a few years later and surprisingly he started to view the older albums in a better light and his order of preference totally changed.

Noisey? https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/k ... ve-catalog

right and here's the later one:
https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2018/02 ... -enslaved/

I went to this and it was fucking amazing! When the original setlist was shared, I tempered my expectations for the show but I was blown away by how great they were and the set they chose. Easily one of the best performances all weekend at Psycho Las Vegas!

Like many others I also like Enslaved once in awhile. A few years ago I randomly bought RIITIR and In Times after not listening to Enslaved for several years and I was really pleasantly surprised.

To me their best albums are Isa, In Times, Monumension and RIITIR. Below the Lights has a lot of good moments but the songwriting is often so clunky and disjointed. I also always thought that Vertebrae sounds really clumsy. You hear what they want to do, but they don't manage to pull it off songwriting-wise.

RIITIIR, the mix of dirty-Grutle and clean-singing is much to my taste
also the early stuff
Only saw them once, touring on RUUN, I guess

Enslaved is hard to listen to for me, I hardly play their music anymore. I suppose I'm in the Blodhemn/Mardraum/Monumension camp, if there is such a thing. I'd probably say Mardraum is their "best album," though I remember when Blodhemn came out it was one of the best CDs we had heard, Mardraum was a little harder to get into. For the rest of their discography, much of it does not hold my attention, I thought the Thorns ep was great when it came out and wished they had adhered to that style some more.

This thread (and seeing them live last week) inspired me to go back and listen to more of the modern era Enslaved and I'm really glad it did. I'm enjoying 'In Times' much more than I did upon first listen. I think I was too hard on the more progressive/post influences. The band is obviously very much still a black metal band and they find more natural progressions into those moments... "Daylight" being a particular stand out track from that album for me...

I haven't listened to Enslaved for a lot of time, but I checked their MA archives page and listened to "RIITIIR" and "In Times" and I have to say I enjoyed them a lot. However, even though these 2 albums are all in all really solid works, their early stuff will always be their best for me. "Eld" has to be my favorite album by them, tied up with "Hordanes Land" and the "Yggdrasill" demo.

Interesting thread. Below The Lights is my go-to Enslaved album..

Below the Lights