By: Daniel Jackson
Album Type:
Full-length
Date Released:
13/10/2017
Label:
Nuclear Blast
‘E’
could very well be the foundation for yet another great era in a discography
that is already ludicrously loaded with top-tier albums. It is a shift made with finesse and the
second half of “Storm Son” could be the basis for a whole new era of Enslaved
on its own.
‘E’
CD//DD//LP track listing:
1. Storm Son
2. The River’s Mouth
3. Sacred Horse
4. Axis of the Worlds
5. Feathers of Eolh
6. Hiindsiight
The Review:
Just about anyone reading this
should be well-acquainted with Enslaved by now. If you
aren’t, stop reading this immediately and begin your journey at the beginning,
with their debut LP, ‘Vikingligr Veldi’.
It’s important to know where Enslaved comes from
because, despite being drastically different in 2017 than they were in 1994,
there are still faint traces of their black metal roots present in the music
they make today.
2015’s ‘In Times’ was exactly what I wanted from Enslaved
at the time. The previous album, ‘RIITIIR’,
had taken a step too far into a style of prog that came and went without
eliciting any real emotional response. It didn’t pull me in, or excite or
affect me in any way. It just existed, and then faded from memory without
leaving any positive impression. ‘In
Times’ was nearly the opposite, having a deep emotional resonance and songs
that rivaled some of their best work historically. The album was much closer to
what made Enslaved so great following their early
black metal years: blending progressive elements into a black metal context,
while always sounding genuinely themselves.
That brings us to ‘E’. It’s Enslaved’s
fourteenth full length album. Interestingly, this album feels like it has a lot
of the same creative aims that ‘RIITIIR’
had at the time, but here the band are exponentially more successful with what
they’re seeking to accomplish. There isn’t much black metal at all here, or at
least nothing close to the musical space “Thurisaz
Dreaming” occupied for ‘In Times’.
There are sections that flirt with black metal guitar structure, but really, ‘E’ is a progressive metal album in which
black metal plays a truly marginal role. And yet, despite my long-standing
belief that Enslaved is at their best when taking a
“best of both worlds” approach to their sound, this album succeeds largely on
its merits in the prog domain.
That isn’t to say that ‘E’ isn’t an album without issues. The
prolonged mellow section at the beginning of “Storm Son” is unnecessary, or at the very least could stand to be
shorter, as it’s the sort of relaxed, breezy, lite-jam that’s probably a lot
more fun for the musicians to play than it is for listeners to sit through. The
same could be said for most of “Feathers
of Eolh”, a song that seems content to just noodle away and let the weird
notes and chords carry the burden of being interesting for long periods of
time. Thankfully, the soaring middle section of the song keeps things lively
and engaging between its less-inspired bookends.
While the album does have its flaws,
those flaws are more than made up for with some truly admirable creativity
throughout the majority of the album. The second half of “Storm Son” could be the basis for a whole new era of Enslaved on its own, bolstered by some excellent vocal work
from Håkon Vinje, who fills the role vacated by previous keyboardist and singer
Herbrand Larsen. His vocals have a smoother, natural feel to them, so much so
that he might be an even better fit than Larsen was. His harmonies have
something of a late 60s psychedelic character to them, which sits comfortably
with the album’s overall direction. I’d love to hear what he sounds like on
previous material too.
Enslaved
find themselves—for at least the third time in their career—in musical
transition on ‘E’. While there’s a
deep-rooted part of me that hopes they aren’t ready to leave black metal behind
completely just yet, it’s hard to argue that they haven’t found a compelling
way to do exactly that. They’re a band in the process of truly severing
themselves from the rage and darkness of their past, and doing so with much
more grace and style than certain other major bands (i.e.Opeth)
who’ve done the same recently.
‘E’
isn’t the sort of radical departure that ‘Mardraum’
was following ‘Blodhemn’, even if it
does have some of that albums wild-eyed quirkiness, as in “Axis of the Worlds”. Instead, this is a shift made with finesse and
done at a time when any reasonable person could envision the top of an
hourglass running out of sand for a style Enslaved have explored
for nearly fifteen years. ‘E’ could
very well be the foundation for yet another great era in a discography that is
already ludicrously loaded with top-tier albums.
