Album review: Enslaved – Heimdal

By DAN SOUTHALL

ENSLAVED have always been a different breed of extreme metal. Cinematic in scope and sound, close to peerless in the music they create, Enslaved take pieces from black metal to 70s prog as well as more ambient tones, creating a rich texture that is generally difficult to describe although easy to listen and settle into. Not without more meandering qualities that can at times make listening a boring affair, as a general rule if it’s a boring affair early, the whole album could be a rough ride.

Luckily, Heimdal and its concept of the Norse god who protects the bridge to the heavens grabs the listener rather quickly after an evocative build up of oars pushing a boat through the calm waters of Death’s Crossing opens into “Behind the Mirror” that sees the band turning the clock back to simpler musical times throughout as it goes from ethereal to pummelling and back again.  The process is repeated in the follow up track “Congelia” with even more insistence on their early black metal musical history .

This leads into the most interesting set of tracks on the album, the Devin Townsend/Jethro Tull (keep up with me) by way of black metal “Forest Dweller” that mixes all of the elements previously described to create something magical, before dipping into the thrashier “Kingdom”, the only track that doesn’t really mess about musically, getting its job done as the companion piece to its predecessor and is over before you know it, even though it still has a run time of almost six minutes. This leads to the second most interesting track on the album, “The Eternal Sea”.  The nearest modern comparison would be Mastodon at their most prog and creative sans any element of anything in the ‘modern’ heavy music spectrum as it draws all of its power from the 70s somewhere.

The most creative Enslaved gets here is on the title track, taking everything they’ve built across the album and jamming it into one song.  The opening two minutes feel a little meandering as it builds, but by the time it is over I was replaying it catch whatever I might have missed.

Heimdal won’t impress everyone, and to be honest when it slid into my review pile I let out a sigh that made my dogs worried.  I gave up on this band a long time ago as meanderings got too much for my lack of attention span. Here though, Enslaved have struck a formula that takes something old, something new and everything in-between to create a musical story that has all the elements to keep it interesting and keep the listener coming back.  Put on your favourite set of headphones and listen intently. There are pieces of the puzzle easily missed the first time around.