1997 is what I typically call the year when Norway went weird. Arcturus went space opera, In the woods... went Pink Floyd, and even genre established bands like Emperor were to redefine the standards they were previously setting. This album by Enslaved was caught up in all this and is quite interesting and daring, if possibly my least favourite by them from all of their early phase. They were clearly wanting to do something more with the whole viking sound, but were still too young to articulate it. Hard to believe it but Ivar Bjornson, the band's main composer, was born in late 1977. This makes him 19 at the very most when composing and recording this song. He actually wrote the first album at age 13. They would go on to even more psychedelic heights before really finding their sound on ISA. Which really is an album I'd recommend checking out. Here, they were clearly reaching, and also clearly not quite there yet. Also, yes, the gusto with which the drums blaze along those blast beats, more often than not insanely off tempo is possibly the most charming thing about this album, for me. The band were really dissatisfied with this drummer, whom they promptly fired after recording, but I find it very endearing myself. It fits, along with the occasionally off key vocals, with what was the spirit of the music done in this time period. More often than not they were biting more than they could chew, but they were biting it with all their might.
Isn't it also around that time that Dimmu Borgir changed from the Stormblåst sound to the Enthrone Darkness Triumphant one? It's funny because it's right around that time that I got into Black Metal, but the guys I hung out with had huge CD collections and were fans of old-school stuff. So that's mostly what I got into myself: for Enslaved, that would be Hordane's Land, Yggdrasil, Vikingir Veldi, and Frost.
@@marilynman Therion was on that train long before '97. Their debut, 'Of Darkness' is the only full-blood Death Metal album. They introduced symphonic elements to their music on their 2nd album, 'Beyond Sanctorum' and really dove into it on their 3rd, 'Symphony Masses - Ho Dracon Ho Megas'. After that they left Death Metal behind and developed their symphonic and operatic style a lot more. I consider 'Lepaca Kliffoth' ('95) and 'Theli' ('96) as their transition albums before 'Vovin' ('98) introduced Therion as we know them today.
@@revylokesh1783 Not so sure about Dimmu Borgir. Their debut 'For All Tid' was certainly a very different sound from most Black Metal in those days ('95). The further along the album progresses it starts to feel more like an ambient and atmospheric metal album. It's quite different from the sound on 'Stormblåst'. The Norwegian scene has always been counter cultural, in my opinion, even before 1997. By that time we already had bands like Ved Buens Ende, Ulver or Fleurety going off the beaten path and turning the Black Metal sound into something different (or in the case of Ulver's 'Kveldssanger' not even metal at all, let alone Black Metal). It's one of the reasons why the Norwegian scene has been one of my favorites throughout the decades, and still is. These people don't let anyone tell them what to do and tread their own path of true, personal and artistic expression. Of course there are still lots of traditional Black Metal bands in Norway that keep the old dogma of Satanism/antichristianity and/or Norwegian nature alive, and while some do so very successfully, the majority sink in the mire. To me, at least, the Norwegians will always be known for their staunch refusal to conform, to rebel against any dogma (including the one that was born out of their own early creations) and go their own way. It's something I'll never not respect.
To me, the context of "battle" is among the most "compatible" with tremendous shifts in atmospheres/styles of playing etc. Including the anticipation, "warm up" and aftermath arround the "battle". So, I get vivid (and sometimes horrifying) pictures of that kind with this intriguing piece about a cruel event - more like an assault and slaughter than a battle.... Enslaved has always been "the Opeth of black metal culture" - in more than one way.... Fantastic song and a truly great reaction!
Enslaved were a band that had grand aspirations from early on, and were very much still finding themselves here. What made this such a brave choice at the time is how deeply entrenched in genre orthodoxy Norwegian black metal was at the time. The production is very much of its time, and it’s definitely something that is hard to accept when unless you happen to grow up with it as being normal or at least accepted. Where Enslaved really put their ambition for growing black metal into something more far-reaching than it ever had been was 2000’s Mardraum. Større Enn Tid is a great example from it. The production is fuller but still a bit wonky, but a lot easier to digest than Eld’s is.
Proper Dungeon Synth is a truly underappreciated genre. Might be because it's often minimalist and deliberately underproduced, but so is a lot of Black Metal.
For anyone interested in knowing more about Enslaved, or anyone into Enslaved who's not seen it, the documentary-series Heimvegen is well worth watching. Made in 2020, going through the early Enslaved-years. Delving into recording sessions, fun trivia, early concerts and tours etc. It's in Norwegian but has english subtitles.
You absolutely need to check out more Enslaved. For an album reaction I recommend either Isa, Axioma Ethica Odini or In Times. Below the Lights is also really really good, but is the bridge between their modern prog stuff and early BM. Production is much much better on these albums than what you heard here though, so thats good too.
i think you are on point but Enslaved are from Norway huge difference, its like mix up canadians with americans and nothing we take lightely on :D what happend during the raid was that the vikings raided the monestary and some monks fled while others took their refuge inside of the monestary and when the vikings got through the fortified gate the monks got on their knees and prayed for their life to be spared, some of them got killed while the rest were taken as slaves which might explain the lyrics a bit
@@CriticalReactions one of the monks who witness the incident wrote about it later “And they came to the church of Lindisfarne, laying waste everything in their plunder, trampling the holy place with filthy steps, digging up the altars, and seizing the treasures of the holy church. They killed some of the brothers, others were taken away in chains, still others were driven out naked and showered with insults, others were drowned in the sea…”
also fun facts about the viking longships, the dragon heads were apparently able to be removed. like not just like hacked off or w/e but like actually removable. also the ships did, at least some of them some times, have sails. in fact, i think that was possibly even the point? shallow draft, sails for open ocean/waters, oars for coastal/river "sailing" ??? idk.
I love this song (production included). I think you can attribute the production simply to Enslaved Being a younger band back then. Their production now is out of this world, and has been for years. Also, they just released a new Song Today!!!
Hey! You chopped your hair off, too. Also, react to as much Enslaved as possible. They have a massive discography with a ton of different styles. A full album react to Below the Lights would be awesome. Their best in a lot of people's opinion and a perfect blend of their older style, which this song represents, and their newer sound.
I love Enslaved, but I wouldn't have picked a song from their early period when they were more pure "Viking/Black metal." I think they became a much better and more interesting band from about the time of Mardraum onward where they embraced psychedelia and prog metal influences. Their early work is still quite good, but it's strongly rooted in the legacy of Bathory-esque Viking metal, and with that I'd prefer that you'd have some familiarity with Bathory's Viking metal period before leaping into Enslaved. All that aside, this still isn't a bad track by any means, and even here you can hear the beginnings of their prog sensibilities in the orchestral opening and acoustic intro. Still, Enslaved are a completely different band now. They still have black metal elements, but are as much prog as they are BM, and have been one of the most interesting/creative metal bands of the last ~20 years, very much doing their own thing and not really sounding like anyone else. I also think a lot of their later proggy/psychedelic BM is among the most accessible in the genre, and would make a great "bridge" band for many.
This is a great selection even tho they went a little long (8-10 minutes would be more than enough). They had a faster drummer Trym that went to join Emperor in 1995 so the drummer Harald Helgeson only recorded this album with Enslaved and left, Dirge Rep (from Gehenna) would join afterwards. One of the interesting things about Black Metal is that you have more freedom in what you want to do and not following a pattern like it's ok if you want a ultra-fast black metal track or a more atmospheric long track that's why there's so many sub-genres in Black Metal.
SO. little warning up here, LONG COMMENT, just so you know what you're in for if you read this. soo, the song is more or less about one battle? maybe it's experience with other songs, but the idea i'm getting from the lyrics is more about the viking age as a whole and the norse faith, after all norse kings Christianized scandinavia. not an outside power. so maybe it's about the death of the old faith, and then people later on taking up/believing in the old faith again?? also the word you were looking for was "surrender" i believe. also,not a person who studies this, like professionally or anything, but from my understanding, there's various fates that could befall the dead, various places one could go, some possibly a post Christian invention? or something like that?? so, Valhalla, if you died a glorious death, you may end up in Valhalla, which could have been about Odin creating an army of Einherjar for ragnarok. so if Odins picking and choosing who is going to be in his end of the world army, you decide who you think he'd have brought up by the Valkyries. also, his wife gets to choose half or among half? of the slain, to go to Folkvangr. otherwise you might end up in Hel(presided over by Hel) where everything was, pretty much just like Midguard, you did in Hel what you did in life, eat drink, sell or so on. one thing that makes knowing much about the culture and beliefs hard is we barely have anything on them, esp basically nothing about them,from them. and then ofc they were a religion of "pick a god and pray." you give offerings and such and pray to whoever is most relevant to you, and customs and various things were bound to be different from village to city, to country. it wasn't a standardized religion like say, maybe the greco-roman religion, or christianity/islam, and look at how many variations on those there are! also yes, from what i know, the norse were very much a martial culture, whether or not it was a matter of "violence good, love that shit!" or not, i'm un-aware.
That moment when you realize such a mundane word like "surrender" had escaped your mind 😅 Thanks for the rest of the context too. It's a shame that so much was lost from that culture
@@CriticalReactions yeah, they didn't write much down about themselves, and what little they did write, using runes, well if it wasn't a runestone it didn't survive for the most part. IIRC the writing was mostly used for commemorating certain events, or deaths, or for like, record keeping or something like that. so. and any wood w/e they wrote anything down on wouldn't survive this long generally. so the main source we really have to go on is somebody who was part of an entirely different faith, a couple hundred years removed, writing a book for, i guess political credit? clout? he was trying to legitimize the claim of the norwegian king over iceland IIRC, (and i hear he got killed by that king anyway, forget why.) you could ofc look into this yourself for a more clear explanation but uh, that's what i've got.
Honestly, to me, this album is where Enslaved "lost" me. Just not interested in their stuff after this. It's a mix of viking, prog and black metal... idk. I couldn't even get through the song here. hahaha It's like a shitty version of their first EP stuff.
Huge respect to the requester, this one was in my top-5 for next requests :) such an epic
1997 is what I typically call the year when Norway went weird. Arcturus went space opera, In the woods... went Pink Floyd, and even genre established bands like Emperor were to redefine the standards they were previously setting.
This album by Enslaved was caught up in all this and is quite interesting and daring, if possibly my least favourite by them from all of their early phase. They were clearly wanting to do something more with the whole viking sound, but were still too young to articulate it. Hard to believe it but Ivar Bjornson, the band's main composer, was born in late 1977. This makes him 19 at the very most when composing and recording this song. He actually wrote the first album at age 13. They would go on to even more psychedelic heights before really finding their sound on ISA. Which really is an album I'd recommend checking out. Here, they were clearly reaching, and also clearly not quite there yet.
Also, yes, the gusto with which the drums blaze along those blast beats, more often than not insanely off tempo is possibly the most charming thing about this album, for me. The band were really dissatisfied with this drummer, whom they promptly fired after recording, but I find it very endearing myself. It fits, along with the occasionally off key vocals, with what was the spirit of the music done in this time period. More often than not they were biting more than they could chew, but they were biting it with all their might.
Isn't it also around that time that Dimmu Borgir changed from the Stormblåst sound to the Enthrone Darkness Triumphant one?
It's funny because it's right around that time that I got into Black Metal, but the guys I hung out with had huge CD collections and were fans of old-school stuff. So that's mostly what I got into myself: for Enslaved, that would be Hordane's Land, Yggdrasil, Vikingir Veldi, and Frost.
@@revylokesh1783 Yep, EDT was from that same year.
Also, if I recall correctly this where the years in which Therion also went from death metal to something more operatic and/or symphonic.
@@marilynman Therion was on that train long before '97. Their debut, 'Of Darkness' is the only full-blood Death Metal album. They introduced symphonic elements to their music on their 2nd album, 'Beyond Sanctorum' and really dove into it on their 3rd, 'Symphony Masses - Ho Dracon Ho Megas'. After that they left Death Metal behind and developed their symphonic and operatic style a lot more. I consider 'Lepaca Kliffoth' ('95) and 'Theli' ('96) as their transition albums before 'Vovin' ('98) introduced Therion as we know them today.
@@revylokesh1783 Not so sure about Dimmu Borgir. Their debut 'For All Tid' was certainly a very different sound from most Black Metal in those days ('95). The further along the album progresses it starts to feel more like an ambient and atmospheric metal album. It's quite different from the sound on 'Stormblåst'.
The Norwegian scene has always been counter cultural, in my opinion, even before 1997. By that time we already had bands like Ved Buens Ende, Ulver or Fleurety going off the beaten path and turning the Black Metal sound into something different (or in the case of Ulver's 'Kveldssanger' not even metal at all, let alone Black Metal). It's one of the reasons why the Norwegian scene has been one of my favorites throughout the decades, and still is. These people don't let anyone tell them what to do and tread their own path of true, personal and artistic expression. Of course there are still lots of traditional Black Metal bands in Norway that keep the old dogma of Satanism/antichristianity and/or Norwegian nature alive, and while some do so very successfully, the majority sink in the mire. To me, at least, the Norwegians will always be known for their staunch refusal to conform, to rebel against any dogma (including the one that was born out of their own early creations) and go their own way. It's something I'll never not respect.
To me, the context of "battle" is among the most "compatible" with tremendous shifts in atmospheres/styles of playing etc. Including the anticipation, "warm up" and aftermath arround the "battle". So, I get vivid (and sometimes horrifying) pictures of that kind with this intriguing piece about a cruel event - more like an assault and slaughter than a battle....
Enslaved has always been "the Opeth of black metal culture" - in more than one way....
Fantastic song and a truly great reaction!
Enslaved were a band that had grand aspirations from early on, and were very much still finding themselves here. What made this such a brave choice at the time is how deeply entrenched in genre orthodoxy Norwegian black metal was at the time.
The production is very much of its time, and it’s definitely something that is hard to accept when unless you happen to grow up with it as being normal or at least accepted.
Where Enslaved really put their ambition for growing black metal into something more far-reaching than it ever had been was 2000’s Mardraum. Større Enn Tid is a great example from it. The production is fuller but still a bit wonky, but a lot easier to digest than Eld’s is.
The entire eld album is great you should do a full album reaction for this one
Been awhile since I heard this one 👌great analysis
This song got me into Enslaved. The intro is very beautiful. The newer stuff is much more sophisticated.
No, Frost and Eld are their best albums. All their new stuff is much more simplified.
Love a nice dungeon synth intro
Proper Dungeon Synth is a truly underappreciated genre. Might be because it's often minimalist and deliberately underproduced, but so is a lot of Black Metal.
For anyone interested in knowing more about Enslaved, or anyone into Enslaved who's not seen it, the documentary-series Heimvegen is well worth watching. Made in 2020, going through the early Enslaved-years. Delving into recording sessions, fun trivia, early concerts and tours etc. It's in Norwegian but has english subtitles.
You absolutely need to check out more Enslaved. For an album reaction I recommend either Isa, Axioma Ethica Odini or In Times. Below the Lights is also really really good, but is the bridge between their modern prog stuff and early BM. Production is much much better on these albums than what you heard here though, so thats good too.
i think you are on point but Enslaved are from Norway
huge difference, its like mix up canadians with americans and nothing we take lightely on :D
what happend during the raid was that the vikings raided the monestary and some monks fled while others took their refuge inside of the monestary and when the vikings got through the fortified gate the monks got on their knees and prayed for their life to be spared, some of them got killed while the rest were taken as slaves which might explain the lyrics a bit
Oh, the lyrics shifted perspective at that moment. And thanks for the country correction.
@@CriticalReactions one of the monks who witness the incident wrote about it later
“And they came to the church of Lindisfarne, laying waste everything in their plunder, trampling the holy place with filthy steps, digging up the altars, and seizing the treasures of the holy church. They killed some of the brothers, others were taken away in chains, still others were driven out naked and showered with insults, others were drowned in the sea…”
@@bertil3887 Such a brutal recounting
I'm really happy this is the first Enslaved song you're hearing. The most interesting and unique black metal bands of all time imo.
Early enslaved is very unique in each and every album released
also fun facts about the viking longships, the dragon heads were apparently able to be removed. like not just like hacked off or w/e but like actually removable.
also the ships did, at least some of them some times, have sails.
in fact, i think that was possibly even the point? shallow draft, sails for open ocean/waters, oars for coastal/river "sailing" ??? idk.
Oars for when you are close to shore or the wind isn't beneficial..their sails were amazingly good.
@@Kraakesolv i see. thanks for the reply.
I love this song (production included). I think you can attribute the production simply to Enslaved Being a younger band back then. Their production now is out of this world, and has been for years. Also, they just released a new Song Today!!!
You should react to "Borknagar - Up North". Its an absolute masterpiece
Hell yeah man great and very underappreciated band besides bathory and unleashed one of the first bands to do this kind of metal
For a little perspective: this is the first track from this band's third album. The founding members were 18 and 21 years old when they recorded this.
Don't know why I haven't gave this a spin yet
The bit after 793 is in Norwegian but other than that, good stuff.
Hey! You chopped your hair off, too. Also, react to as much Enslaved as possible. They have a massive discography with a ton of different styles. A full album react to Below the Lights would be awesome. Their best in a lot of people's opinion and a perfect blend of their older style, which this song represents, and their newer sound.
1:40 lmao i understood for boating
Just loving the vibe on this one. It’s a bit of a hot mess in places, but much of the song feels like a warm blanket.
Alphaville by Imperial Triumphant
hey Bryan, for your next BM reaction, you should check out Watain We Remain it's a song i been rather into since i found it.
Thanks for your reaction! Thats a best viking metal band. Their First 3 albums is a really classic.
Einherjer - Dragons of the North, for me, is the best Viking Metal album. Enslaved, however, as you wrote, are Viking Metal #1 band.
I love Enslaved, but I wouldn't have picked a song from their early period when they were more pure "Viking/Black metal." I think they became a much better and more interesting band from about the time of Mardraum onward where they embraced psychedelia and prog metal influences. Their early work is still quite good, but it's strongly rooted in the legacy of Bathory-esque Viking metal, and with that I'd prefer that you'd have some familiarity with Bathory's Viking metal period before leaping into Enslaved. All that aside, this still isn't a bad track by any means, and even here you can hear the beginnings of their prog sensibilities in the orchestral opening and acoustic intro. Still, Enslaved are a completely different band now. They still have black metal elements, but are as much prog as they are BM, and have been one of the most interesting/creative metal bands of the last ~20 years, very much doing their own thing and not really sounding like anyone else. I also think a lot of their later proggy/psychedelic BM is among the most accessible in the genre, and would make a great "bridge" band for many.
hi, thanks for another great reaction, have you heard of australian band cold chisel, try them doing bow river live, the june 2003 version is the best
Can't say I've heard of Cold Chisel but I'll look into them.
my favourite enslaved album, very very orthodox viking black metal
This is a great selection even tho they went a little long (8-10 minutes would be more than enough). They had a faster drummer Trym that went to join Emperor in 1995 so the drummer Harald Helgeson only recorded this album with Enslaved and left, Dirge Rep (from Gehenna) would join afterwards. One of the interesting things about Black Metal is that you have more freedom in what you want to do and not following a pattern like it's ok if you want a ultra-fast black metal track or a more atmospheric long track that's why there's so many sub-genres in Black Metal.
One of the best ones by Enslaved. Production is by Pytten, the legend.
All the best metal is classical inspired
How do this band define their music ? Prog, metal, both ?
Black metal in the early days and then shifted into progressive viking metal and then again to progressive extreme metal
@@bertil3887 Thanks a lot for the answer. The difference will be too expert for me ^^ I'm going to listen to without having questions, that 's better
Pls pls pls react to Mizmor's Yodh album!
😎🙌❤️🤘🤘✌️✌️
Ah yes, Viking Macaulay Culkin
I honestly thought it was a picture of Alexander Skarsgård 😅
@@CriticalReactions Damnit, now I see it too 🤣
Check out borknagar olden domain you'll dig it man
Hello reactions a los jaivas song pregón para iluminarse ando águila sideral
SO. little warning up here, LONG COMMENT, just so you know what you're in for if you read this.
soo, the song is more or less about one battle? maybe it's experience with other songs, but the idea i'm getting from the lyrics is more about the viking age as a whole and the norse faith, after all norse kings Christianized scandinavia. not an outside power. so maybe it's about the death of the old faith, and then people later on taking up/believing in the old faith again??
also the word you were looking for was "surrender" i believe.
also,not a person who studies this, like professionally or anything, but from my understanding, there's various fates that could befall the dead, various places one could go, some possibly a post Christian invention? or something like that?? so, Valhalla, if you died a glorious death, you may end up in Valhalla, which could have been about Odin creating an army of Einherjar for ragnarok. so if Odins picking and choosing who is going to be in his end of the world army, you decide who you think he'd have brought up by the Valkyries. also, his wife gets to choose half or among half? of the slain, to go to Folkvangr. otherwise you might end up in Hel(presided over by Hel) where everything was, pretty much just like Midguard, you did in Hel what you did in life, eat drink, sell or so on.
one thing that makes knowing much about the culture and beliefs hard is we barely have anything on them, esp basically nothing about them,from them. and then ofc they were a religion of "pick a god and pray." you give offerings and such and pray to whoever is most relevant to you, and customs and various things were bound to be different from village to city, to country. it wasn't a standardized religion like say, maybe the greco-roman religion, or christianity/islam, and look at how many variations on those there are!
also yes, from what i know, the norse were very much a martial culture, whether or not it was a matter of "violence good, love that shit!" or not, i'm un-aware.
That moment when you realize such a mundane word like "surrender" had escaped your mind 😅
Thanks for the rest of the context too. It's a shame that so much was lost from that culture
@@CriticalReactions yeah, they didn't write much down about themselves, and what little they did write, using runes, well if it wasn't a runestone it didn't survive for the most part. IIRC the writing was mostly used for commemorating certain events, or deaths, or for like, record keeping or something like that. so. and any wood w/e they wrote anything down on wouldn't survive this long generally. so the main source we really have to go on is somebody who was part of an entirely different faith, a couple hundred years removed, writing a book for, i guess political credit? clout? he was trying to legitimize the claim of the norwegian king over iceland IIRC, (and i hear he got killed by that king anyway, forget why.)
you could ofc look into this yourself for a more clear explanation but uh, that's what i've got.
Honestly, to me, this album is where Enslaved "lost" me. Just not interested in their stuff after this. It's a mix of viking, prog and black metal... idk. I couldn't even get through the song here. hahaha It's like a shitty version of their first EP stuff.