Enslaved - Utgard (2020)

When I heard the first few singles for this latest Enslaved album, "Homebound" and "Jettegryta", I was suitably impressed, and thought immediately that drummer Iver Sandøy was a cool addition to the roster, bringing them yet another avenue for the soaring clean vocals they like to measure off against Grutle's snarling, or the other cleans contributed by both Vinje and Kjellson. But it wasn't until I watched them perform the new album in its entirety on one of their COVID-19 quarantine live-streams, that the hooks really started to sink into me; that I started to feel that hypnotic draw which their signature blend of progressive elements and Viking black metal has long manifest since the turn of the century when their style truly began to expand. This is truly one of the best of the business, an outfit which can seamlessly integrate disparate ideas, never truly compromise, and continue to garner the respect of both their audience and metal media.

That's not to say that Utgard is some crowning milestone of their career, because at its heart it's not one of their more interesting in terms of its quantities of nuance or creativity. To be clear, there are things here that you might not have exactly heard before, like some of the approach to proggy jamming, a few of the vocal configurations with these three throats, or some of the more exotic lead guitar passages, but you're still hearing a lot of the familiar aesthetics that defined their last 7-8 albums, like the spacious Pink Floyd sections, or the wintry black metal surges dominant on discs like Isa and Ruun. Utgard is very smoothly mixed and mastered, and surprisingly, while it doesn't lack for the complexity or inaccessibility of its compositional structure, it's somewhat more accessible on its surface level than other recent efforts like In Times or E. I don't think it's far-fetched to say that Utgard is playing it safe to some degree, but even an Enslaved sticking to its last decades' worth of sounds has a massive sandbox of riffs and combinations to play around, and tracks like the rollicking prog metal bite of "Sequence", with the ambiance of the other instruments layered over the verses; or the synthy Hawkwind-esque space rock of "Urjotun" are welcome and refreshing additions to the Norwegians' canon.

Performances across the album are spotless, and as usual its a technical feast of rhythmic variety, all manner of psychedelic rock integrations, but still fully aware of the band's own roots...and you can hear plenty of faster Frost-like executions as well as a number of thundering riffs that hearken straight back to the Viking black metal source of Bathory's Blood, Fire, Death. Certainly I heard individual riffs on this one which almost played out like a catalogue of references to their other albums..."Flight of Thought and Memory" might have belonged on Vertebrae, while "Homebound" channels a little RIITIIR or Axioma Ethica Odini. It might not be as stunning or revelatory as the first time you heard them delving into these styles, but the fact remains that eight of the nine tracks on this are extremely well crafted, the one exception being the 2-minute interlude 'title track" which is merely warped, windy psychedelic ambient noise with some throbbing bass, electronics and sexy spoken word. The lyrics are great, the cover art has a proggy sort of symmetry to it plus Hugin and Munin, and I've probably already given this a good half dozen listens during the month of October when I'm usually putting all my listening priority on horror metal stuff...what does that tell you?

Enslaved still rules. I'm not surprised, you're not surprised, and Utgard isn't surprising, but in hands as capable as these that becomes the diametric opposite of a flaw.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10]

http://enslaved.no/

Borknagar - The Archaic Course (1998)

Despite its introduction of Simen Hestnæs, I.C.S. Vortex, into the Borknagar lineup, and onto the radars of metal fans the world over, The Archaic Course seemed to arrive and depart without a whole lot of fanfare. It wasn't that it had a particularly negative reaction, but there was a sense of disappointment for some who were likely expecting more of the arguably denser material that comprised The Olden Domain. Although it has just as dynamic a range between its aggressive tendencies and folksy Nordic flow, it is certainly a little more sure of itself and straightforward. But the switch between Garm and Simen's vocals might have been a sore point, or the more rambling and vaulted songwriting, or whatever perplexing reasons that it wasn't better received.

Obviously, I would disagree with any such assessment, because if it's not already painfully clear, this is my favorite Borknagar album. Not by a wide margin, mind you, but this was simply one of those important records that came along in the decade of grunge, nu metal and diminishing returns for a number of subgenres and blew my mind. This is one of those of those 90s albums that expanded my own expectations of what 'metal' music could be, what it could accomplish, and even though they've continued for decades to create beautiful iterations of this style with albums like Empiricism, Winter Thrice and True North, this remains the point where the floodgates opened and a band that had already deluged and impressed me with its earlier works simply drowned me in admiration. That's not to say it doesn't have a few flaws, some rough edges that would be hewn down the road, but I found it positively magnificent back in my 20s and feel no differently in middle age. This thing is a storm of mood and majesty across eight tracks and 38 minutes, and features a number of my fave tracks across the Norwegians' entire history to date.

Now the style here doesn't exactly distance itself far from The Olden Domain, but there was a cleaner and more cosmic feel to how the material was presented and produced. Vibrant if melancholic chord patterns continued to pull from the traditional folk influences just as much as Bathory's Blood Fire Death, and there was a lot more of a direct showcase on the guitars themselves, with percussion often segueing out for some glimmering acoustics or even the winding electric riffs. Kai K. Lie was still performing bass at this point and offers up a cool, subtle, almost psychedelic selection of grooves that lock right together with Brun's poignant riffing. In his final Borknagar performance before a tragic overdose in 1999, Grim lays out a dense level of thunder on the low end of his kit, which only helps to elevate the vocals and guitars out into the firmament, and his fills are great at adding more depth to the constant, swaggering shifts in rhythm. Ivar of Enslaved was still here helping to arrange some of the songs, as well as joining Vortex on the synthesizers, which range from ominous choirs to more slicing, proggy pads that cut through the backdrop of the rhythm instruments' atmosphere. Just because it's a little more direct doesn't make this any less complex than its predecessor, in fact as heavily arranged as their later material would be during the Vintersorg years and before, there was often every bit as much going on throughout this one.

Of course the real star for me is Simen's voice, which even with its lesser level of polish here is still one of the most distinct entities on the whole Norse scene, which contains a whole lot of bands I like that have made constant evolutions beyond their traditional roots. There is obviously a parallel to Garm, but Vortex was simply capable of presenting a wider range, like a yodeler who suddenly got all grim and serious. The snarls here are solid as well, but there was no question after hearing this that the soaring clean vocals were going to remain a central feature going forward. While he occasionally does seem to go off pitch ever so slightly, the way the voice interacts with the busy riffing was just something so new to me back when I first heard this. And having had the good fortune to see them tour on this album with Emperor, the Kings of Terror package, I can attest that it sounded even better in that setting than it did on this recording. But it is utterly mighty either way, especially in tracks like "Ad Nocturm" or "Black Token" where he alternates it with some of the more chaotic and wicked black metal rasping for a duality that doesn't sound the slightest bit forced or cheesy.

It would be hard to choose favorites here, but in addition to those I just mentioned, I'll give a nod to the beautiful, steady "Winter Millennium", "Universal" and the heavily fjord-flowing "Oceans Rise" which was a track that definitely caught on with a lot of folks, even if the album as a whole didn't. But there's not a bad track among these, not one point that I ever feel like skipping a single measure, not even for the arguably anticlimactic synth, voice and storm-sampled outro "Fields of Long Gone Presence", which has this warmth to it among the crackling thunder and shining keys which is worth its very short journey. It's totally awesome, even for the few instances where the vocals or melodies might not be perfectly executed in isolation from the rest of the mix; the flaws, and they're minor at most, only end up endearing me to the whole thing even more (and I'd say the same of Garm's stuff on the first two albums). Ultimately, with its ponderous, nature-tinted lyrics and the rich musical language the band had been developing for itself coming fully into fruition, The Archaic Course is probably one of the most underrated albums I own in my entire collection. I've still got my beat up old cardboard promo slip CD for this one, from my early zine years in the 90s, and it's well past time I upgraded for one with a booklet.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.5/10] (slide into forever)

http://borknagar.com/

Borknagar - Quintessence (2000)

I always got a sense with Quintessence that Borknagar wanted more of a 'sure thing' alongside their Norwegian peers after the somewhat mixed reactions to The Archaic Course, and to an extent this seemed to me possibly a bit of damage control. At the very least it's a curve back towards some of the sounds we were hearing on the first two records, but with more pronounced snarls and orchestration that were comparable to the material being produced through popular acts like Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir at the time. Being that this is Borknagar, of course, we're still getting a lot of the eclectic instrumentation and philosophical sheen they were already known for, multiple vocal styles being arranged throughout and lots of dynamic, progressive shifts that can be felt through Brun's note patterns and the heavily embedded synthesizers that ranged from organs over to more ambient and electronica-tinged pads.

After having such a prominent role on the album before it, ICS Vortex seems to be subdued here, at least his cleaner vocal style. It exists throughout the album, but is too often paired up with the rasp vocals which often end up sounding pretty silly. In fact, there are a lot of synth parts or melodies here that give the impression of a carnival or haunted house, not enough that for it to avoid the fjords of the band's foundation, but I occasionally feel like I'm listening to a more intense, hectic Arcturus and not so much Borknagar. There are still some great, charging Viking pieces here like "Ruins of the Future", which has some amazing melodies, especially the interchange between the synths and guitars. They also throw this filter on the snarls which is horrifying if over the top. "Colossus" is another track I enjoyed, one of the closest callbacks to the previous records, with a nice clean vocal presence and some swinging, swaggering mid-pace riffs. "Invincible" sounds like some badass carousel black metal, and the close "Revolt" has a nice contrast between its own circus-like synths simmering off in the background between the charge of the beat and the rasping.

Otherwise, I think there are a few misfire tracks with some interesting tectonic rhythmic structures that simply don't manifest riffs of high enough quality for them to stand out. The instrumental ditties are a mixed bag, with the prog-goth organ & drum driven "Inner Landscape" sounding like it belongs on La Masquerade Infernale, and "Embers" giving off a "Planet Caravan" like vibe as it leads into the last track. The mix on the album is pretty solid, but I think perhaps some places there are certain instruments or vocals that should have been emphasized or dialed back. This was Lars Nedland's first album with the band, and I think they also overused his keys, just a fraction. I'm a HUGE fan of his, don't mistake me, in both this band and his mainstay Solefald; there are plenty of moments where he shines even here, but the album does come off a bit overcrowded or messy in certain spots. Ultimately, Quintessence is my least favorite of Borknagar's studio efforts apart from the acoustic Origin, but it's still pretty good. There's an EP worth of fantastic material here, and nothing else is necessarily bad, it just doesn't resonate with me as much as the first three albums or many that have arrived later on.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (swept toward a new domain)

http://borknagar.com/

Borknagar - True North (2019)

True North is arguably the most 'friendly' or accessible album in the entire Borknagar line to date, and I don't mean that as any sort of criticism, because it's fantastic nonetheless. Memorable, melodic melodrama for all of us would-be woodsman and Viking-alikes the globe over, captured with expert songwriting and performances all around giving well over 100%. It's also one of those albums well into a band's career which seemed to vault a number of fans back up on the bandwagon; at least in my circle of acquaintances, I had to remind numerous friends that Borknagar had already put out two excellent albums leading up to it in Urd and Winter Thrice. But for whatever reason it seems they're finally being appreciated as the Scandinavian savants some of us always held them up to be, and that is absolutely fine. But there's probably also a slice of the audience that finds a bittersweetness to this one...

The Vintersorg years are over. Hedlund had an amicable parting with the band and bounced back over to his eponymous mainstay to produce a (worthy) sequel to his debut Till fjälls decades before, and his absence can certainly be felt here. Not through a dive in quality, but just in how True North does not attempt to come across as busy as some of its predecessors. You don't have the massive vocal arrangements they all pulled off together on the albums running up to this...still some duets, but in general the vocal patterns are more straightforward. Fortunately, they're also AMAZING, with ICS Vortex giving one of the best performances of his entire career, both his epic cleans and his harshes. There was also some new blood in the fold here, with drummer Bjørn Dugstad Rønnow, the third in three albums, and guitarist Jostein Thomassen, aka Pendragon, who had played with Rønnow before, as well as a little late 90s/early 00s black metal outfit you might have encountered called Source of Tide. Both of them fit into Borknagar so well that you'd have thought they were already playing with them for a good decade or so already, and in fact the drumming is quite potent, which gives a lot of life to such a dynamic effort which to my ears sounds like the most modern thing they've ever done from a pure production standpoint.

Now, I'm not going to lie, True North is a bit heavily front-loaded, but damn are these first 4-5 cuts epics that match almost anything the band had produced before. "Thunderous" is quite an accurate description of itself, a powerhouse that isn't without its own acoustic, emotional self-balancing sequences that include some very tasty guest violins. "Up North" might be the most presentable use yet of Vortex's yodeling, melodic cleans, so damn catchy that one weekend when my wife and I were driving the kids through the White Mountains to Santa's Village in New Hampshire, I had all of them trying to yodel along to that part. And they're a bunch of squares! To them, Loki is just a Marvel action figure they have lying in a toy bin with so many others. "The Fire That Burns" is another mighty tune, a more mid-paced joint that makes you feel like you're watching your landscape transform into the Nine Worlds in slow motion, vocally impressive with some great little proggy bits and acoustics. "Wild Father's Hearts" stands out for being a better Borknagar ballad than almost anything you'll find on Origin, some powerful choruses, and when the electric guitars arrive they are brilliant.

After that point, the album shifts down to just regular old 'greatness' and some of the brilliance might subside, if not the magnificence. Tracks like "Into the White" and "Tidal" have some wonderful moments, but they also have a few riffs in there that don't quite stick the landing as well as others, or might feel a little redundant with other Borknagar tracks here or in the past; for instance I heard some callbacks to The Olden Domain in the latter. Nothing wrong with that, but that initial rush in which I couldn't believe what I was hearing faded away and I was left with just a pleasant listen to material which is still far better than most anything else I'd listen to in any genre in 2019. So, not much of a downer and not only a few points get shaved as a result. Altogether, True North just exemplifies the resilience and continual growth of the group, even with these lineup changes they pull together one of their strongest albums, and in fact after listening to this one for the last six months and change I'm happy to say it's my second favorite in their whole catalog, just marginally nudging out its bad ass predecessor.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.25/10] (where the air is clear)

http://borknagar.com/

Borknagar - Winter Thrice (2016)

Some people love the Three Tenors, some love their G3 guitar god tours, but I've got my Winter Thrice, an album that teams up all three of Borknagar's 'lead' singers to great success, thanks to some real teamwork and excellent songwriting. Now I admit, I've already made a bit of an exaggeration since 'Fiery G.' only appears on a couple of the tunes, but let's just combine his presence with Lars Nedland's added vocals and count them as one person. What's even more, like Urd before it, Winter Thrice feels like the band had a new lease on its existence, the compositions here are compelling, fresh, and apart from their stylistic parallels, didn't feel like any sort of senseless or lazy rehash of anything that had come before. A lot of that is the vocal interplay between Vintersorg and ICS Vortex, which was already well managed on the previous album, but seems to have matured here with a better balance between all the snarling black metal vocals, chants, choirs and Vortex' clean, almost yodel-like presence which had long been one of their most distinct characteristics.

But for all that, they also manage to squeeze in 'Fiery G.', Kristoffer 'Garm' Rygg back into the fold with the amazing title track and "Terminus", later on in the playlist. For a band that already had so much going on, so many weapons to skewer you with, this is just added detail that makes them so consistently engaging. You could very easily fuck up something like this with too many cooks in the kitchen and make the album sound like a crowded mess, but Brun is such a great writer that the album never suffers from any sort of excess, the structure of every moment is divine. I've already mentioned the title track which was instantly catapulted into my top handful of Borknagar tracks, not only for the trio of singers but also because of those Viking-like swaggering riffs colliding into the proggier parts with the amazingly memorable clean vocals. I hear this song every time I dream, from the melodies to the grounded brickwork laid out by Baard Kolstad, on loan from Leprous, who does a killer job here taking over for David Kincade, even if just for this one studio effort. Other highlights include "Cold Runs the River" with its desperate, surging rhythm and swells of heavenly orchestration, or "The Rhyme of the Mountain", one of their best career openers, or the nerding out of the proggy "Panorama", or the mellow but no-less-potent "Noctilucent".

I wouldn't say the album is entirely perfect, for all the masterful tunes here there are certainly a few moments where the music doesn't catch the ear quite so spiritually. Granted, this is a matter of measures or riffs, never whole tunes, and there is no sub-par material whatsoever that I feel like skipping, but I didn't think the album was incessantly genius, mostly just Urd-level with a few tracks going above and beyond anything on that one. Production is very polished and even, whether they're storming off into a blast beat with Vintersorg's rasp leading the way, an acoustic segue, or a more choppy progressive bit, and the lyrics are some of their finest, conjuring up these cyclopean and sweeping images of nature and philosophical whimsy. I can recall listening the fuck out of this thing when it first showed up early in 2016, and then for several late Autumns since then it provided me with an awesome soundtrack to some of my landscaping, whether it was bagging leaves or clearing snow. Just one of that albums that sounds even better outside than it does when you're experience it in a closed off environment. Expansive, mesmerizing and proof there was still a LOT of life left in this almost infallible Norwegian act. Tied with The Olden Domain for my third favorite Borknagar.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.25/10] (raving forces of the inevitable)

http://borknagar.com/

Borknagar - Urd (2012)

The reintroduction of ICS Vortex into the Borknagar lineup was a truly momentous occasion; although I can understand the draw towards playing in a major act like Dimmu Borgir, and they made what they could of their time with him, I always felt like he was underused. Considering that I enjoyed The Archaic Course more than anything that other group ever released, you could understand my palpable disappointment, and it was so great for him to return to where he rightly belonged, and to instantly play such a major role again shows a lot of class on the part of Vintersorg in particular. Not to marginalize his own presence on this album, because the two actually work wonders together, and Hedlund still contributes most of the harsh vocals and a lot of the cleans, while Lars Nedland also serves as a third vocalist in addition to his keyboard duties.

In fact, Urd is almost like a warm up to the greatness that would follow it in 2016, but in of itself it is quite an excellent album that felt considerably fresher than Universal or Epic before it. While the baseline mash of progressive, folk and Viking black metal aesthetics remained fully intact, there were a number of riffs and arrangements throughout the entire record that felt unique to me. The album doesn't seem to lean as much on the organs or synthesizers as prior outings; although they're still woven in rather well, this record heavily favors the guitars and vocals, and arguably might be the most black metal infused offering the band had released since Quintessence. Not to the exclusion of the other styles, for there are flowing, orchestrated acoustics on the calming of "The Plains of Memories", or majestic melodic folk metal on "Frostrite", it's still a heavily dynamic, diverse effort. But it does feel like you're getting a lot more floods of tremolo picked guitars, David Kinkade laying out a ton of meticulous blast beats, and the way it opens with "Epochalypse" just goes for the throat immediately with some intensity while showcasing this new multi-vocal attack and some a few really sweet riffing progressions.

Whole album is a beast, in particular the vocals, which are fairly even distributed between Vortex' cutting, higher pitch which had matured by this point over his earlier years with the band, the rasps and mid-range cleans of Vintersorg which had also improved, and Nedland's additional lines. Once in awhile they'll have this choir-like track just hovering off in the mix which sounds amazing to the point where I wish it was used even more...there is always something happening here and I'd have to brand it as one of the finer vocal albums over their whole career, trumped only by its own followup. The mix of the album is clear, but textured and powerful, like a lot of their material I feel like they just have so much more weaponry than other bands in their field, and none of it drags behind any of the other instrumentation. Combined with the great lyrics, the packaging, and the overall vision this is one of the band's top albums, although really, there are so many to choose from...my opinion of this one has even INCREASED over the last eight years since I picked it up, but it's clearly a shower just as much as a grower, more evidence that this is just one of the best bands around.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10] (Where the rivers recoil and return)

http://borknagar.com/

Borknagar - Universal (2010)

The sole Borknagar album not to appear on Century Media Records, they kept it in the family by putting this one out through the esteemed Indie Recordings, a label that has long served as both a harbor for veteran Norwegian bands and upcoming progressive acts in the black metal realm and beyond. But don't take this as any sign of mutation or perceived artistic freedom, Universal is does not far from the tree of its predecessors, to the point that I often get it confused with its 'heavy' predecessor Epic, ignoring the acoustic album that fell between them. Well into the Vintersorg era of the band, it doesn't distinguish itself much from albums before it, but just offers another marginal round of refinements and the same level of intricate, competent craftsmanship that had defined them.

Universal does suffer somewhat from redundancy, for as much work as they obviously put into their material, a number of the tracks present here flow into one another and previously released tunes to the point that they can be a little difficult to pick apart. There's still a strong backbone of melodic black metal, but constantly being complemented with acoustic segues, Hammond organs, synths and pianos so that there's rarely a moment of raw riff that isn't accompanied. The 'Viking' sound here is quite prevalent through Brun's chord constructions and that interplay of electrics and acoustics that feels like you're drifting along the winds and waters of some far North idyll, interwoven with the substantial vocal arrangements of Vintersorg and Lars Nedland, between raving rasps and some slick male choirs which help elevate it that much more above the mundane. The proggy keyboards are legion, and Borknagar had long since become one of the bands outside Finland's Amorphis to best incorporate them without coming off as overly atmospheric hacks.

Sprinkle on some bluesy, Pink Floyd-style lead guitars and you've got yourself another rich, detailed album you can adventure through numerous times with plenty of new patterns forming. The new drummer at the time, American David Kinkade added quite a lot to the aural canvas with his beats that effortlessly bounced between intensity and calmer rock grooves and fills, and there were a few moments where Tyr's bass playing also got pretty perky. For me this album really picks up with the trilogy of tracks "For a Thousand Years to Come", "Abrasion Tide" and "Fleshflower" which are the most exciting and interesting of the lot, some excellent vocal lines, jarring proggy guitars and boiling organs and other synthesizer lines frenzying out to kick some life into the occasionally bland tunes that came before them. And for a wonderful surprise you get a guest spot from none other than former (and future) vocalist I.C.S. Vortex on "My Domain" which is a great way to close this out and perhaps offer a little foreshadowing.

The digipak version I own comes with a bonus "Making of" DVD which is pretty typical of such things, and not all that interesting to where it offers me much more value. You get a good glimpse of their process and their wintry environments where the album is being recorded, but I'd have loved more of an intimate thing where someone could pick their brains a little more, maybe see them out about town in the midst of the hole thing. Unless you want to sit there watching guys record their instruments individually for songs that you know far better and like better on the whole, it's kind of a dud and not even shot particularly well, but then again it's not like they HAD to include it, they wanted to kick a little something extra to the audience and so be it. Not a mar upon an album that, while far from their best, still has plenty to recommend about it and for me trumps both Origin and Epic before it.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

http://borknagar.com/

Borknagar - For the Elements 1996-2006 (2008)

For the Elements is another of those pretty senseless and shady compilations of previously released material which arrived at a peculiar time when Borknagar was between Century Media signings. The album directly after this came out through Indie Recordings, so one has to wonder if the label might have just been trying to squeeze out a little more profit from the original signing and not have any foreknowledge that the band would eventually return to the roster. Sure, they're a business, they own the material and have the right to do what they want with it, but one can only imagine what a nicer fan package might have included if there were odds and ends around to fill it. I know the band never really had much by way of demos before their signing, but perhaps there were a few rare tracks lying around that could have filled this one out? Or live recordings?

We all know how I feel about these shenanigans, and I can't promise my crusade ends here, but there are two slight things working in this particular compilation's favor. For one, they've remastered the material so it sounds a little more balanced from the slightly rougher years of the s/t or The Olden Domain and the more pristine, glistening production found on records like Epic or Origin. This was also curated by Marco Barbieri, one of the early driving forces at Century Media, and a guy I happen to admire a lot. In fact, his writings in Ill Literature were some of my own inspiration to deciding to review the metal music that I so long admired. So if someone is being handed a catalog of tunes to pick through, I sort of trust that he'd put their present some of their best. And he does well enough, it's not as if the Norwegians had any bad material to begin with, and thanks to its chronological presentation, the acoustic tracks from Origin are wedged at the back of the order, and even there they included that album's best track "White". 15 tracks overall, with 2-3 taken from each of the albums put out by that point under the Century Media banner. The exception is the s/t, of which only the excellent track "Dauden" is present...a misfire, I probably would have dropped one of the Empiricism tunes and added "Grimskalle trell" or "Krigsttev".

Of course, nitpicking details like track inclusion is a complete waste of time, just like this release is. Borknagar is an exceptional band that should be experienced through its full-length albums, and even though a few tunes here might be glossed up or polished, and decently I might add, it's just so critical to explore the context of all the band was creating at each of these incremental stepping stones in its career. There is no bonus material of note and it doesn't even look all that great in presentation. Not to mention, some of those earlier records have full remasters available out there through various labels, so one of the benefits this might have had in 2008 was quickly erased by subsequent products that are much more deserving of your hard earn coin (or even your trust funds if you're so fortunate). If you're brand new to the band, just head immediately towards True North, or Winter Thrice, or honestly any other studio album other than Origin and spin them front to back. You won't be disappointed. Save this change for a coffee and sandwich.

Verdict: Epic Fail [1/10]

http://borknagar.com/

Borknagar - Origin (2006)

I tend to abhor the 'acoustic album' as a rite of passage, which is unusual since I have no problem with well-written acoustic songs, or the use of the instrument intermixed with heavier music. But for so long there seems to be this impulse which necessitates that most bands have to produce some chilled out acoustic experience which somehow grants them some ephemeral sense of legitimacy. Fuck it, make mine electric! Now, you wouldn't need a trip to the oracle at Delphi to tell you that an acoustic Borknagar album was going to be inevitable, the band is simply too rooted in its folk influences to ignore the possibility, especially having settled in with Vintersorg, who is also a proponent of the style with some of his other projects.

To their credit, Borknagar did not just phone in a predictable 'unplugged' album of previous released material, at least not for the most part. "Oceans Rise" is a new version of the track off of The Archaic Course, and not terribly welcome on my part, not just because its acoustic, but because I just don't enjoy Vintersorg's voice as much as Vortex's snarls or cleans on the original. To that effect, I have never really been able to get much into Origin. I can appreciate the subtle nature of this transition, and the wonderful production that delivers each light beat and shining string with such clarity. The vocals and backing vocals are mixed very well, balanced between delicate verses and powerful choruses that emphasize Hedlund's strengths. Most of the original compositions for this are quite nice, and probably would serve well to give the band a breather at a live performance, but I only find a few of the riffs memorable in this acoustic context, and I sense that the same things delivered with electric guitars and heavier drumming would probably sound stronger.

"White" is an exception, because I liked the creeping progressive nature of its structure and it has one of my favorite vocal performances from Vintersorg ever in this band, and "The Human Nature" is another excellent example of where it all works due to the vocal arrangements. It's also not just some bare-boned exhibition of acoustic guitars and drums, there are also violins, flutes, cellos, and fretless bass all over the place to really flesh out this sound. In fact, I think for fans of pure folk music, this one might have some staying power. If you just like sitting by the bay, or around the campfire, as the birds dart about, the clouds ramble on through their adventures, nursing wine or mead, just desiring the simplicity and warmth that this medium of music can provide, with the band's introspective form of lyrics that examine the self's place in the natural world, this is certainly successful. This if Viking Hippy 101, but in terms of memorable construction it just doesn't always achieve what the band has long been able to while plugged in. To some degree it's a bit of a sedative, I feel like falling asleep several times through the experience, not necessarily a bad thing but not what I'm after. And the two instrumental tracks here are by far the most dull, thankfully brief.

Granted, this is a sort of one-off 'experiment' and might not be considered a true Borknagar album, but it's clear that some effort went into this with a lot of new songs, so I can't exactly isolate it as some non-canon stepchild. Thus, it's my single least favorite in their actual studio discography, but that's not to say it isn't decent for what it is and that some fraction of the band's audience is bound to fall in love with it. I just find too much of it to be samey and lack the dynamics of their metal work.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

http://borknagar.com/

Borknagar - Epic (2004)

I admit that I struggled to remember much of Epic before going back into it, or at least any 'highlights' of the album that have stood up to me against the greatness of so much in their discography. I can't say that Borknagar has ever released a bad album, but there are certainly some phases of their career I find more memorable than others, i.e. the first three albums or the two newest efforts Winter Thrice and True North with Vortex back in the fold. The solely Vintersorg-fronted material is not my favorite, but all of them are rewarding enough to listen through as I'm finding once again with an album I personally underrated for whatever goddamn reason that it just didn't sink in with me much at the time I first picked up the CD over at the local Bull Moose Music chapter.

Part of that was probably that it blends in rather well with Empiricism. The production on Epic is more prominent, as its title might imply, and the black metal vocals slightly more visceral, but the arsenal is much the same, proggy-infused melodic black metal that shifts between thundering blast sequences, frolicking mid-paced passages where the vocals shine, and folksy segues. Hedlund does continue to warm up and improve his vocal style here through multi-tracking, and delivering some more solid lines in the upper range of his comfort zone. As much as I wasn't feeling some of his singing on older albums of his career, it's absolutely certain that he brought his A-game with this new Borknagar venture, it remains some of his best work and helped spur continual growth through his other projects, particular his eponymous solo records which are generally quite good. Some of the rasping stuff can get a little bold or silly sounding in spots, but his cleaner vocal arrangements sound really good on tracks like "Traveller", or even where he's largely using them as backups for the snarls in "Resonance", etc. I think the band had also gotten a little better at making the symphonic sweeps sound more organic and natural within the tunes.

The group had whittled down to a four-piece here, with everyone handling multiple duties and really offering a showcase reel of their talents. I don't know that Asgeir Mickelson is as good a bass player as he is a drummer, and thus that instrument isn't quite as effective as it was on prior Borknagar albums, but he's got his moments, and even offers a little lead guitar. Lars Nedland continues to refine the progressive and orchestral aspects of the group's sound that were originally introduced by Ivar of Enslaved on the first few albums, and the acoustic pianos and guitars all over the album sound great. There's definitely a lot of shared songwriting duties which might make the album feel a little more chopped up than its predecessor, but everything still flows quite well together, and passionate tracks like "Cyclus" or "Sealed Chamber of Electricity" really floored me like they never had before. I think sometimes a group of this quality and consistency has a tendency to overwhelm me with what it offers, so I'm grateful that the style and production on this album holds up so well, that I can listen back on it over decades and continually discover what I'd been missing. It's still one of my least favorite efforts in their discography, but when the lower tier is still this good, who's complaining?

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://borknagar.com/

Borknagar - Empiricism (2001)

The replacement of ICS Vortex with Sweden's Vintersorg on the vocals was one that took some time getting used to, as I've long been a fan of the latter's musical ability and composition style far more than his vocals. Frankly I thought his alma mater Otyg was quite weak in that department, but he started to hit his stride with his solo records, and the philosophical, progressive folksy bent of his lyrics and songwriting does seem like a natural fit for what the Norsemen had been developing. Already a seasoned presence by the time Empiricism came about, Hedlund shows up here and does his job quite fluently, with an even distribution of his passable black metal rasp and his mid-ranged crooning. So while I immediately missed Vortex's higher pitched caterwauling style that I so adored on The Archaic Course, Vintersorg definitely contributes a lot to making this fifth album work, and instantly dissolving any apprehension of how he'd work within the group.

In fact, this is an album that not only continues to cultivate the ideas of Brun and company from the 90s, but you could also see it as an evolution on the Vintersorg solo path, a followup to the previous year's Cosmic Genesis just as much as it honors Quintessence or The Olden Domain. His own folk black metal style would be heavily permeated with progressive sounds and influences on efforts like Visions from the Spiral Generator and The Focusing Blur, and while Empiricsm is a little heavier, flowery and dramatic than those, they certainly share some roots. This album fosters some of the faster moments of Quintessence, but integrates a lot more dynamic range, with a wide array of instrumentation thanks to the lush synthesizers, Hammond organs, six-string or fretless bass lines, and tasteful acoustics. Few of these things are new to Borknagar, sure, but the way they strike a balance across these 10 tracks and 50 minutes is certainly a slightly different vibe than what I got on the records preceding it. With a crisp production, intricate musicianship, lots happening, never a second that betrays their origins, it's just another feather in the cap of one of Norway's finest, maybe not the plume I'd admire the most upon first glance, but a robust and well-crafted experience that holds up today like so many of their other works.

In fact, it's just another album they've written that I continue to grow fonder every time I revisit it. Extremely consistent across it's entire duration, I wouldn't say they take many risks, but it features another of their better instrumentals, or 'mostly'-instrumentals, "Matter and Motion", with its superb, brooding piano lines that only escalate once the percussion and electric guitar chords arrive. There are some swaggering, potent mid-paced cuts like "The Stellar Dome" in which Vintersorg really has to flex himself over numerous vocal tracks that show some of his better work at that mid-to-slightly-higher range that he finds himself so comfortable in. And then there are plenty of surging pieces like "The Genuine Pulse" or "Four Element Synchronicity" which should sate those that appreciated the fiercer material on the s/t or Quintessence, and even these themselves feature a microcosmos of textures and tempos. The lyrics are very tight, parades of eloquent grammar residing in philosophical and natural subjects; perhaps a bridge too far on the dorky side if you're expecting more Viking or Satanic-themes with your black metal, but for those of us who like to sniff our own fumes as we wax poetic pretentious on the underlying truths of the universe, they are pretty intoxicating.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

http://borknagar.com/

Borknagar - The Olden Domain (1997)

The Olden Domain was the first Borknagar record to hook me, having picked it up alongside its eponymous predecessor at an import record store in nearby New Hampshire. This was a time when the Norse scene had really broken out through signings to labels with larger reach like Century Media/Century Black, and Borknagar had the benefit of riding in on the wave of popularity (or notoriety) that bands like Mayhem, Enslaved, Immortal, Ulver, Burzum, Darkthrone, and Emperor had already achieved even in my remote New England neck of the woods, and albums like this one were pretty much immediately accepted and circulated around my circle of friends that were open to the stuff, with a few early adopters dubbing or sharing it all with everyone else. That's not to even remotely slam this band as an also-ran, because they absolutely had merits to themselves, bringing a fresh perspective very early on in their career to a genre that would blossom with generic clones or more straightforward, less nuanced acts throughout Europe and beyond.

The sophomore is mildly more accessible than the debut thanks to an increased level of Nordic swagger and memorable, folk-flavored riffing patterns that dominated nearly ever track, although it's not a massive stylistic departure from where they had been prior. This still weaves together some of that mid-paced Blood Fire Death thunder with more intricate guitar progressions and a dynamic duality to Garm's vocals as he fairly evenly dispenses his heinous black metal rasping and the more broad, chanted, cleans which help establish the yodel-like presence of his successor. Rygg would keep his range lower-to-mid as opposed to Vortex' higher pitch, but there are clearly similarities in how they'd both express that raw, half-formed style which not a lot of other bands were doing much at the time. Even the keyboardist Ivar's mainstay Enslaved were leaning heavily on the snarls at this point, but in the future many groups of this scene (Solefald, Ihsahn, to name a few) would adopt the mix of 'beauty and the beast' vocal, only as opposed to the Gothic/death metal of the era, the beauties here bore wool sweaters beneath their leather and denim jackets, and lots more facial hair. There are a few points where Rygg seemingly goes a little off tune, and it can provide a very minor distraction, but overall there's just so much personality and atavistic atmosphere that it was love at first listen.

There's also a slightly more progressive/folk tendency being fostered beyond the obvious traces we had with the s/t, this can be heard heavily in the instrumental "Om hundrede aar et alting glemt" which begins as this beautiful piano piece with scintillating effects and striking chords that inevitably transform into more obvious electronics, which might have a lot to do with Ivar's influences but end up crafting potentially the band's most memorable instrumental. The whole first half of this album is stacked with brilliant tracks, winding and wintry and effectively catapulting the listener into the snowy dreamscapes of old that must have shaped the musicians' imaginations. Whether the band is throttling the double bass and black metal snarls in the verses of "The Eye of Oden" or opening each of the tracks to its more expressive, expansive, somber melody and instrumentation, the first 20 or so minutes of material here stands alongside anything else they've ever recorded, it's just that brilliant in its conception and execution. Detailed enough that it has provided me countless listens with a new note or beat to experience each time, but also fairly accessible as far as the more limited Viking metal pool that existed in the 90s before being appropriated by a lot of bands that would hone in only on its more superficial aspects.

"To Mount and Rove", despite having an awesome title, is where the album dips a little in quality, with the almost Dani Filth-like whispery vocals in the verse, and a structure that just doesn't inspire as much as those before it. It rights itself with the more aggressive "Grimland Domain" and stays the course there, and I especially love "The Dawn of the End" with its weird filtered vocals. But I wouldn't present The Olden Domain as 100% flawless; a trim down from its 44 minute playlength to around 40 minutes would have really tightened it up. That said, this is still an excellent effort after over 20 years, holding up as innovative and fresh today as when I heard it in my 20-somethings, and probably in my top 3-4 of Borknagar's outings overall. Considering the level of relative quality they've been able to maintain, even through the notable lineup changes, that's saying something. And I can understand how some purists wanting every album to sound like De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, Transylvanian Hunger and In the Nightside Eclipse might find this one a little tacky, but everyone gets to be wrong sometimes. This is for me a dreamy, stream-gazing sort of record where each little riff is a rivulet that runs floating leaves off on another course as the snow overtakes the autumn canvas. Not a deep freeze, but a late Fall, early Winter work of majesty.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.25/10] (With a shadow vague yet deep)

http://borknagar.com/

Borknagar - Borknagar (1996)

Viking/Norse metal acts might seem like a dime a dozen these days, with the subject matter so universally popular that you've got acts from many cultures using it as their lyrical inspiration, overarching concept, costume designs, and so forth. But I try to divide these into two camps. You've got the goofier, superficial stuff which is most interested in partying, singing surface level tales of the mythology, and not really integrating its cultural context into the lyrics or the actual composition of the music. This can be fun on occasion, if you just want to concede to some mug-swinging caricature and don't mind living out a little stereotype, but I'm far more interested in the bands that integrate the philosophies of the 'Viking' heritage or the humble lessons of the Eddas directly into everything from the lyrical dispositions and personal outlooks to the construction of the music itself. While they didn't exactly beat Bathory or Enslaved to the punch, I've long felt that Borknagar was one of the first to successfully pull this off,  and to this day has never really strayed too far from the path that it laid out on this eponymous 1996 debut.

To those approaching this disc from any of their modern releases, whether in the Vintersorg-fronted era, or the beautiful, blissful True North, Borknagar will seem a comparably harsh experience. When I first picked this up it was alongside the sophomore The Olden Domain, which I gravitated towards at first, due to its comparative accessibility and slightly catchier songwriting. The debut has a more scathing attack to its guitar tone, though it's just as diverse as its successor, but for whatever reason the songs just didn't gel with my brain at the time and I was only listening to it as a backup for the records that came later. Decades on, I've certainly warmed to this one a lot, it's well ahead of its time and already encapsulates so much of the musical DNA to what has long been one of the most reliable and legendary bands in my entire collection. That's not to say it's perfect, but what is most striking about the album is just how different it sounded to so many of its Scandinavian peers. There's a brightness, a melancholic desperation to Øystein's chord-streaming here that was truly rare, only the Enslaved album Frost even came close, but even as much as I LOVE that album, some of the riff patterns seemed slightly more conventional to the black metal fundamentals that were already in place back in the early to mid 90s. This band was writing almost a 'new metal language', if that makes sense, the way only groups like Voivod, Slayer or the like accomplished through the prior decade.

There is some precedent, of course, that being Bathory's awe-inspiring Blood Fire Death record, which certain segments of Borknagar seem to pay conscious tribute to, as in the warlike, steady row of "Krigsstev" with its somber chants and martial percussion. However, there are many more layers being added to this record, such as the glinting, beautiful acoustic guitars engraved into a number of the tracks, those hillside-echoed chanted choirs, and the very core of how the guitars are written. It doesn't hurt that the lineup on this is astounding. Garm (aka Kristoffer Rygg) provided the nasty black metal snarls here, and it's one of my favorite of his performances, alongside the older, harsher Ulver material, with some wicked, mocking higher pitches he throws into some of his lines to give them a lot of personality as opposed to other new black metal vocalists arriving at the time who were taking that style and transforming it into something banal and monotonous. His burly chanting was also important in how it would set up I.C.S. Vortex's style going forward, and how a lot of other bands would also approach their own vocals. Infernus, later of Gorgoroth, played some awesome bass grooves on this album that also deserve mention, as this was another difference between this band and a lot of its peers. Ivar of Enslaved contributed keyboards, which could vary from the pompous pianos and martial orchestration of the instrumental "Tanker mot tind (Kvelding)" to the eerier, woodwind pads laid out over some of the darker metallic fare.

There is a point near the midst of this album where it just becomes one of my favorite things ever, so much that the earlier tunes (including that aforementioned instrumental) seem a little trite by comparison. I'm speaking of the "Krigsttev"/"Dauden"/"Grimskalle trell" trifecta which is among the most immersive, varied and impressive Borknagar material. Somber and soaring, sullen and powerful, an impressive send-up to that 1988-90 Bathory influence. This brilliance subsides a little with the following instrumental, "Nord naagauk", and that's a complaint I might have with the album in general...half of the ten tracks are instrumental, and while they sound thematic, some of the background sampling sounds too shoddy, and the composition feels a bit sporadic, too busy to balance against the surging metal tracks. I also found the rhythm guitar tone on the album a little grainy in its saturation, which was probably my earliest obstacle. These days I don't mind it so much, and it does work well to contrast the more broad, glorious synthesizers and clean vocals, but I think with the debut in general you could tell there were a few production kinks to work out. Apart from those quips, though, this is still a timeless sort of experience, one that will row you over swell in a cold storm if you just lose yourself to its mesmerizing show of force, whether you speak its language or not.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10]

http://borknagar.com/

Enslaved - E (2017)

I wanted desperately not to like this album, if only because I believe Enslaved has achieved a monopoly on taste and craftsmanship that places them among the greatest musical acts in the world. Thus, I wanted to bring them down a few notches in my estimation; to prove Ivar and Grutle and company were human like the rest of us. At first, my plan was working. I picked up the record during its October release, nodded along to a listen or two, and then shelved it as I was so heavily immersed into my whole annual Halloween media marathon of horror flicks, creepy reads, gaming and relevant metal reviews to my favorite season. I padded out my ignorance for as long as I could, until it came time to start organizing my year's end lists, revisiting all the material I'd enjoyed throughout the months prior, and making sure I'd heard everything under the son from the CD pile, the digital promo folders, and cruising through various forums, YouTube channels and other recommendation spaces.

Inevitably, the CD called out to me once more, its simple, scratchy cover runes confidently requesting that I take another chance, since I was being so stubborn the first couple runs. I failed whatever Saving Throw it is that I fail so often when experiencing the creations of these Norwegians, and then found myself listening to it again. And again. And six more times after that...

Gods. Damn. It. I was hooked by another Enslaved record.

E is not an effort that will surprise any of the band's following over these last 17 years since the band took a significant leap in nuance and originality with Mardraum: Beyond the Within. Many of their hallmarks remain: a hybrid of triumphant melodic black metal, progressive and psychedelic rock elements, bright tints of post-metal or 'blackgaze', gnarled and clean vocals. They've gotten so well trained on this blend that these traits are distributed quite evenly among the tracks, all spun up into a heavily varied rhythmic stew which, while not offering any specific nuances that you'd feel stand out from the rest of their 21st century discography, still seem like they have a lot of stones unturned, so the precise melodies, percussion patterns, atmospherics and vocal patterns here remain fresh and memorable, hardly doppelgangers of what they've already produced over the last 4-5 albums. Add to that what is, alongside In Times, some of their cleanest production yet, and you've got another effort which transcends the boundaries of their initial genre, with seamless integration of its musical ideas into not only one another, but also the philosophical application of folklore and ethnic Scandinavian religion which they use to manifest timeless, interesting lyrics and imagery.

You'll hear a few straightforward, driving pieces here redolent of an Isa or Ruun, where they were first adopting this brighter, accessible brand of modern Viking, but despite the consonant, shining and warm vibes carried through a lot of the soaring backup vocals or the glint of upper range guitars, they also maintain a subtle air of dissonance that keeps the listener just on the edge of lapsing into a truly safe space. "Axis of the Worlds", a personal favorite here, just rocks itself out with a mesmerizing and evil rhythm guitar slathered and harmonized by wonky, wailing, eerie leads. "Hiindsiight" spits out horns into a comfortable, numbing flow of prog that it feels almost Rush-like, but riding on the fjord-waters out to sea with a shifting sun bearing down on the guitars from over the horizon. What truly surprised me, though, is the band's cover of "What Else is There?" from the 2005 album The Understanding by electronic countrymen Röyksopp. They manage to transform the original into this organic wall of chords, clean and growled vocals which is entirely their own, paying tribute to a cool band and song while not interrupting the natural progression of originals that led up to it, just a really great closer that I would never have expected going into this...

There are euphoric moments on this record where it lives up the drug that shares its namesake, and then heavier passages which remind us that they haven't, for one fucking second, forgotten where it is that they came from, and it's this 'eternal cool' factor, an eternal relevance, which is one of the most attractive aspects of their existence. Enslaved is one band that I know I can trust, that I can always take seriously, that doesn't ever seem to put out a record for the sake of it, and yet has enough professionalism to keep the content flowing along at a normal pace. There are those that will forever denounce anything this band has written since Frost as high brow intellectual pap for neckbeards and progsnobs, and their opinion is very unlikely to change with this 14th full-length, but yet again I've got an album here that I feel I can share with those who lounge on the periphery, or outside the den of extremity, an easy recommendation for anyone that just likes good music, that you can either chill out to or rage alongside in equal measures. And I predict it won't be the last. Thank the nine realms for plans that backfire.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.25/10] (the mind-knot will hold)

http://enslaved.no/

Enslaved - Roadburn Live (2017)

It occurred to me when listening through this that I'd never actually covered an Enslaved live record in the past. I think I remember a bonus disc that came with Vertebrae, and a couple longer format video releases, but not a proper album. Considering that they have toured relentlessly for so many years now, and had countless opportunities to pitch such releases to their labels, I can imagine that it's partly because they, as a band of highly respectable fellas, just don't want to be a nuisance to their fans by putting out a bunch of narcissistic commercial pap. But it's probably also because they were waiting for the right moment, to present a stage recording that sounds immaculate, which this does, and why not from one of the most prodigious and respectable heavy rock fests in all of Europe, the Roadburn Festival out of the Netherlands?

By the time "Building With Fire" had reached its climax, I realized that this was probably one of the best live efforts I'd heard. Granted, it comes with some restrictions...a roughly hour-long set list from a band who could fill a dozen such performances with killer material and not exhaust the highlights of their discography. Enslaved had to be picky and choosy here, and they focus heavily on material that was newer to the 2015 era when this was recorded. So you've got three tracks from In Times, one each from RIITIIR, Isa, Below the Lights and Monumension. Not a problem for me, since this is one of my favorite bands on Earth, and I happen to be more partial to the now-predominant, proggy era of their career, but if you're grognardin' for some Hordanes Land, Vikingligr veldi or Frost then you're not going to be terribly satisfied with this. Which would be a shame, because Roadburn Live sounds fantastic, everything from its atmospheric guitars, organs, drums, and bass grooves resonating at excellent levels over the audience, slightly more raw than the studio recordings but still having all of the minutiae and nuances available across the instruments.

Occasionally the harsher growls get drowned off against the other sounds, but they're still readily audible, and the cleans even more distinct. The track selection is not void of heavier breaks, but the overall intention of the set choices here are to let the audience bask in the atmospheric swells and clarity of the riffing, and it does quite a grand job of that, allowing the sort of engagement and escapism you'd probably experience at pure prog gigs, just dowsed in some snarls and distortion. All the tracks form a seamless set, but I was quite surprised to hear that the finale was a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song", which plays it somewhat straight but adds on a lot more of the same fulfilling atmosphere as their own cuts, so it sounds nearly as much as an Enslaved tune as it does the original piece. Not as kickass, no of course not, but at the very least an interesting interpretation of a track that I think we've all heard plenty enough. I especially dug the bridge there, and it really rounds out a highly focused, smooth performance which is a great representation of where the Norwegians have been traveling lately and where they're headed.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://enslaved.no/

Enslaved - RIITIIR (2012)

If you've encountered any of my shameless gushing over Enslaved in the past, then it goes without saying that the Norwegians' latest full-length RIITIIR was one of my most anticipated recordings of 2012. By this point Vertebrae (2008) and its successor Axioma Ethica Odini (2010) have received hundreds of plays between them and remain, at least for me, flawless and relevant evolutions of the group's Viking/black metal roots into a wider spectrum of progressive and psychedelic rock; flirting with accessibility without jumping lanes onto Mainstream Avenue. Last year's EPs also proved an eclectic, varied amusement, and my first few previews and inevitable post-purchase spins through this latest full-length yielded a pleasurable listen, perhaps their 'smoothest' and friendliest to date in terms of its stylistic songwriting dichotomy and production values.

And then a funny thing happened: I listened to it more, and more, not for the sheer magnetism of the music, but because I kept second guessing myself over the lack of lasting impact RIITIIR has had upon me. For all intensive purposes, Enslaved is a band which thrives on this plateau of adventurous genre-blending in which memorable licks and melodies are intertwined with the blackened, Mythic bombardment of their roots. The records they write tend to hit me not only with a strong, instant attraction but then by pouring on layers of depth, nuance and meaning that I find engaging and, frankly, eternal. RIITIIR champions all the strengths of its predecessor Axioma Ethica Odini, and has no gaping flaws of note through the substantial 67 minutes of content. There are hundreds of techniques happening through its length. Stark, wintry grooves. Atmospheric, hostile barrages of tremolo picked notes and uproarious Grutle growls. Proggy, spatial electronics and soft, shining organs serving as backdrops for the meatier riffs. No shortage of thought was placed into any given measure. No two tracks feel quite the same, even if the album has a more internal consistency than many in their lexicon. To deny the fulfillment factor of RIITIIR as a work of art would seem dishonest, and yet there is some nigh invisible barrier which prevents me from lavishing it with the utmost praise...

Perhaps it stems from the fact that this album, for all its range, does tend to play it rather safe when one examines the content of their last decade of work (beginning with Below the Lights). The clean vocals are even more unwrinkled and prevalent than the earliest attempts to incorporate them, and a lot of the plodding, slow to mid-paced guitars feel in places banal. There are a number of jazzy, warm floes of chords infused into the black metal sequences which hearken back to the divisive Vertebrae, but I found RIITIIR to lack that same balance of cloudy escapism and unwashed grittiness. The music here isn't exactly settling any new territory, but it's merely refining the rough stone cairn that its forebears once built to mark their passage. Not to say that such an effort is incapable of achieving perfection with the proper songwriting, but Enslaved have consigned this material to the mere realm of 'greatness', one that they have so often transcended. To that end, I would have to state that RIITIIR is a disappointment, in only the mildest sort where I'll fully immerse myself throughout the experience as its happening, but rarely crave it elsewhere.

On technical parameters, the band excels through the eight tracks. Rarely are groups so cohesive on a level of both creativity and competence, and there's really no shining star among the quintet. Herbrand Larsen and the inestimable Ivar let the synthesized elements speak for themselves when needed (generally in brief intro passages), but otherwise the keys dote the landscape of the metal riffing as distant copses of woodland on a grassland hike. The riffing melodies, and in particular Arve's leads simply ooze class, favoring emotion over indulgence and brightness above darkness. Grutle's barks and grunts are quite well rounded here, by this time lacking all awkwardness they might have created in the late 90s/early 'oughts. Cato Bekkevold is yet again perfectly content with the rock foundation that best complements much of the music, but he's always filling in the gaps with intensified reminders that he's very much a metal drummer capable of opening up the field, which of course happens numerous times through pounders like "Roots of the Mountain" or "Thoughts Like Hammers". The bass lines are also pumping pistons where necessary, though the more spacious segues of airier guitars might have been better served by some more interesting note choices in the grooves.

One area in which RIITIIR largely excels is in the poignant, poetic resonance of its English lyrics. A few tunes like "Roots of the Mountain" have a pretty stripped, metaphysical composition, but others rarely fail to echo all manner of imagery through me. 'Static is the common language', 'motion is the mothertongue', I devour that shit, and in particular I'd point out "Thoughts Like Hammers", "Storm of Memories" and the title track itself as my favorites. As pretentious as it sounds, Enslaved remain a very literary, 'thinking person's' metal band, as if William Faulker performed some stoic transliteration of the Poetic Eddas into a novel. This isn't mosh fueled misogynist carnage or cheesy Viking hymnals gouging on imagery that was probably lifted off a Manowar album cover. The band translate their cultural roots into something meaningful that can be applied to a world or a life far removed from the ways of old, and to say this places them in rare company would be an understatement.

Let me be clear: I realize the tone of my reaction to this record paints it as somewhat of a letdown, but that's only because I (like an asshole) place such major personal expectations on a small handful bands (like this one) which would be impossible to fill out year after year ad infinitum. RIITIIR is still a praiseworthy album, and better than most other music you'll hear this year. It's well worth its weight in any currency you could name, and I recommend that all progressive black metal afficionados, or anyone into intelligent and well scripted aural explorations with rock instrumentation and an undercurrent of extremity pick this up. It's snug enough next to its older siblings, or the works of peers Arcturus, Borknagar, Ulver, Solefald and the like. Ultimately though, despite a solid case for greatness, Enslaved didn't quite hit their legendary stride here, instead stopping to dust off the fossils and footsteps of previous outings and display them in a new museum.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (all is broken for a reason)

http://www.enslaved.no/

Bathory - In Memory of Quorthon (2006)

Finally, a Bathory collection which doesn't suck? Well, that all really depends on what format you choose to acquire it in, and what exactly it is you're looking for in such a fan package. For example, if I were to break it down into the three independent CDs which one can still seemingly purchase from Black Mark, it doesn't carry a lot of weight. But the full deal, with the poster, booklet, and bonus DVD is quite comprehensive in both CD and LP formats, and thus the preferred option. Surely this is superior to the awful Katalog comp or the individual Jubileum releases, but there are a number of what I'd consider strange omissions and the same miasma of incompleteness that populated the latter.

First off, you're getting a considerable number of remastered tracks, spanning the 1984 self titled debut through the 2003 swan song Nordland II. I've never had significant personal issues with the production of anything Quorthon had released for Bathory, just minor nitpicks, so this is not a major boon in my opinion, yet the fact that they're all given the treatment helps gel them together as a unified collection, despite the studio production variance of their roots. Choices are pretty good, with important cuts like "Blood Fire Death", "A Fine Day to Die", "Enter the Eternal Fire", "Raise the Dead" and such scattered about the three discs, but the selection is far from restricted to the classics, so you've got examples of the mid-90s thrash mediocrity ("War Machine") and a boat load of inclusions from the more recent Nordland sagas.

There are also quite a number of covers here, which were originally recorded throughout the Bathory canon, some appearing on various editions of full-length releases and some I'd never heard before. Some of the choices are very obvious, like "Ace of Spades" or "War Pigs" which are not that impressive other than getting to hear Quorthon's uneven accent. I found the KISS tributes to be much more entertaining and obscure choices, in particular "Black Diamond" which really benefits from the power placed in its translation. Lastly, though, you've got a pair of covers from the Quorthon solo career, namely "God Save the Queen" (Sex Pistols) and "I'm Only Sleeping (Beatles), and I didn't really enjoy them outside of appreciating the guy's obviously eclectic tastes. A few of the originals from the two solo albums are likewise present, like the heavy rock track "I've Had it Coming" or the atmospheric "Boy" with all its samples. Despite my disdain for the albums in general, these are not poor representations, though I would have clipped them in favor of more raw Bathory.

The songs with his sister Jennie Tebler are much less appealing. "Silverwing" is pretty boring crunch rock ala Evanescence with the female vocals flowing over them. Once they enter into a harmony, it's not so bad, but the solo strands of her voice sound like a miserable wannabe of Lacuna Coil or The Gathering. Nor do I much care for her version of "Song to Hall Up High", which closes out the third and last audio disc. It would have been far cooler, and really reflected a sense of completeness if the demo and rare tracks from the Jubileum collections had been gathered here. Still in print, perhaps, but considering the price for this boxed set it would not have set them back so much, and ultimately it might have spared the fans from wasting their money on the older collections if they hadn't already. So, some omissions that would dramatically improved the value of In Memory of Quorthon, but in the end you're still getting about 45 tracks, all remastered, so at least some minimum effort was applied by Black Mark.

Finally, there are the perks and 'omake box' goodies that usually come with these media boxed sets. The poster is absolutely retarded, nothing more than an advertisement for the set that you just purchased with a classic pic of Quorthon. I would have rather it just included the latter. The booklet itself is enormous, a pretty comprehensive biography with lots of photos and notes, but not necessarily anything novel or unexpected if you'd been following his career. The DVD itself is not brimming with content, just the full video for "One Road to Asa Bay" which is little more than a bunch of guys in armor, costume, riding a horse, etc all quite slowly to the roiling pace of the music; an MTV interview clip in which he discusses his transition from the occult lyrical focus of his earlier years to the folksier Norse mythology, and some random promotional footage also from the same 1990 era. Nothing too impressive here, least of all the video, but it's a decent add on for the diehard who might feel the urge to occasionally listen to his/her hero speak.

Needless to say, if you can get your hands on this collection, it stands head and shoulders above its predecessors. I wish it had more to it, and I'm sure everyone does, but as far as a posthumous memorial, it's comprehensive enough not to disappoint. I wouldn't say it was worth purchasing if you already own all the studio albums, but even then, if you want to show more financial support to honor the legend, it's far more reasonable than Jubileum or the needless Katalog. You are getting SOMETHING for your money here, which is more than I can say for a large percentage of shit-eating collections put out for major bands. As of 2011, a nice vinyl box also became available which includes a picture disc of the whole Bathory s/t. Keep that in mind when you're mining eBay, since the format is all the rage and very likely to become a collectible of high value.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

Bathory - Nordland II (2003)

Released about 5 months after Nordland I, Bathory would not leave us waiting long for what was originally intended to be the second of four total chapters in the Nordland saga. Unfortunately, as we all now know, that would not turn out to be the case. Quorthon's tragic passing in the following year (2004) would retroactively establish Nordland II as the grand finale of one of the most important and influential legacies in all of metal. No pressure, right? Well, perhaps its not remotely fair to judge the record on such grounds, and I won't, but there is no escaping the fact that it often feels like a bunch of leftovers from the previous effort, or rather that he front loaded the content to the series and intended the garner interest on momentum alone with diminishing returns.

Not that Nordland II is necessarily a negative experience. In fact, I feel that tracks such as "Sea Wolf" and "Blooded Shore" create quite a cloud of nostalgia for the Hammerheart album, and I admire the grit he exhibits in his vocal performance here and elsewhere on this sequel. Slow, pendulous heavy metal hammer riffs drowned in choirs, synthesized organs and steady drums that create a dramatic subtext to the sailing, drawn out voices in the late bridge of "Sea Wolf". Chunky momentum and crashing chords dialed straight back to the late 80s glories. I also feel that some of the longer tracks like the 10 minute "The Messenger" (with that incredible, simple melody) and the 12 minute "The Wheel of Sun" with its leaden grooves and gleaming spikes of zephyr-like guitars, are far better at balancing their content and shifting necessary gears of composition thank some of the whales from the previous album.

There are also no crappy thrash tracks like there were on Destroyer of Worlds. The closest the record comes is "Flash of the Silverhammer" a mid-paced chugger which reminds me of the older, primal doom/thrash crunch of their countrymen Memory Garden, making decent use of the vocals to carry what otherwise might be a dullard. Like Nordland I, there's an 8 minute tune which makes good use of a propulsive, brutal into ("Death and Resurrection of a Northern Son"), but I don't exactly love this song, and along with other middling fare like "The Land" or the desolate "Vinland" I just feel like it treads on previous ground. With Hammerheart, Blood Fire Death, Twilight of the Gods, Blood on Ice and Nordland I already out in circulation, I got the impression of rinsing and repeating here, which I'm sure might have stretched out its welcome if the ensuing chapters were to manifest without significant deviations.

In the end, as usual, evaluation comes down to the songs. Some of their older albums had them in spades, but Nordland II doesn't really have much to recommend it unless you're obsessed with its stylistic and spiritual forebears and demand more of the same. I'll grant that there are a few epic climaxes here, and an atmosphere which sparks up fond memories for the influential storms Quorthon rode in on, but it's not an album I would choose over others in the canon. Let's face it: the guy more or less created two massive, enduring substrata of the extreme metal realm, and both within a brief span of years. About 13 years after that period, nothing innovative or really interesting had manifest from Bathory. But he had nothing more to prove, and so he resigned himself to small tweaks on the existing formula. I like the simplicity of the lyrics here, their dependable imagery and adherence to the atmosphere or the songwriting.

But where Blood Fire Death summoned up an eternal wrath from my soul, called my imagination to war forever, this album is more or less a pleasant fjord surfing experience with a few gut wrenching moments of anger. A functional successor to Nordland I, and not a regrettable experience, but not a source for much fascination.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (none it shall claim or conquer)

Bathory - Nordland I (2002)

After the split personality of Destroyer of Worlds, it was rather nice that Quorthon would return to a singular vision for its successor, the first half of his Nordland saga. If you couldn't already guess through a glance at the cover image, that vision entails a straight return to the Viking metal aesthetics of prior works Hammerheart, Twilight of the Gods, and the 'lost' album Blood On Ice. Only here, Quorthon has written a more substantial treatise on the subject, since both sides of the project total over two hours of material, and there are none of the banal pure thrash regressions that crippled Destroyer of Worlds. In fact, I feel like this first Nordland is perhaps the point at which he best expresses this style. Not that it's the best of his Norse journeys by a long shot, but because he gives it the ample space in which it needs to breathe.

Nordland I is very well paced to provide its narrative in the span of an hour. The intro passage "Prelude" is meticulously crafted to draw the listener into its antiquity, with blazing horns, war drums and the soaring clean choirs that had become a hallmark of Bathory since the late 80s. You can burn Necrolord's artwork into your mind, close your eyes, access headphones and then become a direct participant in Quorthon's Romanticized translation of old. With "Nordland" itself, the appropriate pomp and strength arrives with a thudding, mid-paced metal rhythm and drums that place it aesthetically between the climes of the muscle metal Manowar and the slower, intended swan song of Norwegians Immortal (Sons of Northern Darkness) who themselves owe Bathory a great deal for its influence upon their own career. Folksy dual melodies adorn its crested waves, and Quorthon uses a deeper clean vocal throughout the verses which showcases his own willingness to grow, even if his sum presence is still rough around the edges.

But "Nordland" is also symptomatic of one of the downsides of this extensive work: the lack of appreciable variation through its lengthier tracks. With a duration over 9 minutes, I would have liked to hear more happen in this piece outside of the predictable melodic progressions and the same, studied tempo. The same could be said for other swollen ingredients to the album, like "Foreverdark Woods". Its promising intro sequences features glinting acoustics, mouth harps and pretty much the perfect setup, but once the distortion is introduced you're just hearing the same chords repeatedly, a practice that might have worked in Quorthon's formative shift into the territory (Blood Fire Death), where the darkness and furor of the writing felt so desolate, fresh and hypnotic, but here it's just rather painted by numbers. No surprises wait in store for the listener through any of these longer tracks, and in this they differ from the stories upon which they draw their inspiration.

Really, Nordland is almost exclusively playing it 'safe', a practice treasured by some and trashed by others. Not a deal breaker for me, however, and I do admire that Quorthon has incorporated some faster material here sans resorting to the regrettable thrashing of the mid-90s Octagon. "Broken Sword" has a nice thrust to it courtesy of the driving double bass, as does the brute speed metal introducing "Great Hall Awaits a Fallen Brother", and the pair lends a well needed respite from the slogging pace of the contents leading up to it. Again, especially in the latter piece, Tomas plays with vocal potential, a clean melodic tone applied to the verse. Far from his best singing, but it functions well enough to discern that he's not a total hack, and this is the best of the longer pieces on the album, though it too only experiences a few shifts in tempo and could easily have been better packed. Shorter tracks like "Vinterblot" and "Mother Earth Father Thunder" don't suffer as much from the lack of variation, but they're really just covering the familiar ground of Blood On Ice and Twilight of the Gods without offering much embellishment.

Special mention should be made for "Ring of Gold", one of Bathory's best pure folk songs since the anthem "Hammerheart", and the acoustic guitars and vocal arrangements here feel lush and absorbing against the sparse samples in the background. In general, I find Nordland to be very well produced, rich and atmospheric, emblematic of Quorthon's mastery of this particular style. The drums don't suffer from the offsetting splash effect on Blood On Ice, and the mix is rich on various layers of depth, where Twilight of the Gods was perhaps an inkling too clean. There is a sense of airy fulfillment here which is sure to sate fans of those albums, and I think it's the best effort from Bathory beyond the year 1990, but not necessarily in contention with his rabidly influential works in the first 5-6 years. More of the same, perhaps 'too much' more, but a solid foundation for an hour of daydreaming that holds up after a decade.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (this land and heaven, forever tied)