Enslaved - Frost. Just got it.

[Stormwatch]

Okay, I've only heard the album once so I'm not going to judge the music itself yet, this being the closest thing to black metal I've ever bought. Initial impressions are it's okay, Ygddrasil seems great and some of the other songs have imaginative sections running through them (all those million mile an hour sections are a bit OTT though). The cover photo is brilliant and the pictures of the band are hilarious! What's the fucking gimp all about?!
Anyway, the one thing that really strikes me about this is the totally shite guitar sound. It sounds as though the guitarist turned his back for a second and someone turned off the bass and middle on his amp when he wasn't looking! It's SOOO thin.
Sometimes it actually sounds like the guitar amp is in a different room from the rest of the band!
WHY???!!! Why do black metal bands do this? The guitar is surely the most important instrument in any "metal" band?
I'm not saying the albums shit or anything I'm reserving judgement until I've heard it a good few times, but that guitar sound is crap. Why don't Enslaved get a guitar sound like Opeth or Death?!
And is Below The Lights any good?

 

[no country for old wainds]

I think you should've started with Below the Lights, 'cause that album suits Opeth fans more. Vikingligr Veldi, Eld and Monumension are also good from what I've heard. Maybe Frost isn't, not sure.

 

[Stormwatch]

Yeah I would rather have got Below The Lights myself but it just so happened that Frost was the one that was available at the time (only cost me a fiver) so I bought it.
On a similar topic, I downloaded "Jerusalem" by Melechesh but I'm not impressed at all. I can't even make out what the fucking riff sounds like, and it's got so many effects over it it doesn't even sound like a guitar! I don't think I'll be buying any of their stuff - unless someone can tell me I'm wrong?

 

[tara]

So I'm guessing you don't like Frost?
Give it a few more listens. It took me a bit to get into it when I first got it so maybe if you do the same thing I did, you'll wind up loving it.

 

[Stormwatch]

No no no!! I said I'm NOT going to judge it until I've heard it a few times! The posts above are just first impressions, although the guitar sound IS shit IMO.
I'm listening to "Fenris" just now and it reminds me of Opeth's Morningrise album which is a good thing.
Don't worry, I'll give it a fair chance.

 

[J.]

Get Eld and Monumension

 

[Stormwatch]

Well, I want Eld just because the cover is fucking great looking! (Not that I'm gay, the guy just looks pretty cool )
What about Below The Lights?
BTW Frost is starting to get better after a couple of listens.

 

[Dick Rott]

Hell. You could have had mine for free. I effin hated that album

 

[Erik]

What about Below The Lights?

My review of Below the Lights.

I would recommend "Vikingligr Veldi" which is way above all the other Enslaved releases in atmosphere and epic scope. Sounds like you'd probably appreciate "Below the Lights" more though as it's easier to listen to and has "heavier" production and all. Avoid "Mardraum" and "Monumension" for now as they're very uneven in my opinion. A few very good songs on each, but a lot of ho-hum material as well.

 

[Stormwatch]

Cheers for the suggestions!

 

[LuminousAether]

My opinion on Enslaved:

Debut (forget how it's spelled):

Ok, but very cheesy keyboards ruin the mood. Very little actual atmosphere, sounds very typical.

Frost:
Now we're getting somewhere. Still a bit typical, but moments shine through that this band has something to say.

Eld:

HOLY SHIT. This is what they promised all along. The first song is one of the absolute best metal songs ever, a 16+ minute epic that starts off slow but blasts along once it gets rolling. From there, the cd mostly sounds similar to Frost, but the 7th song is almost as good as the first. Definitely worth purchase for those two tracks alone.

Blodhemn:
More typical than Eld, but the production is better and some of the songs rock.

Mardraum:
Oh. My. God. Now THIS is what Enslaved should have sounded like all along. This album is AWESOME. Extremely heavy at times, others extremely progressive with a lot of psychedelic influence and such. The first song bounces back and forth between more calm atmospheric moments and rigid blasting industrial black metal before setting into a hyperspeed groove that would make Darkthrone piss theirselves in jealousy. The middle section can drag on a bit, but the first four tracks and the last 2 are utterly amazing and it holds up surprisingly well for an hour long album.

Monumension:
Even better than Mardraum, this is THE Enslaved album to get. It's a 10 / 10 album, purely perfect. It flows from beginning to end in a conceptual manner, going from extremely mellow to heavy as fuck (but not as heavy as Mardraum or Blodhemn (their heaviest albums)) with a shitload of atmosphere drenching the whole thing. It's sort of like a pyschedelic prog viking metal album with touches of Floyd at times. It's definitely very strange, with the outro being an almost industrial stomp and the bonus track being viking chants over metal backdrop. This album has a lot more singing than the others, and with guest clean vocals and the viking style they've used throughout their career, it's a great move. This is one hour long album that can hold my attention from start to finish. Every song is awesome, and about half are astonishing.

Below the Lights:
A step down from Monumension, but excellent in its own rights. It's more repetitive than their other releases and shorter than the past couple, but it's 45 minutes so it's not too short. Some songs are fairly normal for them, but the rest are awesome. It's a lot more rigid and systematic than their other albums, probably due to the new drummer.

 

[hibernal_dream]

Eld has the best drum sound i've ever heard! Its so organic and ...natural

 

[Stormwatch]

My opinion on Enslaved:

Debut (forget how it's spelled):

Ok, but very cheesy keyboards ruin the mood. Very little actual atmosphere, sounds very typical.

Frost:
Now we're getting somewhere. Still a bit typical, but moments shine through that this band has something to say.

Eld:

HOLY SHIT. This is what they promised all along. The first song is one of the absolute best metal songs ever, a 16+ minute epic that starts off slow but blasts along once it gets rolling. From there, the cd mostly sounds similar to Frost, but the 7th song is almost as good as the first. Definitely worth purchase for those two tracks alone.

Blodhemn:
More typical than Eld, but the production is better and some of the songs rock.

Mardraum:
Oh. My. God. Now THIS is what Enslaved should have sounded like all along. This album is AWESOME. Extremely heavy at times, others extremely progressive with a lot of psychedelic influence and such. The first song bounces back and forth between more calm atmospheric moments and rigid blasting industrial black metal before setting into a hyperspeed groove that would make Darkthrone piss theirselves in jealousy. The middle section can drag on a bit, but the first four tracks and the last 2 are utterly amazing and it holds up surprisingly well for an hour long album.

Monumension:
Even better than Mardraum, this is THE Enslaved album to get. It's a 10 / 10 album, purely perfect. It flows from beginning to end in a conceptual manner, going from extremely mellow to heavy as fuck (but not as heavy as Mardraum or Blodhemn (their heaviest albums)) with a shitload of atmosphere drenching the whole thing. It's sort of like a pyschedelic prog viking metal album with touches of Floyd at times. It's definitely very strange, with the outro being an almost industrial stomp and the bonus track being viking chants over metal backdrop. This album has a lot more singing than the others, and with guest clean vocals and the viking style they've used throughout their career, it's a great move. This is one hour long album that can hold my attention from start to finish. Every song is awesome, and about half are astonishing.

Below the Lights:
A step down from Monumension, but excellent in its own rights. It's more repetitive than their other releases and shorter than the past couple, but it's 45 minutes so it's not too short. Some songs are fairly normal for them, but the rest are awesome. It's a lot more rigid and systematic than their other albums, probably due to the new drummer.

Well thanks for the reviews. I suppose I'll get Monumension and Below The Lights next but does the guitar sound ever get any better than Frost?
BTW I fucking love those viking chants! Very atmospheric and a change from the usual choirs you get in metal (WASP, Sabbath etc).
Oh, I guess I'll get Eld as well, cos that cover is just kewl!! He's a very scary looking man that Grutle.

 

[Erik]

"Monumension" has a very "organic," analog-sounding guitar sound. "Mardraum" is kind of the same though not really taken to the same levels. "Blodhemn" and "Below the Lights" have very heavy guitar sounds, with Blodhemn almost being overproduced -- it was recorded in Peter Tägtgren's Abyss studios. "Eld" has OK guitar sound but strange production overall, especially on the drums. It works pretty well in the end though. "Vikingligr Veldi" has a traditionally thin Norwegian BM guitar sound but better than Frost (which, while I don't really care, probably has the weakest guitar sound of all Enslaved albums) and suits the music and immense atmosphere of the album very well. "Hordanes Land" -- the split release with Emperor which is definitely one of Enslaved's finest works but can be hard to get hold of nowadays -- is indistinct and fuzzy with cheap synthesizers but the compositions more than make up for the aesthetics.

I say get "Eld" and "Below the Lights." I wouldn't get "Monumension," (see above) especially since it's copy-protected (Osmose fuck off.)

Then when you like all of those albums, you are probably ready to get "Vikingligr Veldi," and do, because it is much better than anything else they've ever done.

 

[Stormwatch]

What does it matter if Monumension is copy protected? I dont know anyone that would want a copy of it anyway.

 

[Erik]

What does it matter if Monumension is copy protected? I dont know anyone that would want a copy of it anyway.

In my mind, buying crippled CD's that I can't play on the devices I choose or exercise my fair use rights to one copy for backup purposes with is a fucking insult to me as a paying, honest customer. FUCK Osmose.

Jotunblod means roughly "Blood of Giants," Jotun being giants in Norse mythology.

 

[hibernal_dream]

Then explain to me how I managed to find the album on mp3 and burn it! Thats the beauty of computers, theres always a way around everything

 

[LuminousAether]

Don't get Monumension? Why the fuck not? It's EASILY their best album. Vikingligr Veldi is also easily their worst. They are the definition of a band that has gotten better with age.

 

[Erik]

Don't get Monumension? Why the fuck not? It's EASILY their best album. Vikingligr Veldi is also easily their worst. They are the definition of a band that has gotten better with age.

Alright. My opinion happens to be the complete opposite of yours, if that's acceptable. Although everything Enslaved has released so far has been quality stuff "Vikingligr Veldi" is simply above and beyond all in my opinion.

 

[Erik]

Then explain to me how I managed to find the album on mp3 and burn it! Thats the beauty of computers, theres always a way around everything

Obviously, that's the silly part. It only takes one person with an SPD/IF cable from their CD player to rip the album, and then the whole world can download the album. Copy protection is simply moronic as it has no effect whatsoever besides pissing off legitimate customers. Also, it wouldn't surprise me if Osmose were stupid enough not to copy "protect" the promo copies or something.