As the year begins to hit the Spring and Summer months, we are gearing up and looking towards some heavyweight releases! Enslaved offer what may well be the first of these. Gary Lee takes a look:
Prolific Norweigian metal band Enslaved are back with their 13th Studio album In Times which is released on Nuclear Blast. Right out of the gate I want to point out that this is not a band I have followed closely and as such, I am not overly familiar with how this stacks up against their back catalogue. But by its own merit, I feel this album is worth a purchase. Like fellow Scandinavian metaller's Opeth, Enslaved do a great job of straddling genres; at times seeming like extreme or black metal, but often mixing that with melodic and/ or prog elements. Enslaved also do a fantastic job of keeping the listener enthralled during the time of the songs and the album. This is especially of importance when you consider that the album is only 6 songs long, but still clocks in at just under an hour.
The opening track, Thurisaz Dreaming, is a tour de force of songcrafting. It opens with a cacophony of blast beats, black metal-esc screams and a riff progression that appears to be snatched from the very same genre. This then develops into some swirling guitar work. However, at 1:20 this begins to slow down as a galloping drum rhythm appears. At 1:40 clean vocals come in, taking on a more melodic, almost wistful tone singing the rather apt "Ive taken on another form/Learning once again to speak". The guitar work becomes more gentle and once again melodic, as the listener is taken on a thoughtful journey. At around the 3:40 mark the screamed vocal work is back but the more melodic music remains, thus creating a nice song wide 'call and answer' type effect. Discordant guitar effects begin to gnaw at the edges of the music, threatening a return to the intro. Slowly this begins to build as power metal style vocals belt out of the now more aggressive music. Finally, at 5:40 we are back to full throttle blast beats and the black metal sound! It is this style that leads the song away to the choir led outro and caps off a fantastic first song and a bold album opener.
The album then sails through the slightly proggier styled Building With Fire which is then followed by One Thousand Years of Rain. The song is another mesh of styles and vocal approaches. I do feel though that it is the cleaner sections that are the strength of this song, they have a haunting power. The almost religious approach to the breakdown with the chanted vocals is fantastic and adds a real presence to the whole album, although my favourite spot in the song is the intro. There is a weird guitar hook that feels a little broken and dissonant, but in a clever way. I feel it really does a lot to draw you into the track and stands out from the crowd rather well. Overall, another well though out and engaging track.
Nauthir Bleeding follows on from this, another solid track with a rather fun and hypnotic guitar line. This leads to the longest track on the album, which is also the title track, In Times. The intro carries forward the almost power metal 'epic' feel sound that One Thousand Years Of Rain held. Again the vocal work is stunning. The screams carry a mighty and terrifying quality, while the clean singing holds a power and clarity. I also find myself enjoying the breakdown that hits around the 5:20 mark, which wanders from the chant motifs to something more melodic before crushing black metal style drumming and riffs come into to play, pushing the song towards its once more melodic outro. If I were to offer any song to anyone who had not heard of Enslaved and wanted them described, it would be this one.
The last track on the album, Daylight, is no less powerful. The song opens with a methodical and pounding doom sound. The intro soon gives way to some particularly evil sounding black metal stylings and from then on the song continues down similar, but no less interesting paths. The album in general is another one for 'album of the year', certainly 'album of the month'. Interesting. Epic. Powerful. Fans of Opeth should check this out.
Article By Gary Lee (@thewheelbear)
For more info and to keep up with everything we have to offer here at Musical Chairs, please like and support our Facebook page!
No comments:
Post a Comment