Quick elaboration on the album name: The name of the album is technically the runic letter for the sound /e/ (the letter looks kinda like a latin M, as visible on the cover art). Each rune has a name associated to it (more or less like we say "kay" for the letter k, but with an actual meaning, so maybe more like this military speech spelling, alpha, charly and that stuff, I guess). The name of the E-rune is "ehwaz", which is a Proto-Norse/Germanic word for 'horse'.

I do like Ivar Bjornson, guitarist and one of the founding members. He was only 13 when he and another started Enslaved. He also does a lot of "viking folk" music with Einar Selvik (formerly of Gorgoroth, now Wardruna).

Enslaved are from the 2nd wave of black metal bands and they have been building their own path for the entire time. Their first album, Vikingligr Veldi, was top tier and is still among my favorites of the genre, but they also have grown quite a bit since then. They're kind of like the black metal equivalent of Opeth in their proggy influence and growth and I think it's great. I saw them live once in like 2010 and they were flawless -- one of the best live shows that I've seen. These guys are very well rehearsed.

Enslaved are probably the clearest example of old Norse black metal bands going prog (even full on at times) since they were as a band part of the second wave bm movenent in the early 90's and more or less went gradually more "prog". I am, of course, more fond of their proggier stuff of the last decades.

I love this album and the song you picked. it’s interesting enough that horse and horse rituals as well as horse sacrifices themselves are particularly prominent in many indo-european religions, for example a sacrifice of a sacred horse is prominent to vedic kings and the entire kshatriya (military) caste in indian civilization, this might have influenced the intro. this ritual is also comparable to information drawn from scandinavian religion, Odin (god of war and patron of kings) rides into battle the eight-legged horse, Sleipnir, who was actually a child of Loki (trickster god) and the mythical stallion, Svaðilfari: in a bizarre story, Loki (male) shape-shifts into a mare, Svaðilfari mounts “her”, and Loki bears a foal, Sleipnir. I hope this adds to the whole bizarreness of the song lol.

Really happy you had a fun time with this! Great reaction and analysis of one of my favorite bands.

Incredle band, they’ve changed sound a lot over the years while managing to keep a black metal tone. Be cool to see more reactions for these guys 🤘 great review

Love seeing you cover Enslaved. They are a very interesting band. They are one of the early black metal bands but, have been leaning into prog for at least the last 15 years or so. Anyways, they are one of the more sonically interesting bands for my taste. Every album is distinctly Enslaved while also being fresh. A lot of their themes are stoic/natural order things. I believe you would enjoy their album "Utgard" in its entirety.

I was going to see them live back in November 2020 in Poland but then obviously shit happened :/ One of the more original bands ever (?), hard not to fall in love with them once you've heard anything basically haha

Others have pointed to Enslaved's reputation and long and varied catalog, so I won't belabor the point. I only want to throw in my standard Enslaved suggestion: "Neogenesis." I expect you'll really appreciate the guitar work in that song.

Damn, first time listen to this band and I am definitely gonna check out the album.

You're in the ballpark with the whole religious side of things. And sure, the organ is not a part of norse culture per se, being as it is a pre-christian set of religious and mythological beliefs, but i the words of Ulver's Garm " Of course it can be said that eletric instruments shouldn't fit with songs about nature worship, but you don't exactly see the devil playing the guitar either". It's the feel that matters, and the norse aspect of it is reflected in the chanting. As a fun fact Ivar Bjornson, the main composer for Ensvlaved and the possessor of the most Viking name in existence, was actually invited along with the guy for Wardruna to compose the music for the commemoration of the 200 years of the norwegian constitution. So there's that. And the band's concept is very much an exploration of Asatru (the mordern branch of norse religion) beliefs and mythology, in feel rather than in actual fidelity. Glad to see you so enthused about the track, Enslaved are a gem of a band. They haven't been an easy band for you to come around to, I think, and I remember when you reacted to their 793- Slaget av Lindisfarne song we exchanging some words about what wasn't gelling with you. At the time, I remarked that that song was Enslaved stumbling on something, that thing I called the norwegian weird that is very 1997, but were still looking around for the vocabulary to express it, which is emphasized by the fact Ivar was 19 at the time. And this is it. At around their ISA album, (which is an excellent pick for your album listens), that's when their sound clicked as this aalgam of black metal, folksy elements and pink Floydish 70s prog. Every subsequent album adheres to that general formula, with different scales of implementation of those elements. And a very recognizable sound too. You commented at the time of that 793 song about the guitar tone, and for all the iterations, it's still a very recognizable sound, like a velvety harshness, almost.

Lyrics are pretty much impossible to understand without putting them into context of skandinavian iron age mythology. When people in 700 AD worshipped Thor as a fertility god in their daily life, they considered him 'alive' or 'in power', but due to the cyclical nature of the Mythology, Thor has died already in an apocalyptic conflict between Giants and Gods, named Ragnarok. And the cyclical nature of the Mythology predicts that Thor will die again in the future. Thats why the 'protagonist' accounts for events that seem to happen in the past and at the same time inside his mind situated in the present.

Enslaved have been so excellent for so long they're a hard band to make recommendations for. Luckily, someone picked a great track from probably my second favorite Enslaved album; but there seriously isn't a more consistent metal band on the planet, and I especially love their material once they started mixing in prog and psychedelic influences from Monumension in 2001 onward. I also think they're one of those bands that's just gotten better with time, with their peak coming in their 2010s with Axioma Ethica Odini, RIITIIR, In Times, and this album (E). In fact, I think the only disappointment I've had with them was on their last album, Utgard, and even that was at worst a 7/10. Fans of more traditional black metal tend to prefer their earliest work that goes all the way back to the mid-to-late 90s. Awesome band that I really need to revisit soon as I've only gone through their discography twice.

You're gonna love this one

So happy you got to this band, dude. Some top notch music there. Check out their newer stuff as well. Their EP Caravans to the outer worlds is very interesting. And the new new atuff they put out... The song Congelia, along with the music video, took me out of my socks. Check it out, just for yourself. No need to make a react video. Love your vids, mate! Cheers 🍻

Oh hell yeah Brian clicked immediately

I really enjoy their early albums this stuff not so much 👀

Early Enslaved was great, then ... I just don't care what they're currently doing these days. I think I listened to one of their latest hits a year back, and I remember I thought it was a rip-off of some other song. Hordanes Land (EP), Vikingligr Veldi (album), Frost (album), great stuff. Some decent on Eld (album), that's about it. And yeah, they are prog blackish viking metal, sometimes even rock or pop these days.