Huge respect to the requester, this one was in my top-5 for next requests :) such an epic

1997 is what I typically call the year when Norway went weird. Arcturus went space opera, In the woods... went Pink Floyd, and even genre established bands like Emperor were to redefine the standards they were previously setting. This album by Enslaved was caught up in all this and is quite interesting and daring, if possibly my least favourite by them from all of their early phase. They were clearly wanting to do something more with the whole viking sound, but were still too young to articulate it. Hard to believe it but Ivar Bjornson, the band's main composer, was born in late 1977. This makes him 19 at the very most when composing and recording this song. He actually wrote the first album at age 13. They would go on to even more psychedelic heights before really finding their sound on ISA. Which really is an album I'd recommend checking out. Here, they were clearly reaching, and also clearly not quite there yet. Also, yes, the gusto with which the drums blaze along those blast beats, more often than not insanely off tempo is possibly the most charming thing about this album, for me. The band were really dissatisfied with this drummer, whom they promptly fired after recording, but I find it very endearing myself. It fits, along with the occasionally off key vocals, with what was the spirit of the music done in this time period. More often than not they were biting more than they could chew, but they were biting it with all their might.

To me, the context of "battle" is among the most "compatible" with tremendous shifts in atmospheres/styles of playing etc. Including the anticipation, "warm up" and aftermath arround the "battle". So, I get vivid (and sometimes horrifying) pictures of that kind with this intriguing piece about a cruel event - more like an assault and slaughter than a battle.... Enslaved has always been "the Opeth of black metal culture" - in more than one way.... Fantastic song and a truly great reaction!

Love a nice dungeon synth intro

This song got me into Enslaved. The intro is very beautiful. The newer stuff is much more sophisticated.

Enslaved were a band that had grand aspirations from early on, and were very much still finding themselves here. What made this such a brave choice at the time is how deeply entrenched in genre orthodoxy Norwegian black metal was at the time. The production is very much of its time, and it’s definitely something that is hard to accept when unless you happen to grow up with it as being normal or at least accepted. Where Enslaved really put their ambition for growing black metal into something more far-reaching than it ever had been was 2000’s Mardraum. Større Enn Tid is a great example from it. The production is fuller but still a bit wonky, but a lot easier to digest than Eld’s is.

The entire eld album is great you should do a full album reaction for this one

Been awhile since I heard this one 👌great analysis

i think you are on point but Enslaved are from Norway huge difference, its like mix up canadians with americans and nothing we take lightely on :D what happend during the raid was that the vikings raided the monestary and some monks fled while others took their refuge inside of the monestary and when the vikings got through the fortified gate the monks got on their knees and prayed for their life to be spared, some of them got killed while the rest were taken as slaves which might explain the lyrics a bit

I'm really happy this is the first Enslaved song you're hearing. The most interesting and unique black metal bands of all time imo.

You should react to "Borknagar - Up North". Its an absolute masterpiece

For anyone interested in knowing more about Enslaved, or anyone into Enslaved who's not seen it, the documentary-series Heimvegen is well worth watching. Made in 2020, going through the early Enslaved-years. Delving into recording sessions, fun trivia, early concerts and tours etc. It's in Norwegian but has english subtitles.

You absolutely need to check out more Enslaved. For an album reaction I recommend either Isa, Axioma Ethica Odini or In Times. Below the Lights is also really really good, but is the bridge between their modern prog stuff and early BM. Production is much much better on these albums than what you heard here though, so thats good too.

I love this song (production included). I think you can attribute the production simply to Enslaved Being a younger band back then. Their production now is out of this world, and has been for years. Also, they just released a new Song Today!!!

The bit after 793 is in Norwegian but other than that, good stuff.

For a little perspective: this is the first track from this band's third album. The founding members were 18 and 21 years old when they recorded this.

also fun facts about the viking longships, the dragon heads were apparently able to be removed. like not just like hacked off or w/e but like actually removable. also the ships did, at least some of them some times, have sails. in fact, i think that was possibly even the point? shallow draft, sails for open ocean/waters, oars for coastal/river "sailing" ??? idk.

Early enslaved is very unique in each and every album released

Don't know why I haven't gave this a spin yet

Hell yeah man great and very underappreciated band besides bathory and unleashed one of the first bands to do this kind of metal

Hey! You chopped your hair off, too. Also, react to as much Enslaved as possible. They have a massive discography with a ton of different styles. A full album react to Below the Lights would be awesome. Their best in a lot of people's opinion and a perfect blend of their older style, which this song represents, and their newer sound.

I love Enslaved, but I wouldn't have picked a song from their early period when they were more pure "Viking/Black metal." I think they became a much better and more interesting band from about the time of Mardraum onward where they embraced psychedelia and prog metal influences. Their early work is still quite good, but it's strongly rooted in the legacy of Bathory-esque Viking metal, and with that I'd prefer that you'd have some familiarity with Bathory's Viking metal period before leaping into Enslaved. All that aside, this still isn't a bad track by any means, and even here you can hear the beginnings of their prog sensibilities in the orchestral opening and acoustic intro. Still, Enslaved are a completely different band now. They still have black metal elements, but are as much prog as they are BM, and have been one of the most interesting/creative metal bands of the last ~20 years, very much doing their own thing and not really sounding like anyone else. I also think a lot of their later proggy/psychedelic BM is among the most accessible in the genre, and would make a great "bridge" band for many.

Alphaville by Imperial Triumphant

1:40 lmao i understood for boating

Just loving the vibe on this one. It’s a bit of a hot mess in places, but much of the song feels like a warm blanket.

Thanks for your reaction! Thats a best viking metal band. Their First 3 albums is a really classic.

All the best metal is classical inspired

One of the best ones by Enslaved. Production is by Pytten, the legend.

my favourite enslaved album, very very orthodox viking black metal

hey Bryan, for your next BM reaction, you should check out Watain We Remain it's a song i been rather into since i found it.

hi, thanks for another great reaction, have you heard of australian band cold chisel, try them doing bow river live, the june 2003 version is the best

Ah yes, Viking Macaulay Culkin

Pls pls pls react to Mizmor's Yodh album!

Check out borknagar olden domain you'll dig it man

This is a great selection even tho they went a little long (8-10 minutes would be more than enough). They had a faster drummer Trym that went to join Emperor in 1995 so the drummer Harald Helgeson only recorded this album with Enslaved and left, Dirge Rep (from Gehenna) would join afterwards. One of the interesting things about Black Metal is that you have more freedom in what you want to do and not following a pattern like it's ok if you want a ultra-fast black metal track or a more atmospheric long track that's why there's so many sub-genres in Black Metal.

😎🙌❤️🤘🤘✌️✌️

How do this band define their music ? Prog, metal, both ?

Hello reactions a los jaivas song pregón para iluminarse ando águila sideral

SO. little warning up here, LONG COMMENT, just so you know what you're in for if you read this. soo, the song is more or less about one battle? maybe it's experience with other songs, but the idea i'm getting from the lyrics is more about the viking age as a whole and the norse faith, after all norse kings Christianized scandinavia. not an outside power. so maybe it's about the death of the old faith, and then people later on taking up/believing in the old faith again?? also the word you were looking for was "surrender" i believe. also,not a person who studies this, like professionally or anything, but from my understanding, there's various fates that could befall the dead, various places one could go, some possibly a post Christian invention? or something like that?? so, Valhalla, if you died a glorious death, you may end up in Valhalla, which could have been about Odin creating an army of Einherjar for ragnarok. so if Odins picking and choosing who is going to be in his end of the world army, you decide who you think he'd have brought up by the Valkyries. also, his wife gets to choose half or among half? of the slain, to go to Folkvangr. otherwise you might end up in Hel(presided over by Hel) where everything was, pretty much just like Midguard, you did in Hel what you did in life, eat drink, sell or so on. one thing that makes knowing much about the culture and beliefs hard is we barely have anything on them, esp basically nothing about them,from them. and then ofc they were a religion of "pick a god and pray." you give offerings and such and pray to whoever is most relevant to you, and customs and various things were bound to be different from village to city, to country. it wasn't a standardized religion like say, maybe the greco-roman religion, or christianity/islam, and look at how many variations on those there are! also yes, from what i know, the norse were very much a martial culture, whether or not it was a matter of "violence good, love that shit!" or not, i'm un-aware.

Honestly, to me, this album is where Enslaved "lost" me. Just not interested in their stuff after this. It's a mix of viking, prog and black metal... idk. I couldn't even get through the song here. hahaha It's like a shitty version of their first EP stuff.