Enslaved – Axioma Ethica Odini

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Indie Recordings
Produced by Ivar Bjornson, Grutle Kjellson & Herbrand Larsen

Enslaved made their full-length debut, Vikingligr Veldi, in 1994. This was a time when Norwegian black metal was still in its infancy – only Darkthrone, Mayhem, Emperor, Immortal, Burzum and a small handful of others had released albums, and the genre was mostly trapped in Scandinavia.

Still, with only year or two’s worth of that kind of music on the market, the band decided to challenge its boundaries, looking to the Viking-influenced leanings of Quorthon’s Bathory and integrating some of those sounds into the Norwegian black metal blueprint. It was radical – even heretical, considering scene luminary Euronymous’ views on black metal music – and people didn’t catch on right away. Once they did, though, Enslaved established themselves as one of the most important black metal bands on the planet. Then, in 2000, because they could, the band released Mardraum: Beyond The Within and changed their game to a more progressive, experimental Viking black metal.

Now, after a full North American jaunt with Swedish prog-death legends Opeth, Enslaved have basically turned into the black metal version of that band. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing; Opeth is a phenomenal band, and channeling their oeuvre into a black metal framework leads to some fascinating music. Most importantly, Enslaved has successfully maintained their identity as a band. In some of the violent clean/harsh vocal dynamics, in-song style changes and longer compositions it’s evident that Mikael Åkerfeldt imparted some wisdom on Grutle Kjellson and the boys, but Axioma Ethica Odini is still unmistakably an Enslaved record.

The opening one-two punch of Ethica Odini and Raidho should quell any fears that the band is losing their touch or navigating into too experimental of waters. Waruun recalls the sound of some of their earlier material while still employing the patented clean-harsh tradeoff, and album highlight Night Sight begins with an almost crooned vocals-and-clean-guitar intro before crescendoing and erupting into a torrent of progressive black metal fury sounding like the love child of The Mars Volta and Burzum, then repeating that cycle twice more before closing on a gorgeous outro ripped straight from Blackwater Park and a furious Darkthrone-influenced coda that brings back the Mars Volta riff. Yeah, it’s pretty awesome.

Axioma Ethica Odini might not go down as the essential Enslaved album when the history books are written, but it does mark a bold step in a mostly positive direction.

“ unmistakably an Enslaved record ”

Tracklist: Ethica Odini / Raidho / Waruun / The Beacon / Axioma / Giants / Singular / Night Sight / Lightening

Written by Brad Sanders
More: 2010, Albums, Black Metal, Enslaved