Enslaved imagine if the Vikings discovered Haight-Ashbury
KOLIBRI MEDIA/PRESS
IN AN INTERVIEW directly preceding Enslaved’s fifth livestream, bassist/vocalist Grutle Kjellson states, “Conformity has never been our thing.” That’s an understatement. Over the course of a 30-year career, the Bergen masterminds have bent black metal on their knee, snapped it like plywood and reassembled it using parts of prog, folk, krautrock and acid rock. The Otherworldly Big Band Experience honours such transcendence with suitable ambition. For one night only, experimental rockers Shaman Elephant expand Enslaved’s ranks. The nine-piece proceed to play a rarities set in front of a backdrop of eye-popping special effects.
The stream commences with an aptly celestial vibe, picking up where the space rock of October’s Caravans To The Outer Worlds EP left off. The tight camerawork, long fades and soft focus make guitar strings look like shining gadgets from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Spotlights gleam in the surrounding blackness like stars. Ruun II: The Epitaph proves the ideal soundtrack; its jangling acoustic guitars and echoing keyboards, as well as Grutle’s lingering cleans, add a planet’s worth of sci-fi mysticism.
Bounded By Allegiance swaps the rocket for a longship, rediscovering the Norse prog metal of 2004’s Isa. Any qualms that tonight’s line-up could prove needlessly large are thrown overboard when its seven singers hum folk melodies with the bliss of a choir. Even more awe-inspiring are the war chants that incite Havenless; finally, they’re as imposing and all-consuming as they were when howling out of Below The Lights 19 years ago.