IN THE STUDIO
ENSLAVED
Black metal’s most fearless explorers are blasting full-thrust towards space rock and thrash
WORDS: MATT MILLS • PICTURES: ROY BJØRGE
Grutle Kjellson hard at work on the lucky 16th. Below: Iver Sandøy and Ivar Bjørnson
ENSLAVED HAVE ALWAYS been black metal’s most boundarydestroying Vikings. They dabbled in jangling synths on 1994’s debut album Vikingligr Veldi, when the scene was still defined by blastbeats and Satanism, and since then have pillaged tones from prog, psych, folk and post-rock.
Even now, 31 years deep, there’s no sign of the Norwegians’ eclecticism fading. When Hammer sits down with guitarist, co-founder and lead songwriter Ivar Bjørnson, he promises that the 16th Enslaved album will be a space rock- and thrash metalinspired axe to the skull. Just don’t expect straight-up kvlt black metal…