There’s one key element about Enslaved that it’s time we, collectively, understood: Enslaved is now fully ensconced as a prog band. Sure, that’s been evident for almost a decade, but Axioma Ethica Odini might be the first Enslaved record to blatantly declare, “Yes, Enslaved is Norwegian. Yes, Enslaved has connections to the early ‘90s Dark Circle. But, fuck, does Enslaved love Gentle Giant.” Though initially playing as a quasi-return to the group’s black metal roots, Axioma Ethica Odini eventually makes it blatantly clear that black metal is not what’s to be explored here, the group ultimately executing its most shocking track to date with the Opeth-circa-Damnation ‘Night Sight’. There are moments in Enslaved’s catalogue I want played at my eventual funeral and that’s a testament to the band’s lucid and affecting song-writing : in that vein, opener ‘Ethica Odini’ might just be the group’s newest artistic plateau (though nothing will ever top Mardraum or the last 3 minutes and 19 seconds of Isa’s ‘Neogenesis’). Enslaved is amongst the genre’s most stirring innovator, the group truly unafraid to write outside of any sort of norms or parameters. For that, Enslaved is to be commended and viewed in continual high regard.
Content 2012 Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles
Design and Programming 2012 Grafang
