There are a few bands I follow whose upcoming album releases are almost a holiday for me. As soon as Enslaved's In Times was announced several months ago, I immediately marked my calendar. I had to wait a week or two before the pre-order was available, but I locked it in as soon as it was up.
Enslaved hail from Bergen, Norway, and began in the early '90s when Ivar and Grutle (guitar and bass respectively) were just teenagers in the burgeoning black metal scene in their country. What set their music apart was an influence of Viking history and Norse mythology.
I discovered Enslaved in 2003 with their album, Below The Lights, which is a special album for me. Within a month or two, I tracked down their previous albums and the live DVD that preceded Below The Lights. Enslaved quickly became one of my favorite bands and new releases are a cause for celebration.
The early style of black metal blast beats evolved into incorporating more progressive passages of music over the years. Their songs are not so much songs as they are journeys. While they play some brutal, aggressive music with growling lyrics, they also turn down powerful, cathartic paths with clean vocals - often in the same song. This juxtaposition of light and dark is very appealing to me. Their lyrics are deeply metaphorical and deal with the self. With each album, there are more layers of sound and with this new one I keep finding new things with each listen.
In Times contains six songs averaging nine minutes a piece. "Thurisaz Dreaming" bursts out of the gate with a pummeling urgency, but changes speed to a swinging groove with a chiming melody. The track continues to build to a cacophony of layered vocal chants and melody before returning to the blasting intro verse music. The final section of the song is my favorite with its Meshuggah/Rush-like odd meter.
"Building With Fire" begins with rocking drums and guitar sans bass like Kiss' "King Of The Night Time World" and when that bass comes in, the groove is so heavy. The bombastic riffage after the chorus is great and then the sound broadens into one of those cathartic moments I mentioned earlier and some fantastic soloing by Ice Dale, one of the most underrated lead guitarists out there. After the second chorus are some keyboards and guitars, but some churning guitars take over and build momentum towards a return to the rocking verse groove again.
"One Thousand Years Of Rain" begins with King Crimson-esque interlocked guitars giving way to a lone, furious guitar. Then, the full band join the barreling guitar like a runaway train. It is very easy to like this track. The music changes to a slow, pounding crawl and builds up to tribal chant before the wild bull strumming tears back into your ears.
When "Nauthir Bleeding" begins, you may think a totally different band has begun playing a clean, dreamlike lullaby. Then, marching drums and guitars transform the song yet again. Ice Dale's solo really shines on this one. The beautiful opening melody does return in a more typical Enslaved form as the songs outro.
"In Times" features an ethereal and somewhat uncomfortable solo from Ivar Bjornson, the band's chief songwriter, over the opening riff and layered, distant vocals. The main verse ruthlessly takes hold and reaches a climax with clean vocals and atmosphere. A return to the opening intro riff of the track morphs into an early '70s Yes sing-a-long, which was a surprise. I can easily hear Jon Anderson and company singing this part. They take that sing-a-long melody and metalize it to great effect to close the song.
The final track, "Daylight," begins with a heavy, stoner riff with airy vocals before a spiraling guitar builds up to a classic Enslaved groove similar to the mid-section of "The Crossing" from Below The Lights. One-third of the way in, the bottom drops out to another beautiful guitar lullaby, which Ivar said was inspired by the birth of his second child around the time this was written. This lullaby builds into a triumphant, cathartic piece of music. Ice Dale's solo brings it home. The spiraling guitar returns to take us back to the classic groove and out to the opening heavy riff to close the album.
I have been listening to this for a week and I am still finding new sounds, instruments, voices, etc. hidden in the mix. In Times is certainly growing on me by leaps and bounds, but the great progressive albums of old were the same way. Yes' Relayer and Rush's 2112 come to mind.
Keep listening and thank you for reading this.
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