Enslaved

This article is about the Norwegian band Enslaved, for more meanings see Enslaved (disambiguation) .

Enslaved
Enslaved at the Roadburn Festival 2015
General information
origin	Haugesund , Norway
Genre (s)	Viking Metal , Progressive Metal
founding	1991
Website	www.enslaved.no
Current occupation
Guitar , keyboard	Ivar Bjørnson
guitar	Arve Isdal (since 2002)
Vocals , bass	Grutle Kjellson
Keyboard , vocals	Håkon Vinje (since 2017)
Drums	Iver Sandoy (since 2018)
former members
Drums, percussion	Kai Johnny "Trym Torson" Mosaker (1991–1995)
Drums	Harald "Horgh" Helgeson (1995–1997)
Guitar, percussion, guttural vocals, background vocals	Roy Kronheim (1997-2002)
Drums	Per "Dirge Rep" Husebø (1997-2003)
Drums	Freddy Bolsø (2003)
Keyboard, vocals	Herbrand Larsen (2004-2016)
Drums	Cato Bekkevold (2003-2018)
Session members
Fretless bass	Eirik "Pytten" Hundvin
Keyboard (live)	Øyvind Madsen (2003)

Enslaved ( . English : enslaved ') is a company incorporated in 1991 Viking - / progressive metal - band from Norway .

history

Singer Grutle Kjellson at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2016.

Enslaved was founded in 1991 by Grutle Kjellson (bass, vocals) and Ivar Bjørnson (guitar, keyboards) in Haugesund (Norway). Before that they played in a death metal band called Phobia, but were bored with the death metal scene and the other members and then formed a new band, whose name Demonaz von Immortal suggested based on the Immortal title Enslaved in red . Initially, the band was influenced by bands from the first and second wave of black metal . She belonged to the environment of the Norwegian black metal movement with bands like Burzum , Darkthrone and Mayhem , but in contrast to them did not deal with the topic of Satanism (which is why, according to Bjørnson, she was always left out), but wrote songs about the sagas and Myths of their ancestors, belief in Odin and the sir . This makes the band one of the founders of Viking Metal. The Swedish band Bathory already used the subject of the Vikings in their lyrics , but did not use this term for their music. Furthermore, Enslaved avoided the typical use of pseudonyms for Black Metal , from the second demo Yggdrasill allowed many folkloric elements to flow into their songs and combined croaking screaming singing with anthemic male choirs.

Arve Isdal at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2016

Enslaved at the Barge to Hell 2012

In the beginning, the musicians were extremely fixated on their band and “hardly spent any time with other people”. The first demo Nema from 1991 was unsatisfactory for the members, which is why they recorded new songs for their second demo Yggdrasill . They sent this to Mayhem co-founder Euronymous , who owned the record label Deathlike Silence Productions and then offered them a contract. After his murder, the debut album Vikingligr Veldi, dedicated to him, was released in 1994 by one of his business partners on the Voices of Wonder label .

Enslaved then got a contract with the French label Osmose Productions , which at the time had many well-known black metal bands under contract. Her second album Frost was released there in 1994 , which had the term "Viking Metal" on the back of the booklet; Bjørnson explains that it is important how you name your music and it was natural for the band to use a term other than “Black Metal” for their music. Through Frost , the band gained great fame and a certain status within the scene.

With the follow-up album Eld (1997) Enslaved then introduced elements of progressive rock into their music for the first time , which in some cases drew criticism from purist black metal fans. The album Blodhemn , released in 1998, reversed many of the previous developments. However, around 2000 Ivar Bjørnson said that Eld still meant "a lot" to him.

The follow-up album Mardraum was another step in the other direction and surpassed all previous releases of the band in terms of its experimental character. On this, with Entrance-Escape , she officially published material in English for the first time, as Roy Kronheim had written the text. This was followed in 2001 by the album Monumension , the line-up change and in the following two years work on the successful album Below the Lights followed, which was then released in 2003. Below the Lights is the band's greatest success from a commercial point of view, because this album led to a nomination for the Spellemannpris in the category "Best Metal Album", which Satyricon won with Volcano .

The band switched to Tabu Recordings in 2003 , as the motivation for the collaboration between Osmose and Enslaved diminished on both sides after the impression of the band and, according to Bjørnson, communication was made easier by the fact that the new label came from their home country, and took a year then on the album Isa with again new musicians . For the first time, a music video for the single Isa was shot in front of a Norwegian mountain backdrop. This time, on February 26, 2005, the band won the Spellemannpris in the “Best Metal Release” category for the said album. In October 2005 the band released their second live DVD Return to Yggdrasill - Live in Bergen , which was recorded at the Bergenfest Festival in Bergen in May 2005. At that time the band was hardly influenced by black metal, but rather by rock music of the 1970s.

In May 2006, Ruun, the ninth studio album, was released, for which they were awarded the next Spellemann Prize on January 27th. After a European tour, the band played on July 15th at the Norwegian Wood Festival in Oslo with Evanescence and Korn . In addition, the band provided the soundtrack for the silent film classic "Terje Vigen" by Henrik Ibsen, the title "Ruun" from the album of the same name. In 2008, the band's tenth studio album, Vertebrae, followed . It reached number 20 in the Norwegian album charts and was voted album of the year by the critics of the music magazine Terrorizer .

On September 27, 2010, Axioma Ethica Odini was released, the band's eleventh studio album, which made it to number 11 in the Norwegian charts and brought in another spelleman prize. The songs on the album were characterized by riffs throughout and due to the length of some of the songs there were clear build-ups of tension. In 2011 the EP The Sleeping Gods was released , the songs of which are freely available for download on the band's homepage.

In 2012 Enslaved signed a worldwide contract with the Nuclear Blast label . Finally, on September 28, 2012, the album RIITIIR was released , which brought the band another nomination for the Spellemann Prize.

On May 22, 2020, the band released the vinyl single Homebound as a precursor to their 15th studio album, which is planned for the fall, and which will be titled Utgard .

Discography

→ Main article : Enslaved / discography

Studio albums

year	Title label	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, label , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	NO
1994	Vikingligr Veldi Deathlike Silence Productions	-	-	-	-	First published: February 28, 1994
	Frost Osmosis Productions	-	-	-	-	First published: November 26, 1994
1997	Eld Osmose Productions	-	-	-	-	First published: April 7, 1997
1998	Blodhemn Osmose Productions	-	-	-	-	First published: June 1, 1998
2000	Mardraum: Beyond the Within Osmose Productions	-	-	-	-	First published: October 3, 2000
2001	Monumension Osmose Productions	-	-	-	-	First published: November 27, 2001
2003	Below the Lights Osmose Productions	-	-	-	-	First published: April 14, 2003
2004	Isa Osmose Productions	-	-	-	-	First published: November 1, 2004
2006	Ruun Tabu Recordings	-	-	-	NO23 (1 week) NO	First published: May 8, 2006
2008	Vertebrae Indie Recordings	-	-	-	NO20 (2 weeks) NO	First published: September 29, 2008
2010	Axioma ethica odini Nuclear Blast	-	-	-	NO11 (3 weeks) NO	First published: September 27, 2010
2012	RIITIIR Nuclear Blast	DE72 (1 week) DE	AT70 (1 week) AT	CH92 (1 week) CH	NO15 (2 weeks) NO	First published: October 9, 2012
2015	In Times Nuclear Blast	DE66 (1 week) DE	-	-	NO21 (2 weeks) NO	First published: March 10, 2015
2017	E Nuclear Blast	DE80 (1 week) DE	-	CH55 (1 week) CH	NO12 (1 week) NO	First published: October 13, 2017

Awards

• 2000: Spellemannprisen for album Mardraum: Beyond the Within (nominated)
• 2003: Spellemannprisen for album Below the Lights (nominated)
• 2004: Spellemann prizes for album Isa (won)
• 2006: Spellemann prizes for album Ruun (won)
• 2008: Spellemann prizes for album Vertebrae (won)
• 2010: Spellemann prizes for album Axioma Ethica Odini (won)
• 2012: Spellemannprisen for album Riitiir (nominated)

Web links

Commons : Enslaved  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Enslaved on Myspace
• Enslaved at Discogs (English)

swell

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Ulf Hellbilly: traveling salesman in matters of Nordic sound works. In: A-blaze. No. 1, August / September 2007, p. 23 ff.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Tom Bartlett: Enslaved - there for 15 years and still Vikings (Ivar Bjørnson / Grutle Kjellson / Herbrand Larsen). 2006, accessed May 14, 2010 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Interview with Grutle at Terrorverlag
4. ^ Carlos Rodríguez: Enslaved Interview. (No longer available online.) 2008, archived from the original on December 19, 2008 ; accessed on May 14, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Björn Thorsten Jaschinski: Enslaved . ( Memento of the original from March 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Legacy , No. 8, accessed September 27, 2012. 
6. ^ Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini ; Tracklist on stormbringer.at; Retrieved September 9, 2010.
7. ^ Review of Axioma Ethica Odini on vampster.com; Retrieved October 2, 2010
8. ^ Enslaved - The Sleeping Gods
9. ↑ ENSLAVED - sign with Nuclear Blast! April 26, 2012, accessed February 13, 2013 . 
10. ↑ RIITIIR - Enslaved. Retrieved February 13, 2013 . 
11. ↑ ^{a b} nominations and program leather to Spellemann 2012 he clear. February 12, 2013, accessed February 13, 2013 (Norwegian). 
12. ↑ Vinnere / Nominerte (2000). ( Memento of the original from September 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Retrieved January 29, 2011. 
13. ↑ Vinnere / Nominerte (2003). ( Memento of the original from September 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Retrieved January 29, 2011. 
14. ↑ Vinnere / Nominerte (2004). ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Retrieved January 29, 2011. 
15. ^ Vinnere / Nominerte (2006). ( Memento of the original from October 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Retrieved January 29, 2011. 
16. ↑ Vinnere / Nominerte (2008). ( Memento of the original from July 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Retrieved January 29, 2011. 
17. ↑ Vinnere / Nominerte (2010). ( Memento of the original from July 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Retrieved March 12, 2011.