Enslaved: Rock and Rune...

Enslaved are just days away from unleashing their sixteenth album, Heimdal, what are the anticipations for the release, and what can fans expect? “Its obviously the very difficult sixteenth album [Laughs] but its always exciting to see how the fans react, the press react, its always exciting even if its the sixteenth album because you never know – we don’t do any of this to follow up on expectations. We have always done this for ourselves, for our own development, we don’t feel any pressure at all because I don’t think the fans would expect us to release another Frost album, but still, we are very excited to see the reactions. The singles released so far have been met with great excitement. Fans should expect a different album this time – the closest we will get to play classic rock [Laughs]. This album is a little bit more tricky, experimental and perhaps even introvert, it will be a little harder for people to digest though a little more for people to dive into and I think more fans that have been following us for all these years they will find it very, very interesting”.

You talk about reactions – with all these pieces, what comes first when piecing together an Enslaved album? “Because of the pandemic we had the privilege to do a little experimentation, with an EP – its called Caravans to the Outer Worlds, and that was an excellent opportunity to make a stepping stone, an experimental stepping stone in between the two albums. There was a different direction on those songs, and we included songs from that EP in the new album, but also we used other elements from the EP, so it all started there. The album writing started in the beginning of 2021 and was basically written throughout that year, and the writing process was finished early last year and we recorded the whole thing during March 2022. It’s been almost a year”. Quite a fast turnaround? “Usually its a lot faster – because usually we’re writing in the middle of touring. So this time around, actually for the first time in many, many years we had ample amount of time, to do it the way we wanted. This time we had time to try out many things and I think the songs benefited this. One of the very few advantages of the pandemic” [Laughs].

The music of Enslaved is ever evolving, so where were some of the significant leaps forward in this new material? “Its hard to pinpoint – we’ve been around for thirty two years and we like to explore. Always have. We try to make constant, broader music horizons and obviously if you have this approach, it will always leave a huge database for inspiration. So we always come up with new ideas, we don’t stop and think ‘what does this remind us of?’ its usually you, the journalists who do this [Laughs]”.

So I guess, from what you’re saying – this approach ultimately contributes to the longevity and continuity of Enslaved? “Absolutely”.

So what is it you learn through each album, both personally and as a musician – what of these lessons learnt do you take into your next album? “Its always that step forward, when you have finished an album there is always that feeling of pride and it has always been like this. When you look back at some of the releases – yes, we can reflect and think ‘oh, we should have focused more here’ or whatever, but thats part of the process. It’s pretty healthy. It should always be a continuing step forward – you should always move forward and make something for yourself. If you try to fit yourself in to creating for a specific type of people or sound you aren’t moving forward”.

Now onto the sixteenthth album – this isn’t your first axe throw – you would have the ins and outs of recording pretty well solidified; Though, I am interested did you encounter any challenges this time around? “I think that there is always challenges and this time it was both a bit harder because obviously we spent a lot more time creating the riffs, Ivar (Bjørnson) locked himself in the basement singularly for a lot of time [Laughs] and it took me a little longer to get them under my skin and understand them and figure out where to go with them. But I mean – that also made it more enjoyable, because you’re really absorbing it, it becomes a part of you. It was really enjoyable this time because we were all so deeply into it, and although there were technical challenges, the process and the results were worth it”.

Have you considered that perhaps your appetite for this album was more enthused because you did have this bridging EP? “This was a fantastic stepping stone for us and the fans really liked it too. It kind of made it easier to go on in that slightly more experimental direction – and we did. It was a definitely a good move, a healthy move. For a band that has been around for so long, I think we still sound really vital, this is strong and a good feeling. I think that, due to the philosophy behind the band – our ethos – our goal is to always make an album that we want to enjoy ourselves. Simple, but healthy. We never think of going backwards and this is what has kept us alive since the early nineties”.