Richard HolmesEnslaved – Heimdal (Nuclear Blast)
“I am leaving this body behind”.
There you have it.
Grutle Kjellson’s exclamation on Congelia encapsulates Heimdal’s transcendental spirit.
Enslaved’s music makes the soul fly free.
Indeed, despite their roots in frozen Norwegian soil, this band have long been free of Earth’s confines. 2020’s Utgard – named after a place where mythological giants dwell – stretched their horizons further.
And that voyage of discovery continues with Heimdal.
Caravans To The Outer Worlds, released last year as an EP centrepiece, gave us a taste of what to expect. “Navigation through the astral storms” sings Håkon Vinje, as this astonishing track weaves through cascades of blackened fury and soars on psychedelic thermals. It’s a rainbow bridge to 2001’s Convoys to Nothingness, yet it shows how far Enslaved have come since their first forays into prog.
And Vinje has played a major part in their recent evolution.
The keyboardist lit up Utgard, and Enslaved’s resident Jon Lord fan makes his presence felt again: on Behind the Mirror, the Norwegian has a kaleidoscopic effect, bedazzling the listener with layers of synth play, while his vocal performance on Kingdom is majestic.
But Enslaved – despite having Vinje and flair axe slinger Arve ‘Ice Dale’ Isdal in their ranks – have never put individual musicians to the fore.
Stardom never seemed like the plan.
Songwriter Ivar Bjørnson, co-founder Kjellson and their bandmates are dedicated to creating intriguing soundscapes that ebb, flow and never bore. Heimdal, their 15th full-length, is further proof of that.
The astonishing title track, for instance, opens with jarring, hallucinatory riffs – the like of which we’ve seldom heard from the quintet – before becoming becalmed in a gentle mid-section.
The wind then picks up, and the Norwegians ride a hypnotic, driving pulse to the song’s conclusion.
Few bands would even attempt it.
Yet this kind of adventurism is wedded to Enslaved’s DNA.
Divine inspiration for Enslaved
In keeping with the band’s strong bonds to Norse mythology, Heimdal shares its name with the gatekeeper between the nine realms… and the god of dawn.
For an album of unfathomable layers and endless possibilities, it’s a fitting title.
