Enslaved was an enigmatic band for me when I was getting into the more extreme side of metal. I had always heard the name but never able to hear the music. This was before the days of Napster where you could just look up the artist and download an album. I had to try to find a local CD shop that could do a special order for any of their albums... finally I found one that could order their latest album: Eld.
When I put the CD in it read 7 tracks and almost an hour in length. I knew I was in for a ride. I pressed play and was greeted by 793, a 15 minute long epic to introduce the album. This thing is massive: after a 5 minute dungeon synth type intro the band doesn't break into blast beats, but rather full chord riffs over clean singing. Not quite what little me was expecting, but it enthralled me none the less.
Early enslaved has a lot in common with black metal, though Eld is arguably where they started to branch away from the foundation laid by the founders of the genre. There is more focus on an epic atmosphere, the songs deal with viking history and mythology, and while the music is cold it doesn't have that grim feeling that so much of the other Norwegian music does.
While not every Enslaved album is fantastic, Eld remains one of my favorites from the band. It strikes the balance between the blast beat infused black metal of Frost and Blodhemn and the more experimental tendencies of the later albums. It's one of the essential albums from the band. Younger me had good taste... at least this time.
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