ENSLAVED: Isa (BLACK METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Everyone knew it! After an album of the calibre of "Below The Lights", we knew Enslaved could do even better. They've done it with "Isa", a black, powerful, heavy album that's as honest as it is unifying. A real lesson in extreme metal.

The opening track sets the mood. In the world of Enslaved, it's cold and dark. The only way out is total surrender to the music and atmospheres offered by the band, who have perfectly found what they've been looking for since their first album, namely a rarely achieved osmosis and synergy.

Each member of the band is important and seems indispensable. The master thinker, Ivar Bjornson, continues to deliver his complex, diabolically effective riffs. Grutle screams as if his life depended on it. Bettevuld's drumming is surprisingly masterful and full of interesting new ideas. Keyboardist Larsen is not in short supply, enveloping everything in his discreet but indispensable ambiences. As for the new lead guitarist, Arve Isdal, whose performance on the "Live Retaliation" DVD is still fresh in our minds, he demonstrates with his solos and subtle interventions that he richly deserves his place in the monster that Enslaved has become.

It's impossible to remain indifferent to the songs on "Isa". The album kicks off immediately with 'Lunar Force', a powerful, deeply black metal track. Grutle's screams are terrifying, with an absolutely hallucinatory break that confirms the idea we had of Enslaved on the release of "Monumension". Also of note are the brief but remarkable contributions from Abbath (ex Immortal), who is in top shape.

While there's no need to dwell on each track here, they're all worth mentioning: 'Isa', with its catchy riff and catchy chorus; the psychedelic 'Ascension', a convoluted track with a very progressive structure; 'Violet Dawning', with its interesting drumming; and the instrumental 'Secrets Of The Flesh', which is particularly catchy.

When it was released, "Isa" stood head and shoulders above all the extreme metal albums released that year. If you've never heard this band before, it's high time you did. - Official website

ENSLAVED

ISA

SEASON OF MIST

BLACK METAL