‘E’ becomes the most brazenly progressive Enslaved record. Experimental keyboards, abrupt temporal shifts and frequent bursts of aggressive riffs — all reminding us of their Viking metal roots. Basically, art rock to symphonic prog to post-metal atmosphere effortlessly brewed with some inhuman screams. Add the use of flute, a surprising jazz segment and a Norwegian electronic synth-pop cover — Enslaved has never been more firmly rooted in both extreme and avant-garde territory.

Without completely abandoning black metal, they has carefully adopted some unproven experimetal progressiveness. Within these uncharted fields, it’s not surprising that they sometimes lurch between sheer greatness to downright peculiar. But, for long time listeners there is nothing unexpected here. The band continues to walk their chosen path – constructing a curiously rich, polarizing, and at times uneven mosaic of progressive black metal symphonies.

Dark Apostrophe at English Wikipedia [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons