MARDRAUM - BEYOND THE WITHIN

Mardraum is the first Enslaved album of the new decade. In a way it is their most essential one as it bridges their black metal fury of the 90's with the progressive directions they would take in the 00's. The sound is still raw but the production is sharp, clear and heavy. The music has opened up compared to Blodhemn. There's more room for dark atmospherics and progressive riffs.

Mardraum is breathtaking, stunning, shocking, evil, ice-cold, morbid, ultra-aggressive, dissonant, possessed, insane, evil, satanic, primal and yet it's also full of stunning riffs, chilling melodies, rhythm, icy screams, growls and chants.The exceptional qualities are maintained through all songs. Maybe one or two could have been left off to make an even more devastating impact. This is very extreme music of course and not easy to get into, but if you can stomach it, you might be overawed by it.

This would be my favourite Enslaved album next to Isa, which is a bit more streamlined and digestible. Still, I would dare to call Mardraum the best extreme metal album ever. To compare it to classical music is maybe a bit of a stretch but this is as disturbing as the Sacre Du Printemps was almost a century ago. A worship of all things pagan, violent, untamed and hedonistic. 4.5 stars