VIKINGLIGR VELDI

This brings back memories.......... I actually interviewed Grutle and Ivar for a major Norwegian music magazine at the time of this release. They were very intelligent guys with a vision. Some months later, hell broke loose with the slaying of their record lable manager and the media circus called Burzum. Throughout the whole period, Enslaved kept a distance to the scene - officially - and did their own stuff. Their drummer joined Emperor (and countless other bands). This, their second album (I regard Hordanes Land as their debut) was not Black Metal as it was known as back in 1993. This is pure Viking Metal and they were the pioneers of this scene. Bathory released a couple of Viking Metal albums too, but I think Vikingr Veldr is a more hardcore Viking Metal album. The sound is pretty primitive and the drummer is not up to the task. I loved the album when it was released and I had hopes of Enslaved continuing down this path. The Frost album crushed my hopes, though...... This album is pretty much an oddity in Enslaved's discography. It has some epic songs with the typical Black Metal sound. Added is the keyboards which gives it the Viking Metal sound. There are some good songs here and most of them has a Van Der Graaf Generator feeling to them. Then you also have the Burzum influences in the sound. I think this is a good album, with it's flaws. They are the bad sound and a pretty much one-dimensional song structure. The ten minutes long songs tends to become boring after some minutes. Not enough is happening in the songs to keep them interesting. The final song, Norvegr, is the best song. I can understand why Enslaved changed back to a more basic Black Metal sound on the follow up album Frost because this album is a kind of an overkill. I do not think they would had been the band they are today if they had stuck to this formula. Overall, this is a good album worth checking out. This is probably the only Black/Viking Metal album I still listen to from the early incarnation of the Norwegian Black Metal scene.

3 stars.