Another year, another Enslaved anniversary! The 2000s were a very fruitful period for the band, and I’m very jealous of anyone who was closely following them during this period. Just under a year-and-a-half from the release of their opus Below the Lights — an album that forever cemented their place within the pantheon of progressive black metal — the band returned with a complete lineup and released Isa, another tour de force of proggy black metal that took the band places they have arguably not gone since. This album has a special place in my heart as it was my very first introduction to Enslaved over 15 years ago, starting me on a journey that slowly led to them becoming my all-time favorite band. In honor of the 20th anniversary of its release this past Sunday, let’s take a look back at what makes Isa so great.

Looking with hindsight in 2024 it’s pretty interesting that Isa was my first introduction to Enslaved; in a number of ways the album is a bit of an odd duck in the grand scheme of the band’s discography. My introduction came through a high school acquaintance who was an extreme prog snob yet also liked a fair bit of black metal, holding up Isa as the pinnacle of extreme progressive metal. I was only shown the title track (the video of which is still up on YouTube in 240p, the most trv kvlt of video qualities), an Enslaved classic and live staple at this point — and probably overplayed in the mind of Ivar Bjørnson at least, as I will never forget him going on the record store computer to skip the song at a meet-and-greet in 2014 — and although I wasn’t hooked in the same way as I was by other black metal bands I was shown on the same day like Mayhem and Burzum, I found its keys-driven atmospheric section very unique compared to the rest of what I understood to be black metal at that time.

So what exactly makes Isa an oddball in the Enslaved discography? For starters it’s almost entirely comprised of seamless tracks composed in a more stream-of-consciousness way rather than a collection of individual songs that might be based on a few different riffs, something that hasn’t really been replicated before or since by the band. This is a bit of a double-edged sword; while the continuous nature lends to a sort of concept album feel, it’s harder for individual tracks to really stand out… which is perhaps why “Isa” and “Return to Yggdrasil” are the only two songs that ever make an appearance in Enslaved setlists nowadays — not by chance, as these are also the two tracks I’d say have the most unique identities (it also helps that the title track is just about the only Enslaved song under four minutes). The latter has even been given new life with a great folk rendition courtesy of the collaboration between Ivar Bjørnson and Einar Selvik; a testament to this song’s versatility, easily my own favorite on the album.

In conjunction with the difference in how the album is composed as a whole, I’d say the riffage on Isa is pretty atypical for Enslaved as a whole as well. The Isa rune translates to “ice”, and the riffs here are as icy cold as anything from 1994’s Frost; not in the classic buzzsaw manner typical of early 2nd-wave black metal, but something slower and darker. Right from the start of “Lunar Force” you’re treated to a glacial wall of dissonant chords that doesn’t really let up for the entire album, and the progressive elements soon start to creep in with the great number of syncopated rhythms that make this album so distinctive. A trait of black metal that I still find fascinating to this day is the manner in which chords are used, and Isa is very much a chord progression-focused album rather than a riff-driven one; just listen to the way the opening minutes of “Bounded by Allegiance” build tension and unfold without anything I’d say remotely resembles your standard metal riffs.

Personnel-wise Isa is also a landmark album in the Enslaved saga as it was the first to feature Herbrand Larsen on keyboards and clean vocals as well as Cato Bekkevold on drums, resulting in a lineup that would remain stable until Larsen’s departure at the end of 2016, the longest in the history of the band to date. Grutle Kjellson had been contributing his own distinctive cleans to the band for a decade by this point, but the addition of Larsen added a softer, more ethereal dimension to the band’s sound; a stark contrast here to the glacial riffs. Take the atmospheric 7/4 section that characterizes “Return to Yggdrasil”; I don’t think it would feel quite the same with Grutle’s deeper cleans. Bekkevold’s drumming on Isa doesn’t particularly stand out but is solid as a rock, a place I think he was always perfectly content to be in — the chunky riffs and precise drum hits of instrumental “Secrets of the Flesh” wouldn’t quite hit the same if he got too flashy. In his sophomore album with Enslaved, Ice Dale doesn’t get a whole lot of time to shine throughout… at least until the nearly 12-minute closer “Neogenesis”. The extended solos in the middle and finale are a great showcase of Isdal’s hard/prog rock roots in their epic, Gilmour-esque feel.

While starting a new chapter of the band members-wise, Isa would also mark the end of an era; this would be the last album produced by the legendary Pytten, who had worked with the band on every full-length save for Blodhemn and Mardraum. Aside from a cymbal that is somehow tremendously grating when playing on car speakers, his swansong with Enslaved sounds great, fully capturing the icy nature of the chords while also retaining their heaviness.

A cold, dark slab of progressive black metal, Isa may not be the most celebrated album in the band’s discography by both fans or the band themselves — I don’t think it’s ever going to receive the full playthrough treatment like Below the Lights or Vikingligr veldi — but nevertheless is another important milestone in the Enslaved journey; a complex maze of dense chords, atmospheric keys, and off-kilter rhythms that hasn’t quite been heard again since. Little did 15-year-old me know that one short introduction to one among many Norwegian black metal bands would result in the greatest musical admiration of my entire life. ISA, STILL STANDING EMPOWERED.

— Colin

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For more information on Enslaved, check out their official website.