It is almost new Enslaved season once again! Back in early 2023 I presented a 9C ov… Enslaved Deep Cuts in anticipation of Heimdal, their first new album since joining Nine Circles myself. Three and a half years later their seventeenth full-length Mið is less than two months away, so it’s time to partake in another hype-building deep dive. This time around I’m indulging in what could be clickbait were it published by any of the metal tabloid sites… but I can assure you it is done with great passion and knowledge of the subject at hand! The topic is of course the Official™ rankings for my favorite band of all time.

I love Enslaved more than any other band on the planet for all the ways they encapsulate everything I love most about metal music, so to see them already having a banner year in terms of sonic experimentation and live ritual has been a wonderful thing to follow (and experience firsthand). The Storm Weather Shanty Choir collaboration. “Spirit Helper” with Kevin Kicking Woman of the Blackfeet Nation, and the live debut of this culture-bridging collaboration at the greatest festival in the world, Fire in the Mountains. In addition to the absolute honor and privilege of witnessing their incredible set, Steve Von Till’s spoken word during “Heimdal” was the biggest highlight of my entire experience. And as if all that wasn’t special enough, their Vikingligr veldi set at Hell’s Heroes was a tremendous rendition of that legendary piece of true Norwegian black metal with all the prog power of their current lineup (to be repeated once again at Maryland Deathfest ’27, I’m very excited for that as well). And Enslaved will be opening Norway’s “biggest ever” black metal show “Unholy Halloween” with Dimmu Borgir and Satyricon the day after Mið is released. These Nordic upstarts seem to be doing pretty well for themselves, eh?

Our “Nine Circles ov…” format obviously wouldn’t fit the entirety of Enslaved’s catalog, so with the inclusion of their landmark Hordanes Land EP and a lesser-known known release (well, technically a pair of releases) it will bring the number of albums discussed right up to nine times two. Yes, this is a two-parter… no, I will not stop talking about Enslaved ad nauseum. If that ever happens, assume I am dead. And let me be very clear, this is very much not a “worst to best” but a “least best to best” ranking. Each and every Enslaved album has its own identity and strong qualities in one way or another; the lowest three albums I typically only listen to just when I’m going through the entire discography. So without any further intro rambling, let’s move on to some lengthy Enslaved rambling.

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18. Blodhemn (1998)

Our journey begins with Enslaved’s “last good album” if you’re a member of the more insufferable black metal crowd (don’t worry guys, their next one will definitely be a return to the good stuff, it’s only been almost three decades). Blodhemn was the first release to see Ivar Bjørnson and Grutle Kjellson joined by lead guitarist Roy Kronheim and drummer Dirge Rep, a lineup that would exist for three albums that (not coincidentally) are my least favorites. A vicious assault that recalls some of the most chaotic riffs from ’92-’97 Immortal complemented by ethereal “viking cleans”, it’s by no means a bad album but certainly a step back from the relatively measured, epic nature Eld released a year and a half earlier.

Taking a break from working with second wave Norway legend Pytten, Peter Tägtgren’s icy, muscular production is very much in line with some of his other credits from around this time like Once Sent from the Golden Hall, At the Heart of Winter, and Follow the Reaper. Blodhemn might well be remembered as a sacred artifact were it released by any other band, but in a discography as vast and dynamic as Enslaved’s it isn’t much more than a curious glimpse into a future that ultimately never came to pass. [Favorite tracks: “Eit auga til Mimir” | “Suttungs mjød Incl. Outro ‘Perkulator’“]

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17. Monumension (2001)

This one seems to be a favorite amongst those old enough to experience Enslaved’s evolution towards more progressive horizons in real time, so my sincerest apologies for placing Monumension second to last. But hear me out! The opening one-two of “Convoys to Nothingness” and “The Voices” would place this album much higher in my ranking, if only they had kept up this level of quality throughout. Taking a birds-eye view of their catalog it’s probably their most experimental, but after these tracks a lot of what follows — extended spacey jams, semi-industrial sounds, and more — ultimately falls flat.

The album’s biggest pitfalls are the contributions of lead guitarist Roy Kronheim, in particular the frankly embarrassing Roger Waters impression on “The Sleep: Floating Diversity – A Monument Part III” (a track he also entirely wrote); this would thankfully be the last album he appears on. Bonus track “Sigmundskvadet” is a welcome treat at the end of the album, a ritualistic folk chant that I’ve only just learned recalls the tale of rival Faroese Viking chieftains; one opposed to Christianization, the other promoting it (Guess which one gets killed? Let me break out the smallest nyckelharpa in the world). Without the experimentation and missteps taken on Monumension there would likely be no Below the Lights as we know it… this remains the album’s most noteworthy aspect for me. [Favorite tracks: “Convoys to Nothingness” | “The Voices“]

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16. Mardraum: Beyond the Within (2000)

Coming after the farewell horn blast to “trve” black metal with Blodhemn, Mardraum: Beyond the Within saw Enslaved heading full force into more progressive territory with greater use of clean vocals, linear song construction (arranged in suite-like fashion on some of the longer tracks), and riffs that keep one foot in the black metal realm while also becoming a lot more bouncy and technical. This album stands out in the greater Enslaved discography for me due to the underlying death metal edge present in the riffing throughout the album; see “Daudningekvida” or “Ormgard II“. In a way it hearkens back to the early days of Norwegian extreme metal, when the soon-to-be legends of black metal were still playing what we would call death metal today.

Peter Tägtgren would handle production duties for the second and last time, retaining a bit of Blodhemn‘s sharp iciness while simultaneously making the overall sound rawer and more chunky. Lyrically the band also started to get a bit more mystical, in conjunction with the progressive tendencies invoked by the music. I’m ranking Mardraum above Monumension for its higher lows, but there’s also lower highs. Enslaved kinda threw everything but the kitchen sink into this album and it can be a little bit of a mess, but like Monumension it was an essential exploratory step on the road towards future greatness. [Favorite tracks: “Større enn tid – tyngre enn natt” | “Entrance – Escape“]

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15. The Sleeping Gods/Thorn (2016) (but more accurately, 2011)

If you’re just a casual listener to Enslaved, you might not be familiar with this one. The Sleeping Gods/Thorn was a release from Ivar Bjørnson and Einar Selvik’s own By Norse label, compiling these two 2011 EPs into a single release. The Sleeping Gods came about thanks to the legendary music promoting/money-draining (I assume) venture Scion A/V; RIP, thanks to them 16-year-old me got to see Atheist, Agalloch, and more for free. Two tracks that fit comfortably within the sound of Enslaved during this era, the rest giving the band the freedom to delve into some cool experimentation in the form of spacey ambience (“Synthesis“), an instrumental jam that also serves as a fun counting exercise (“Nordlys“), and some Nordic folk chanting (“The Sleeping Gods“).

Thorn was originally released only on 7″ vinyl by Soulseller Records, two tracks that see Enslaved taking a rare dive into hypnotic, mid-tempo atmospheric black metal (most notably featuring a heavy dose of mellotron). Opposite of how I described Blodhemn these tracks might not be of note were they recorded by anyone else, but are a pretty neat artifact within the Enslaved catalog. The Sleeping Gods/Thorn is ultimately not the most exciting material the band have ever put out, but is a must-listen for anyone who considers themselves a fan. [Favorite tracks: “Alu Misyrki” | “Disintegrator“]

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14. Eld (1997)

It might be controversial to rank such a celebrated album this low, but Eld has never clicked with me the way its predecessors do. Opener “793 (Slaget om Lindisfarne)” is undoubtedly an all-timer — one that I hope to experience live someday before either myself or Enslaved are no more — but following that 16-minute epic, Eld is but a decent mix of mid-tempo viking metal and blasty black metal that doesn’t quite hold a candle to Vikingligr veldi or Frost. I just don’t find there to be much memorability, and even when a great riff comes about (such as the intro to “Glemt“) all momentum is soon lost by an abrupt transition to bog-standard blasts and trem-picking.

Enslaved canon has long stated that this was where their progressive tendencies started to appear, but this tends to be a bit overblown… some more movement in the riffage and frequent transitions make not a progressive metal album. Ivar and Grutle themselves have derided the term viking metal, but the slower pacing, frequent use of acoustic guitars, and “viking cleans” ultimately make Eld their quintessential release in this style (should you choose to accept it as a style in the first place). Get “793” an orthopedic specialist, as it surely has permanent back damage from carrying this album. [Favorite tracks: “793 (Slaget om Lindisfarne”) | “Eld“]

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13. Vertebrae (2008)

With Vertebrae we are now fully into what I would consider “great Enslaved albums” territory. They were first pitched to me as “the black metal Opeth,” and it’s not the most unfair comparison on a surface level. Two bands taking heavy inspiration from their ’70s prog rock heroes; one emerging from death metal roots, the other black metal. But I’ll propose that Enslaved almost went and did their own Heritage years before the Swedish contemporaries abandoned metal themselves. Vertebrae is easily the softest Enslaved have ever sounded, no doubt largely due to the mixing and mastering jobs from prolific mainstream producers Joe Barresi and George Marino, respectively (check out this Popmatters article for a deeper dive into how Barresi’s involvement came about).

It may be Enslaved’s least heavy album, but that oversells things a bit; the black metal roots remain, but are simply overgrown with heavy layers of syncopated prog, spacey atmospherics, and psychedelic clean breaks (and even some proto-blackgaze, perhaps, on “Center“). Vertebrae is the band at their most obviously Pink Floyd, Rush, and Yes. Ice Dale deftly channels David Gilmour and other guitar gods on “Ground” and “Reflection“. Keyboardist/vocalist Herbrand Larsen’s cleans take a much more active role this time around, but by no means do Grutle’s signature roars take a backseat. While I certainly like this album more than Mardraum and Monumension as an individual release, like those it was a necessary step on the road to bigger and better things. From here they could’ve easily gone into a heavy prog direction… but as always, the trajectory Enslaved would take could not be so easily predicted. [Favorite tracks: “Ground” | “The Watcher“]

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12. E (2017)

E was the beginning of a transitional period for Enslaved. It was the first album since 2003’s Below the Lights without Herbrand Larsen, and it would end up being the last with drummer Cato Bekkevold (having joined the band himself just before Larsen). I recall reading that the band almost toyed with the idea of having Grutle take over on all clean vocals, but thanks to longtime producer/engineer (and soon-to-be drummer) Iver Sandøy the band were introduced to young Bergen keyboardist Håkon Vinje. He was already playing in prog/jazz-rock band Seven Impale and shared Ivar and Grutle’s love for ’70s prog/hard rock, so it was a natural fit. His vocal timbre is pretty similar to Herbrand’s as well, with Håkon taking over most of his vocal parts live ever since. The end result is an album I’m a bit torn on, despite the fact that I have lots of positive memories from when E came out in fall 2017 (and the subsequent Enslaved-headlined Decibel Magazine Tour 2018, where I got to hang out with them backstage as a result of a contest I won). I had just graduated from college and moved back home, so I was stuck in a soul-crushing rut being unable to find work; new music from my favorite band was just about all that was keeping me going.

There’s some truly fantastic tracks here that see Enslaved building up lengthy prog jams into monolithic black metal (“Storm Son“), or staccato riffs (and Håkon’s debut keyboard solo) into mythological ritualism (“Sacred Horse“). But I’ve long felt like E is diminishing returns from In Times. Not just the fact that both are six songs each, but there’s some analogous spaces occupied by the same track places on each release. A long, repetitious opener, a rousing rocker of a second song, the third delving into folk elements, and the final three tracks featuring greater experimentation. Yet outside of the awkward blues riffs of “Axis of the Worlds” there’s truly nothing bad on E; “Hiindsiight” in particular is a gorgeous, expansive doom-meets-psychedelic prog closer topped off with multiple saxophone solos. Bonus track “Djupet” would see Iver behind the kit on an Enslaved recording for the first time, and hearing them craft a fantastic cover of the electropop song “What Else Is There?” (Röyksopp) remains pretty damn cool. [Favorite tracks: “Storm Son” | “Sacred Horse” | “Hiindsiight”]

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11. Ruun (2006)

In a manner somewhat comparable to the previous album in my rankings, Ruun could almost be seen as a lesser version of Isa… “Path to Vanir” in particular is pretty reminiscent of said album’s title track and its viking stomp tempo. While Isa is biting cold and almost mechanical in its precision, Ruun is relatively subdued; more atmospheric, warmer, and ethereal, with frequent use of mellotron that largely foreshadows the direction Vertebrae would go. While perhaps overlooked amongst the mammoth Enslaved discog, it’s a fine album all on its own! The title track has been a constant on their setlists for a long time (I’ve witnessed it four times by my count), a fantastic encapsulation of the prog and blackened halves of their sound. “Api-Vat” has long been a favorite deep cut of mine, mostly thanks to an epic closing solo from Ice Dale. But if there’s one standout trait I could parse, it would be that it’s perhaps the grooviest Enslaved have ever been.

The Rush-like syncopation of opener “Entroper” (also featuring one of Grutle’s greatest bass lines), the fist-pumping start-and-stop rhythms on “Fusion of Sense and Earth“… this track was a welcome surprise on their Fire in the Mountains setlist this year, hopefully chosen for the fact that Ruun celebrated its 20th anniversary back on May 8th. I unfortunately didn’t have the time to put together what would’ve been my third Enslaved anniversary writeup; coming just one week before Far Away from the Sun‘s 30th anniversary, I was far too occupied with that massive retrospective to give Ruun its proper dues (as much as I wanted to). Assuming I won’t have time to compose a proper retrospective before the end of the year, accept this in its stead! A more subtly great Enslaved album, it’s very much worth revisiting for the interesting niche it occupies within the overall Enslaved sound.

[Favorite tracks: “Entroper” | “Ruun” | “Api-Vat”]

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10. Utgard (2020)

Part one of my rankings concludes at last with another welcome comfort in dark times; Utgard was originally set to come out around May 2020, but presumably due to world logistical issues during the pandemic it was delayed until October. I can still remember hearing initial single “Homebound” for the first time, and feeling like Enslaved was embarking on yet another bold step forward. This album ushered in the current Enslaved lineup, with longtime producer/engineer/”6th Beatle” Iver Sandøy (his credits going all the way back to 2010’s Axioma Ethica Odini) having officially joined the band on drums in 2018. We’ll see with Mið come October if third time’s the charm, but I still hold to my assessment made during the release of Heimdal that the current iteration of the band is the definitive Enslaved lineup… at least in terms of musicianship and the way they all gel together live.

On Utgard the songs are relatively shorter, tighter, but even during placid moments (such as the dreamy percussion solo segment on “Sequence” featuring Jaga Jazzist’s Martin Horntveth) there’s a propulsive energy that can only be credited to Iver’s wide-ranging drum influences, krautrock in particular. His addition to the lineup was truly a shot in the arm to their sound, not just rhythmically but because he’s a damn fine vocalist too! This brought the number of accomplished clean vocalists up to three. Despite the trimming of proverbial fat (especially in comparison to E) the band continued to push themselves and experiment, with no better examples than the sequencer-driven, blackened krautrock of “Urjotun” or soothing ballad “Distant Seasons.” And on the heavier front the band similarly went all-out, with the crushing Bathory worship of “Jettegryta” and dueling guitar/keyboard solo of “Flight of Thought of Memory“. Enslaved truly took us on a cathartic journey into the unknown during uncertain times with Utgard; it will always hold a special place in my heart for that reason, even aside from all that was accomplished musically. [Favorite tracks: “Jettegryta” | “Homebound” | “Flight of Thought and Memory”]

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So, how’d I do? Are the rankings of Eld and Monumension too blasphemous? Did you doze off scrolling through this neverending wall of text? The incredible thing about a discography as colossal and diverse as Enslaved’s is that no two people could ever rank them the same; ask five people their favorite album, and you would easily get five different answers. As for my own top albums ranking, dutiful Enslaved listeners already know what’s missing so far… a lot of early releases, maybe some new stuff, and a trio from my own youth that are tremendously special to me. Stay tuned, spread your wings, and fly into your mind.

— Colin

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Mið will be unleashed October 30 through Nuclear Blast. For more information on Enslaved, check out their official website.