The demo “Yggdrasil” , recorded by Enslaved in the year 1992, was a crucial change for the Norwegian extreme metal scene, a band claimed an independent concept and musical style.
There wasn't any satanic image of lyric, the main concept was the Norwegian and Viking mythology, but musically there were still similarities with the Darkthrone and Immortal sound, but with another target, it was taking form a sombre, violent, version of a mystic and mythological vision. The Hordes of Loki were preparing the final assault to Midgard, an infernal voice was telling ancient prophecies, and the epic feeling was necessary to give the right solemnity to those pagan religious themes.

Something unique was bearing, and the better confirm was the cult ep “Hordanes Land” where the black-black metal, with a moderate and intelligent use of keyboards, created fair good songs and gave to the band the right visibility in the underground.
It wasn't always too clear the musical difference between the Enslaved's musical style and the typical black metal, but like in the demo some interesting news were taking form. The production is raw and cold, showing for another time the darkest side of the Viking myths.

In 1994 Enslaved released a great album, “Vikingligr Veldi” , where their inspiration reached the top, a Viking black metal assault on the guitars with an epic feeling inside, and a significant presence of majestic keyboards have created an excellent result. The sensation that gives that act is to live a dark Viking saga, surrounded by the mystic nature of the northlands, still dominated by ancient forces and the ancient gods, a journey through the different world of the northern mythology and then a bloody battle fought in a carnage of sufferance. Everything is so far and shaded, like a vision of forlorn memories in a very a really unusual journey.

Almost in the same year Enslaved released “Frost” , with a style very similar to “Vikingligr…” but a bit more prickly. The difference is in the recording because the drums have been mixed too high, and because only one half, or a bit more, of the album is really good and the rest is not so exciting. The most important thing is that Ivar e co., already with “Vikingligr” and now with “Frost”, have acquired their original sound, an epic, cold and evil vision of the darker side of the Viking myths, and only in the most aggressive parts there is a black flame still burning. An epic clean voice, like a sort of chorus, is an important new, because it gives an important dimension to the overall music of “Frost”.

After that intensive activity three years passed before the new album “Eld” , another demonstration of good Viking metal. A heavy metal sensibility, never heard before in the Enslaved's compositions, came-out without completely cover the epic-black metal roots on the guitars.
The first song is a epic metal sound-track of the most famous Viking battles, with a brutal black metal break inside. Also in other songs its audible a contrast, sometimes a bit too large, between the epic melodic parts and the aggressive assaults, so that I can say the arrangements are not the best chapter of this album, but some songs are really valuable (the last two for sure). Something was in movement inside the Enslaved musical style, but the next album left surprised many fans.

“Blodhemn” is probably the most violent release to date in the Enslaved's history. The riffs were reminding to the blackness of the demo “Yggdrasil” and sometimes there are some solos , but the modern and aggressive recoding probably left down some old-fashioned fans. The epic mood of the previous album is less present, definitively “Blodhemn” is a colder album with more contact with the black metal riffing, but the clean choirs and vocals weren't forgotten as some mystic keyboards parts.
“Blodhemn”, compared to “Eld”, is a more clear and logical album, without those contrasts between aggressive and atmospheric moments, it's a cold apocalyptic battle of the sons of Ragnarok.

Another change was near, with the first year of the new millennium came
“Maraudram: Beyond the Within” , an album that represents the bigger turning point in the Enslaved's carrier. There are very few signs of the epic and mythological music of the early days in that album, the first two songs have a psychedelic attitude and those elements are really on the background, but in almost all the album they aren't there. The riffing is very far from the typical black-Viking lines, there're death and thrash influences, but not a single one of them is of a certain interest. The death-thrash songs are not so well arranged and there's a complete lack of harmony.
“Maraudram” remains a failure, but I think that it's a passage to other stylistic horizons.
I was fearing a new stop for the Norwegian band, but after some listening I really appreciate their 2001 album “Monumension” . With “Maraudram” Enslaved have opened a new era, but with this album they have finally corrected the sight. Almost every retro death-thrash influence, not so well played in the previous work, went away, and the psychedelic-progressive factor become dominant.
There is a significant rockish riffing, and also a loud come-back of the black metal roots.
The epic side of Enslaved is very weak, and in the majority of the moments totally absent, the lyrics are changed in a more mystic intellectual glorification of some mysterious sides of the Scandinavian mythology. Gruntle speaks about a spiritual preparation to Ragnarok, the Viking's end of the gods order. It's surely interesting how they have renewed their concept without betray their pagan ideology, maturing their lyrics. That psychedelic turn have surprised lots of fans but it's surely more linked to the mysticism of the pagan spirituality then the Maraudram's death-thrash influences. The recording have kept alive a raw, but not un-professional sound, extremely suited to emphasize the overall atmosphere, abstract, intimist, blurred, shaded…convoying to nothingness.