Metal Reviews

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Nice review, im sold on this one!

BUT, this concerns me:

"Gone are also long winding structures of Below the Lights. Ruun is an album full of songs, not just compositions, but whatever Enslaved gave away in the eccentricity department, they more than made up in execution. Ruun crystallized a certain vision that apparently possessed Ivar Bjornson and Co. for the last few years, the vision of carefully crafted, songwriting oriented progressive extreme metal."

So, are the songs shorter than normal, do they flow well, as an ALBUM, or are they just short bits of good music thrown together? Will a huge fan of Below the Lights still love this?

Interesting. Answer this question for me: I hated Isa but loved their other progressive albums, will I like this?

I think the differences b/t Below the Lights and Ruun are what I said in the review - song structures. Ruun is in no way just good bits of music thrown together. Instead, it is quite a bit more polished and better stitched together than Below the Lights. But if you like the production to be raw, then Ruun would not be yoru thing.

I liked Isa less than Below the Lights, and I like Ruun so far more than the other two, so I'd say try it. Somewhere in the riff structure Ruun reminds me of Secret of the Runes by Therion, but only superficially, not much of a "big" sound or orchestration on Ruun.

Thank you. I'll definitely be checking this out, then.

I'm not sure if you'd love this or not. Most of the songs are still pretty lengthy, in the 6 minute department. They also don't exactly follow the verse/chorus/verse/chorus pattern, so in that regard it is like Below the Lights. But Below the Lights was more technical than this or Isal; they have simplified their riffs since then.

Wierd, Isa was the favorite of mine of their last 3 albums.

82/100 from me.

Another solid album from one of my favorite bands, but this is their weakest album since Monumension IMO. I hope they pick up the pace a little on their next time around. Entroper, Ruun, and Essence stand as the best tracks.

Right. The production does not bother me at all, it can be as polished as it wants, as long as the album flows, and isnt just a set of good songs thrown together. Thanks, im definitely gonna get this.

This album as well as ISA has been disappointing to me. Since Below the lights, Enslaved seems to be going down hill.

This was the first album i listened from this band and found it extremely boring. I'll relisten to it though and give the rating.

"Fusion of Sense and Earth" is pretty good, but coming to this straight from "Below The Lights" is a bit of a let-down. Maybe I should go for "Isa" first, the band does seem to go in cycles.

And this is pretty soon, "Isa" was only out a year or so ago, wasn't it? Good to see they're writing so much, and I'm sure in the future all of Enslaved albums will be seen as classics. Good review, Alex.

Give Below the Lights a go. Thats a fucking good album.

I loved Isa but I guess I am in the minority. I can understand the Below the Light's People's point of view though, Enslaved may have just simplified their sound too much.

In September there's a gig consisting of 1349, Zyklon and Enslaved headlining, I'm going just for Zyklon at the moment. What Enslaved should I satrt with/what will they be playing live?

Isa is prolly a good place to startt for their later stuff. I dunno if they still play the older bm stuff, they seem to have dropped it altogether.

Not at all, I have one of their DVD's and they play tracks from Blodhemn, Frost and even Vikingligr Veldi.

Fusion Of Sense And Earth clicked for me a few days back. Awesome.

The music of Enslaved is just getting more challenging to digest. Brilliant!

Damn, until this review, I had no idea they even had a new album out! Time for a Special Order.