Enslaved will release their 16th studio album Heimdal on 3 March 2023 via Nuclear Blast Records. Formed by Ivar Bjørnson and Grutle Kjellson in 1991, Enslaved has themed their album around Heimdal, “one of the most fascinating characters of our [Norse] mythology.”
“In all these years, Norse mythology has been our umbilical cord to the realms of mysticism and philosophy and our gateway to the realms of deep psychology and the esoteric worlds beyond,” Bjørnson and Kjellson said.
“One of the most fascinating characters of our mythology is Heimdal, and he has been lurking around in our minds like an enigma for three decades now. His first appearance was in a song called Heimdallr on our demo tape Yggdrasill back in 1992, and he’s had both minor and more significant roles in our lyrical universe over the years.”
The recent single released was ‘Forest Dweller, which launches with progressive splendour, guiding the listener into a churning, psychedelic journey through archaic Norse folklore.
“To me, Forest Dweller was the most immediate song on the album,” Grutle Kjellson said, “at least in its earliest form as an instrumental demo. I spent quite some time to get into some of the other songs of the album, but this one seemed somehow logical, well, logical by Enslaved standards, that is. I had an idea for a lyric, and Ivar’sIvar’s amazing and diverse riffs on this one made it easy to pan out the scripture. I made a rough plan on what to sing over it, and we actually ended up using some parts of those recordings on the album.
“The song sort of showcases our representative samples of inspiration, Led Zep, Genesis, Destruction, Iron Maiden and David Bowie, to mention a schizophrenic tapestry of influences. It mirrors in the lyrics as well, which deals with both darkness and light in connection to the nature of Heimdal.”
“It’s quite weird, yet pretty awesome, that we are now talking about the release of our 16th album; yes, our 16th full-length album release,” Bjørnson and Kjellson said. “That’s not too shabby for a couple of scallywags from rural western Norway, is it? If you count our stint in the short-lived Phobia act, we have been playing together for no less than 32 years.”
Enslaved was formed in the summer of 1991 by Ivar Bjørnson and Grutle Kjellson when they were 13 and 17 years old, respectively, and they remain close friends to this day. “We have reached deeper and scouted further ahead than ever before,” they said. “The past, present and future sound of the band comes together in songs born from sheer inspiration. It is the common force of a close-knit group of friends and musicians.”
Heimdal can be pre-ordered from https://enslaved.bfan.link/heimdal.ema.
