Enslaved and Their ‘Divine Colleague’ Heimdal: Knocking on Asgard’s Gates in Prague (2024)
Acts: Enslaved, Svalbard, Wayfarer
Date: Monday, March 18, 2024
Venue: Prague / Futurum Music Bar / Czech Republic
Enslaved are without question a very special band in the extreme metal arena. A band that has already entered its fourth decade of activity, with no fewer than 16 studio albums to their name. The latest of these, “Heimdal”, came out in March 2023. A band that keeps growing and evolving artistically — in directions that can hold the attention of even the most demanding music connoisseurs. Even though they are originally classified as black metal, such a narrow label is, artistically speaking, downright reductive when it comes to Enslaved.
The band, who had to delay the release of “Utgard” by six months due to the ‘plandemic’ circus, soon began writing material for the new album “Heimdal”, in the meantime releasing the EP “Caravans to the Outher Worlds”, which serves as something of an artistic bridge between the two. The band’s current European tour is actually the first proper tour including dates on the old European continent since 2018 — in recent years they have played mostly in Scandinavia, at festivals, and in North America. In Prague this evening they played for the fifth time in total, and for the first time since 2017. A little trivia: Enslaved first performed in Slovenia back in 1997 (at Metelkova) as part of the then-current ‘Vikings And Tyrants’ tour (they also played at Monokel), and last appeared there in October 2016, at Ljubljana’s CUK Kino Šiška, where they celebrated their 25th anniversary.
The band always picks interesting support acts to warm up the crowd on their tours. This time, they chose as the evening’s opener the ‘Colorado bugs’ — more precisely, the atmospheric black metal quartet from Denver, Wayfarer, who were on tour promoting “American Gothica”. The band weaves country elements into their sound. Genuinely unique stuff — though we caught none of it, having arrived at Futurum right at the moment their thirty-minute set, in which they played four tracks from their latest album, was wrapping up. There was only one goal for the evening: the Enslaved show.
Svalbard, the English post-hardcore/post-metal outfit from Bristol, spent the next 40 minutes showcasing their latest — their fourth studio album “The Weight Of The Mask”, released last October. A raw, avalanche-heavy and massive sound anchored in atmospheric depths that hit you hypnotically, one that almost completely buried the low end — so you actually had to look closely at the stage to spot the member playing bass. Repetitive phrases that grab you with an infectious musicality are cut through by the dual higher-pitched growl vocals of vocalist and lead guitarist Serena Cherry and rhythm guitarist Liam Phelan, while drummer Mark Liley carries the heaviest load in this undulating, hypnotic musical terrain. A band definitely worth checking out for anyone drawn to variations on this style — a convincing set and a properly packed crowd in a venue that holds 300 to 350 people confirmed that interest in Svalbard is on the rise. As for this reviewer, the band bored him to tears, so he found considerably more joy in a fresh round of Czech lager during those 40 minutes.
Enslaved are Enslaved. For the next half hour, the crew set the stage with extraordinary precision. In the background, a powerful musical backdrop played, evoking the feeling of Valhalla being conjured into existence. Feelings that genuinely transport you into a Viking-age world — to that deathly silence aboard your Drakkar, gliding across a perfectly still water surface through fog so thick you could cut it with a knife, praying to the gods for a favorable wind, a clearing, or anything that smells of salvation.
The opening riff made clear this was old school. The sheer resonance of it. That old-school ring — yet dark, dooming, relentless, cutting right through you. It strips and flays you on the spot. And pulls you into a parallel world. An ode to Utgard — the last of the three worlds connected to the sacred tree Yggdrasill (the other two being Midgard and Asgard) — and to the god Heimdal. Enslaved opened the show with Kingdom. The first part of the set was devoted to material from “Utgard” and “Heimdal”, both outstanding achievements that demonstrate the band’s artistic power to keep actively developing and elevating their identity after more than 30 years, without ever denying their black metal roots. Worth noting: the sound that evening was nothing short of ideal. Let’s be real — optimal. Futurum Music Bar was packed to the last corner; the venue was essentially sold out. The band received an exceptional crowd response, as the audience reveled in the sonic realms of a Nordic world conjured through the artistry of these uniquely Norwegian originals in extreme metal — which is exactly where Enslaved belong.
Atmospheric shifts into entirely different emotional states — ones that reshape the ominous vision of merciless doom, the wrath of Norse gods, betrayal — all the way to Ragnarök and the twilight of destruction, yet also of new birth. Grutle Kjellson — alongside Ivar Bjørnson the other original member of the current Enslaved lineup — was in exceptional vocal form. His relentless growl piled an extra dose of blasphemy onto an already dark sonic expanse. The phrasing sounded downright infernal; the characteristic dissonant chord clusters only deepened this magnificently destructive luxury of an immaculately dense soundscape. Håkon Vinje, the band’s keyboardist, provided excellent contrast with his clean melodic lines and duet contributions. Enslaved are known for their perfectionistic stage tightness. Not a single slip was heard. Grutle entertained the crowd between songs with his sense of humor — which simply underlined the seasoned ease and confident wit you earn as a frontman through more than three decades of live and studio graft.
Crowd participation fueled the band’s whole theatre. Most in the room were serious Enslaved devotees, as was especially clear in the second half of the set, which Grutle opened by announcing the band was heading back to 2006 and the title track from “Ruun”. The packed venue greeted the choice with particular enthusiasm. With so much great music to their name, it’s hard to cherry-pick what fits into an hour and a half of setlist. In that regard, Enslaved gave the crowd a special gift by slotting in two classics from “Below the Lights” (2003) — The Dead Stare, followed by the especially theatrical Havenless. The band closed the main set with the title track from the new album “Heimdal”, carrying the dark atmosphere to the peak of a final crescendo.
Then came the return to the stage. As has been the band’s practice for some years now, the obligatory encore is opened by drummer Iver Sandøy — which doesn’t feel strictly necessary, but shows the band find it enormously entertaining. When the other four members of the quintet join in, Grutle takes a moment on behalf of the band to thank the fans for all their support, then begins introducing the members. But not in the usual way. Ivar Bjørnson became Jiři Parma, for instance, while Arve Isdal became Jakub Jiranda — which provided another round of entertaining crowd-baiting aimed squarely at the Czech audience! For the grand finale, Enslaved deliver the title track from “Isa” (2004), then close the show with the expected classic Allfǫðr Oðinn from the “Yggdrasill” (1992) demo, which one last time launched the club’s devoted crowd through the roof. The crowd was undeniably a key element of the whole evening. Loud, raucous, and devoted — yet also remarkably disciplined. Exactly the crowd you’d want in a club setting like this, saturated with thick haze and devastating musical destruction.
A concert of absolute perfection in every regard. Crystal-clear sound — you could hear the wool growing on the sheep, the way only Heimdal can! The same went without question for the performance level. Both were, in a way, expected. And yet — when you experience it firsthand, in a live encounter with the band, the feelings finally become truly real. The creation of a Nordic kingdom through the unique levers of strictly progressive artistry, never abandoning the roots of old-school black metal. The very best the Enslaved formula has to offer!
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Edita Klemen
Wayfarer setlist:
1. The Thousand Tombs of Western Promise
2. Reaper on the Oilfields
3. To Enter My House Justified
4. False Constellation
Svalbard setlist:
1. Disparity
2. Open Wound
3. Faking It
4. To Wilt Beneath the Weight
5. Click Bait
6. Lights Out
7. Eternal Spirits
Enslaved setlist:
1. Kingdom
2. Homebound
3. Forest Dweller
4. Sequence
5. Congelia
6. Ruun
7. The Dead Stare
8. Havenless
9. Heimdal
—encore—
10. Drum solo
11. Isa
12. Allfǫðr Oðinn
