Enslaved are keeping momentum high as autumn draws to a close. The Bergen-based Norwegian outfit will release Mið on October 30th through Nuclear Blast, marking their seventeenth studio album since Ivar Bjørnson and Grutle Kjellson founded the project. This album arrives three years after Heimdal, underlining the prolific pace maintained by a band that has never ceased expanding its sonic horizons.
To herald the album’s arrival, Enslaved premiered « Solar Will », complete with an official music video. This single encapsulates the group’s core identity: a distinctive fusion of raw black metal, intricate progressive architecture, and Viking mythology. Far from being a commercial concession, this chemical alchemy has become Enslaved’s signature, a refusal to rely on obvious genre formulas since their inception.
The Norwegian band’s catalogue stands out for its consistency and total absence of repetition. Seventeen albums across their career, none perceived as retreading previous ground or betraying foundational principles. Mið promises to sustain this demanding trajectory, oscillating between metallic onslaughts and esoteric detours, the very characteristics that have cemented Enslaved as a leading figure in contemporary extreme metal.
October 30th marks the date. Whether longtime followers from the 1990s or recent converts, audiences are eager to witness how these veteran musicians embody Mið, a title rooted in Nordic cosmology that pledges once again to redefine the boundaries of black metal itself.
