It’s St Patrick’s Day and people are out celebrating in the very Irish pub below the venue tonight; no plastic paddies here! The rest of us are about for a different type of cultural heritage due to a Viking invasion and a celebration of all things By Norse. Centred around 3 Enslaved shows over 3 nights with the band dipping into a different historical period each one these were always going to be popular events. The fact they had some great supports over the nights too Vulture Industries, Helheim, Wardruna and Skuggsjá meant that many had snapped up passes for all nights. There are also other cultural events going on such as exhibitions of artwork by Gaahl, talks and even a meet and greet for the bands in front of the Norwegian Ambassador. I never worked out quite why London was chosen to celebrate this event which ties in with the 25th anniversary of Enslaved but certainly wasn’t complaining. This was the most important gig of them all for me as it signifies the ‘frost and fire’ of the early Enslaved period and I was hoping to hear some songs that they have never played live over the years despite having seen the group countless times.
Before them though it’s the turn Vulture Industries also from Bergen Norway. This was the first time many here had heard and encountered these merry minstrels and you could tell this by some bemused expressions on people’s faces as the band line up and take us to ‘The Tower,’ title track of their last awesome album. Last time here they played downstairs in the smaller venue so had much more room here to utilise the large stage and put on an eccentric and theatrical show. It’s bolstered by the massive PA here and the bass heftiness and bruising drum sound really accentuate everything. Vocals soar as they build, working their way up a High Rise that JG Ballard never envisaged, spreading madness from floor to floor. Was it Divine or Appalling as the next track questions? Well it certainly has a massive drum work out and a stomping clamour about it. I was well aware that ever flamboyant vocalist Bjørnar Nilsen was not going to simply stand around on one spot and sure enough he is off around the stage like John Cleese at the Ministry of silly walks and then stands perched over the drum kit on a riser aptly like a vulture waiting to swoop. Lightbulbs start clicking on in heads as audience members liven up and get into the show, there’s some serious noodling prog-riffery fired out from the musicians making it all the more heady. ‘The Hound’ is a highlight with a three piece vocal harmony at first before the beast rears up and dizzyingly dashes off. It’s not scary though, its bark is worse than its bite and it just wants to slobber all over us and get a big hug. So too does the frontman who un-caged from the stage is causing mischief with audience members on the dance-floor. Everything gears towards last song, ‘Blood Don’t Flow Streamlined’ infecting with carnival craziness as the singer grabs audience members for an impromptu bout of lunacy. Leaving the audience with grins like village idiots this was a memorable show that left everyone in damn good spirits before the main event.
Personally I first caught Enslaved at their UK debut on the World Domination Tour in 1997 and then again at Dynamo Open Air Festival along with Emperor and Dimmu Borgir in Holland. The sound at the festival was atrocious for all the black metal bands and so I was hopeful that tonight we were going to get a chance to relive the early material at its best. Not only that, I had high expectations that they might play my favourite song 793 (Slaget om Lindisfarne) so I could finally catch it live for the very first time. As the intro tape swirled into action this came to fruition and others around gasped recognising the austere tones of this epic number. With 2 original members from the era Grutle and Ivar remaining to the day and the accomplished other musicians having had plenty of time in the group as they explode into the full song it really does knock us completely off our feet. Cato’s percussive blasts are nothing short of devastating, clashing snares and a dashing velocity along with the songs majestic melodious harmonies are enough to make you swoon and get fists pumping straight away. Vocally at first I found it slightly shaky competing with the ferocious swagger of the song but this quickly cleared up as Grutle’s ferocious barks grew in force and by the end of the song they had the audience baying like wolves in appreciation. The only thing that could have bettered this is if the band had been dressed in full Viking regalia with the frontman on a throne but that would have been silly besides you simply can’t have an Enslaved performance without a shirtless Ice Dale strutting around no matter what era it comes from.
By ‘Jotunblod’ those raw and rugged vocals were in full force and the sound overall was absolutely jaw dropping. I am pretty sure they picked the right venue for this show as others may have seen things ruined in the mix. The band are clearly enjoying themselves, no doubt they practiced hard to breathe life back into some of these songs again and the reaction they are getting helps spur them on. Grutle asks if anyone is interested in buying an early demo tape for £1000 before admitting it was never going to sound like this and launching into ‘Heimdallr’ from that 1992 ‘Yggdrasill’ cassette. Lighting wise things are stripped down to predominantly blood red and white hues casting things in a kind of ancient glare along with the music. Playing ‘Eld’ itself was another highlight for me and the Viking croons really lift the song soaring harmonically through the air before the savagery is battered out with complete precision. These aged battles are given a bit of a breathing space due to instrumental ‘Norvegr’ which if I had to be super critical kind of put a lull in proceedings although it did give Grutle a chance to shut up as he put it. It also does have that psychedelic vibe that the band would move forward to intrinsically entwined within its midst.
Blodhemn never really got the appreciation of the material that came before it so just gets one track ‘Ansuz Astral’ and I would not be surprised if it sees quite a few people dusting off their copy of the album and giving it another spin (once they recover from the deafness resulting from this show). Clearly it’s Hordanes Land many here want a journey to though and the split with Emperor is saluted with ‘Allfáðr Oðinn’ True it is a track that the band still play occasionally but the cascading riffs and ice cold stomp now take many of us back to the exciting time we were just discovering black metal. Then it’s the urgent Loke frostily taking us into a maddening pitch black conclusion. But neither band nor audience who were cheering deliriously were done with each other yet and luckily there was time for an encore. Unleashing the wolf, ‘Fenris’ bounds out and to be honest there is nothing really that the band could have done to better the performance or any songs left to deliver bar one and it’s down to the unmistakable tones of ‘Slaget i skogen bortenfor’ to conclude the performance. Naturally everyone goes mad one last time and it gives Herbrand Larsen who had not had as much to do in this olden day revisit as he would have done on newer stuff a chance to really shine with that unmistakable keyboard clamour. Once it’s over the band are back to take a big bow to massive applause knowing that this 1st night has been a triumph and no doubt already anticipating the next two and the 30 or so numbers still to play at them. As far as I was concerned only going to the one night, I was pretty convinced I had made the right choice as this was a historical celebration never likely to be witnessed again.
(Review and photos © Pete Woods)
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