Enslaved - Isa (2004)^{Release ID: 1411}

Enslaved were one of the first bands I got into when I first explored black metal.  After Immortal and Ulver, I would specifically seek out more non-satanic bands for religious reasons that I have kind of steered away from, having heard quite a ew bands who dive into satanic lyrics.  Enslaved are different in the sense that they;re more "mystical" than demonic, but I still heard quite a few of their albums.  When I first heard Isa, their album after their most popular release, Below the Lights, I loved what I was hearing.  But now I have so much more black metal to compare this album to, even aside from the many Enslaved albums I've heard.  And my consensus isn't quite the same.  While Enslaved have shown moments of brilliance, this album is pretty standard for black metal.  The guitar riffs and melodies don't even hold a candle to the stuff from Below the Lights and Maurdrum, let alone their acclaimed debut.  We have standard talent from a much more talented band delivering only occasional surprises that are nice to hear, but far from amazing.  And the proggy nature they're trying to build up is pretty simple and hardly that engrossing.  I had just gotten done with Terria by Devin Townsend yesterday, and I have to say that, while this album is certainly proggier than the mistagged Biomech, it's certainly not better prog construction than Terria.  Overall, my second play of this album ended up disappointing me, even though I still kind of enjoyed the album.  Enslaved have never done a bad album, but since this album underwhelmed me so much on the second listen, I have to say this is probably the worst of the Enslaved albums I've heard.