Review by Sonny for Enslaved - Utgard (2020)

I must confess to having been a bit disappointed by Enslaved's last album E and awaited their new opus with no small amount of trepidation. Luckily my fears have been laid to rest by Utgard. This is more in the vein of my favourite of their proggier (is that even a word?) albums, 2012's RIITIIR. Despite the progressive slant to their music these days, the tracks are actually quite punchy and are shorter than a lot of their black / viking metal classics - only two clocking in at over six minutes. This means there's no excessive prog wankery involved in the tracks, just concise, tightly written and musically varied prog metal.
Whilst Enslaved seem to be on a similar trajectory to that taken by Opeth a few years back and moving further away from their black metal roots, they still maintain enough of a metal edge to their sound to satisfy a large percentage of their original fans. That said, songs like Sequence with it's gently laid-back middle section and the kinetic, Krautrock-influenced Urjotun certainly make for an interesting contrast to the more (black) metal sections and evidence the band branching out ever further. Cato Bekkevold has been replaced by Iver Sandøy behind the drumkit who turns in a solid performance as such (particularly on opener Fires in the Dark) but he crucially adds another dimension to the dynamic of the band with his clean vocals. As always, Enslaved turn in a trademark technically superb performance and must be one of the tightest set of extreme metal performers this side of the aforementioned Opeth.
I guess if you wish to be negative, you could say that if you listened to this expecting to hear Vikingligr veldi or Frost II then you would be sorely disappointed, but those albums were over 25 years ago and the band have matured and branched out but, crucially, not sold out. I am not a massive follower of prog metal I must admit, bands like Dream Theater throwing out album after album of technical circle jerking just seems pointless to me, but when a band like Enslaved move into the area from a more focussed tradition, then I am on board because the songs seem so much more than just technical exercises (excesses?). In fact some of this is actually quite catchy even (Homebound, Distant Seasons) and Ivar Bjørnson can still write some thunderous riffs when he feels the need (Jettegryta, Storms of Utgard). So, despite lasting only 44 minutes, the variety in the tracks and their ability to grab the attention make for a seemingly much more substantial-feeling album that certainly had me reaching for the replay button.