Enslaved havejust announced the release of a commemorative, deluxe, digital re-issue of their March 2023 album, Heimdal. Featuring bonus tracks and a live concert recording, it is set to be released on March 1st 2024 via Nuclear Blast Records. With this update, the band have also released their track “Gangand,” complete with video visualizer. Enslaved will also be touring the UK and Europe in March 2024, with support from British post-hardcore quartet Svalbard and US metallers Wayfarer. Keep reading below for the visualizer and more.
Pre-save Heimdal (deluxe) here.
Stream “Gangandi” here.
Vocalist/bassist Grutle Kjellson commented,
“Gangandi was the last song we made before the recording sessions for Heimdal took place. I remember Ivar driving down to my place from Bergen on a Friday night to play a demo for a new song for me, and I went like, “Daaaaamn, this is something else!” I absolutely loved it, but at the same time, I sensed that it was a little bit to the left of the rest of the material. When I started to figure out what to sing over it, I ended up writing a poem in cross rhyme in archaic western Norwegian, which even separated the whole effort even further away from the rest of the material.”
“So, ultimately, we ended up not including it on the album, other than as a bonus track on the most “exclusive” and limited vinyl versions.”
“That said, that doesn’t mean that we don’t enjoy the song! Quite the contrary! We love this odd little hybrid of folk rock, early Mayhem, and King Crimson! It just ended up being the weird cousin of the rest of the songs. Kind of like Enslaved itself as a matter of fact.”
Enslaved’s latest studio album Heimdal (released March 2023) is both a departure and a communion with roots forged over three decades ago in the turbulent birth throes of Norway’s black metal scene. It’s a record that points towards new beginnings, and a dawn that’s on the other side of the apex of the land. A psychedelic journey through arcane Norse folklore, connecting with one’s ancient ancestors and our future selves.
Heimdal (Deluxe) will include the studio album in full, as well as bonus track “Gangandi,” alternative versions of two album tracks “Congelia” and “Forest Dweller,” both featuring sublime performances from renowned cellist Jo Quail, plus the entirety of The Otherworldly Big Band Experience – Enslaved’s stunning 2022 streaming event featuring fellow psychedelic Norwegian prog band Shaman Elephant.
The Otherworldly Big Band Experience was an Enslaved show like none other, their biggest, boldest project to date – a colossal, kaleidoscopic stage show featuring a stellar setlist covering their career, both past and present. Including some tracks never previously performed live.
Enslaved – UK + European tour 2024
w/ Svalbard + Wayfarer
March 06 – UK London, Islington Assembly Hall
March 07 – UK Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
March 08 – UK Manchester, Club Academy
March 09 – UK Glasgow, Slay
March 10 – IE Dublin, Opium
March 12 – NL Helmond, Cacaofabriek
March 13 – FR Paris, La Machine
March 14 – CH Geneva, PTR/l’Usine
March 15 – FR Montpellier, Victoire 2
March 16 – IT Milan, Legend
March 18 – CZ Prague, Futurum
March 19 – AT Vienna, Szene
March 21 – DE Cologne, Club Volta
March 22 – DE Leipzig, Taubchenthal
March 23 – DE Berlin, Hole44
March 24 – PL Warsaw, Proxima
Tickets are on-sale now from https://enslaved.no/
Enslaved have also been announced for some festivals in 2024:
July 31-August 03 NO Beyond The Gates, Bergen
August 11 UK Bloodstock Festival, Derby
August 14-17 DE Summer Breeze, Dinkelsbühl
November 16-17 MX Mexico Metal Fest, Mexico City
More from Enslaved:
Never faltering, Norway’s iconic Enslaved continue to exist as one of the most original and dependable components in our scene’s indestructible backbone. Possessing the reputation as one of the most riveting live acts around, they never fail to offer us talent of the highest calibre, always doing justice to their signature black/progressive sound. Enslaved was formed in 1991 by Ivar Bjørnson and Grutle Kjellson, releasing their first demo Yggdrasill in the summer of 1992, their legendary mini-album Hordanes Land coming out in 1993, and with their debut full-length Vikingligr Veldi arriving in the spring of 1994.
Enslaved are a band in stellar form – a band at its most existentialist and self-conscious, proud Bergeners bearing the torch of their hometown’s extraordinary musical history. Their most recent material shows Enslaved at their most unleashed and thought-through – a lethal combination unfurling a potential that’s easily rekindling the furor of their early works while dancing gracefully through their most ambitious, most haunting and most musical tunes yet. A contradiction? Life itself is a contradiction. And yet we all live to prove it wrong.
Enslaved are:
Ivar Bjørnson | guitars
Grutle Kjellson | vocals
Arve ‘Ice Dale’ Isdal | guitar
Håkon Vinje | keyboards, clean vocals
Iver Sandøy | drums
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