My favourite Enslaved album by some distance. Every elements conceived blend harmoniously with each other, giving it a bit more uniqueness than other Enslaved albums, though the latest one comes close as well...

Not my favorite Enslaved album as a whole, but the first song is so incredibly beautiful.

Unabashed brilliance, the only thing this band produces. I've seriously become the biggest fanboy ever of this band; it's not even funny.

Special mention : "The Dead Stare"
Great !

Very underrated album. You will be surprised how it survived to this day without notice. Listen asap.

Right from the start you can tell this is an entirely different Enslaved to the one who produced albums like 'Vikingligr Veldi' and 'Frost'. It's interesting that, even though a couple of songs don't really seem to 'fit in' with the rest, the record has a nice flow to it, however diverse it may be. Opener 'As Fire swept clean the Earth' and 'The Crossing' are both good examples of how well Enslaved can use their own talents to combine different atmospheres together. Then you have the 'odder' songs in 'Havenless' and 'Queen of Night', which show the band's more progressive side a lot more. These latter two tracks don't really grab my attention or interest as easily as the other songs, but they still have an air of uniqueness to them. It's not quite the band's best album, but 'Below the Lights' certainly should be listened to with caution at least once.

Enslaved's riff quality really peaked on this album and hasn't let down since. Although, they didn't really nail that trademark Enslaved atmosphere until their following album.

Written by monur on 13.07.2012 at 17:21

Very underrated album. You will be surprised how it survived to this day without notice. Listen asap.

So an 8.7 on MS is "very underrated"?

I think it's actually overrated a bit. Not every song is equally great... the first few songs are amazing (The Dead Stare is by far my favourite song on the album), though the last few are a bit of a letdown for me.

Written by Erik M. on 16.03.2013 at 02:20

So an 8.7 on MS is "very underrated"?
I think it's actually overrated a bit. Not every song is equally great... the first few songs are amazing (The Dead Stare is by far my favourite song on the album), though the last few are a bit of a letdown for me.

I'd definitely consider this album to be quite underrated. I don't care about the rating in MS (and never have), but it's quite easy to see how most people don't talk much about this album (or Monumension) compared to most of the other album from their discography. I think this album is damn strong, specially the riffs... I guess I'm also one of the few who consider the second half to be even stronger and more interesting (although the whole album is great).

Written by X-Ray Rod on 06.11.2013 at 20:31

I'd definitely consider this album to be quite underrated. I don't care about the rating in MS (and never have), but it's quite easy to see how most people don't talk much about this album (or Monumension) compared to most of the other album from their discography. I think this album is damn strong, specially the riffs... I guess I'm also one of the few who consider the second half to be even stronger and more interesting (although the whole album is great).

To be honest I don't get the fuss around this album. Sure, not as much fuss about this one as about some other albums of theirs, but I don't think this album is very enjoyable to listen to. It's highly subjective of course, but that's what I think. I have listened to the debut and I liked it but again totally not blown away by it or anything. I have yet to check out anything else but I think I already know which albums I'm going to check out next: Axioma Ethica Odidi and Isa, which are their two most popular albums I think.

Amazing album. Full of brilliant moments.

This is actually one of my least-favorites. It may have been great at the time, but everything they do here is done better on Isa imo. I even prefer Monumension with it's off-the-wall 70's vibe. Not a bad album at all, but only the first two track are truly amazing.

The oldest Enslaved album I've heard, and arguably my favourite of those I've heard - AEO has stronger individual songs but I feel like this one just edges it in consistency, and shades it over Isa as well. "Queen Of Night" might be my favourite off it

As whit previous album band started tradition sing in english, way to late I will say, pre google translate days, but I would say even I like it if this would be bands opening album I would not be so big fan of this band.

Probably my favorite album with Enslaved, love Isa too so easily my favorite era

I'm just fooling around the page of Enslaved's best album. Yeah feels good being here.

For fans of Enslaved, and this album in particular, they are doing a Below the Lights live set that is being streamed for free in a few days. Not sure if they are playing the whole album from start to finish or select songs but it should be good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua_SagpwyS4

Didn't grew on me like other Enslaved albums did. I might need a few more spins. Still very good and inspired.

It's a solid album with some great moments here and there, I'm not overly fond of the chugging style riffing but the Sci-fi effects are pretty cool and so are the solo's. The structure seems a wee bit complex at first, but like most progressive Enslaved stuff it takes time for me to appreciate.

"A Darker Place" is my favourite from this album, "Queen Of Night" and "Fire Swept Clean The Earth" aren’t bad either the rest really takes some getting into though.

There is some great moments but as a whole it's not better than Vikingligr Veldi which is still my favorite from the band. But yeah, they have changed their style so much from that album.

Favorite song might be the last. Didn't really care for Havenless which seems to be popular song from them.