Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini review
| Band: | Enslaved |
| Album: | Axioma Ethica Odini |
| Style: | Progressive black metal |
| Release date: | September 27, 2010 |
| Guest review by: | ponderer |
01. Ethica Odini
02. Raidho
03. Waruun
04. The Beacon
05. Axioma
06. Giants
07. Singular
08. Night Sight
09. Lightening
[Limited Edition Bonus 7" Vinyl]
01. Jotunblod (Doom)
02. Migration
Here we are again. I say that because Enslaved are beating the proverbial "Nordic Black Metal" horse to death. It seems like this is becoming a standard out of the Northern European Black Metal scene these days. Scary makeup, growling vocals, droning guitars, and a complete lack of direction other than to throw in some "evil" lyrics. Like anyone will ever go as far as Mercyful Fate did in the 80's lyrically? Doubtful, and I haven't seen anyone do it yet.
The only redeeming quality of this band is that the guitars have distortion, other than that it sounds like the rest of an already clichéd mess of metal coming out of northern Europe. It's basically a carbon copy of Immortal or Gorgoroth + (insert any band using the same gimmicks and sound from that region). The guitars drone away with the same simplistic rhythms using a grand total of 3 or 4 bar chords maximum for pretty much the length of any given track. Exhausting? More like headache inducing. The drums are nothing out of the ordinary providing a monotonous driving beat with little or no change, which when compounded with the lack of time changes or anything really interesting at all from the guitars, leaves the listener wondering, where's the beef? Where are the balls this music is supposed to retain which all the fanboys blather about?
Heavy? This couldn't be further from heavy. There's little or no chunk and grind which you'll find in bands like Nevermore or Exhumed. Heavy means driving, deep, rhythmic bass, and double bass drum blast beats with chunky, low, 7 and 8 string guitars. Heavy is music that has bite and gets right up in your face. Enslaved seem to be more about long, drawn out almost symphonic rhythms that never really go anywhere. Where are the time changes? Where are the melodic, blistering solos? Also, what's with all the growling and screaming all the time? Is everyone in Norway really so pissed off that there isn't any time to thoughtfully plan a cd and put some effort into the music?
When did people give up singing for growling, screaming, and grunting as if the vocalist is suffering from a bout of violent diarrhea throughout the entire cd? I like a good growl here and there like Opeth, but after an entire cd of it I want to take an ibuprofen. Enslaved made an attempt at mixing clean vocals with a growl on this cd, but it fell flat like the rest of their music.
The only thing I can fathom about the complete blind-devotion of the fans is that they don't know any better or haven't heard anything better. Enslaved left this listener wanting a hell of a lot more musically and lot less of the exact same tired, angry Nordic "scene," cd after cd. Giving this offering anything over a 3 is being generous.
This cd was a monotonous journey into boredom which would eventually spawn a headache. I actually enjoy bands like Amon Amarth, Ensiferum, and Wintersun because they all offer something musically. Their music actually goes somewhere, and some of the musicianship in these bands is god-like. Enslaved just aren't the caliber of musicians their fans make them out to be. You'll find so much more in bands like Symphony X, Fates Warning, Nevermore, Opeth, Death, Slayer, etc...
I don't hate Enslaved, I just think their music is severely lacking on just about every front. At least it's not Lady Gaga and the guitars are distorted
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 3 |
| Songwriting: | 3 |
| Originality: | 2 |
| Production: | 2 |
Written by ponderer | 12.12.2010
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Rating:
9.5
9.5
|
Rating: 9.5 |
Let me tell you how I know that an album is hard to digest but great. When I put it on for the first time, most of the songs blur together, it's impossible to tell them apart. The first impression about the album is accentuated by those cool fragments of songs that remain in my memory. During the second listen I manage to hear most of those fragments. Just when I'm about to play the album for the third time to get those last cool bits, I realise that there are some more cool bits that I picked up during my second listen. With every consecutive listen, the number of cool bits increases, and my mind connects them to respective songs. After 10 listens all bits are in place, the picture is complete and my smile is wider than a six-lane freeway, because the album is brilliant. Read more ›› |
Rating:
7.0
7.0
|
Rating: 7.0 |
It is almost certainly true that in each professional musician's life - if they are passionate and serious about their art - comes a point, when they become almost too good at what they do and the result is an album that doesn't take very many risks or doesn't include any truly mind-blowing melodies, riffs, solos, etc. For Enslaved, that point of becoming too good to take risks came with 2010's Axioma Ethica Odini. Few albums will impress as highly on the first listen as this one, but that's not necessarily a good thing when it comes to (extreme) metal. An initial reaction of "I don't quite get it yet, but it's interesting" holds much more promise of an album becoming a true classic than does "OMG! This is awesome!" Read more ›› |
Comments page 2 / 5
Comments: 128
Visited by: 837 users
| pazuzuovbabel Pazuzu Posts: 303  |
Dude , dont drink too much before reviewing ..  hah, and thats a very suitable for April fool 
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| K✞ulu Seeker of Truth Posts: 2573  |
Well, actually the comments are more laugh-inducing than the review.
---- Savor what you feel and what you see Things that may not seem important now But may be tomorrow R.I.P. Chuck Schuldiner Satan was a Backstreet Boy
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| Yojimbo Posts: 232  |
Written by Baz Anderson on 12.12.2010 at 18:36 Lol, that's exactly what I thought. Why write a review on a genre you don't like? WTF?
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| White Winter Sun Laboratory's Rat Elite Posts: 2198  |
After reading this review, seems that I clearly listened to another one Axioma Ethica Odini from another band called Enslaved too
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| Winterthrone Posts: 289  |
I read this review and it didn't make me laugh. It's so pathetic it's not even funny to my eyes. How can you be so dumb to review something you obviously don't know a single thing about. And who proofread this? I thought Metalstorm was a serious Webzine. There is only two options...: 1-The person who proofread this was drunk or stoned and just didn't care so he/she published it. 2-The person who proofread this found that piece of garbage so funny that he/she thought it would make people laugh if they read this. Either way, he problem is it's not very responsible to publish something that would provoke personal insults against one of MS users and it's not vey good for MS to publish such stupid reviews... I'm really wondering what is the point of publishing this, it could undermine the credibility of that website even if there is a Guest Review disclaimer at the end.
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| Enigma Posts: 44  |
I thought metal storm would filter the reviews before post them. This review (and rating) is simply and just garbage!
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6101  |
Ohhh, the hate is strong in this one. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions of course. But in order to have an opinion, one should know the subject matter, which isn't the case here. Absolutely no clue about the album, the author has never heard it, nor any other Enslaved album for that matter. As for entertainment value - it's funny to see how blinded by hate and own arrogance a person can be. But that's all fun that there is to it. It shows the author as a pathetic whiner who spews his hate all over the world.
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| corrupt With a lowercase c Admin Posts: 3537  |
The fact that he gives Ensiferum, Amon Amarth and Wintersun of all bands as a reference of good music made me laugh so hard, I peed a little. Seriously, I had to read the whole part three times. This is awesome!
---- 
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| Mikyz Posts: 711  |
I'm sorry but are you seriously comparing Wintersun to Enslaved? It's like comparing the size of an ant to that of a mammoth, with Enslaved being the Mammoth of course. This can't be treated as a serious review for many reasons but the most relevant one is that this is purely subjective. I mean if you dislike growling then why did you even bother to listen to this? It seems that you dislike the whole extreme side of Metal, I don't see how as an individual who isn't really into BM, has the right to review this. + The bands your comparing Enslaved to, do not even have a similar sound, they might be progressive Metal but their sound and atmosphere isn't even close to Enslaved's. I'm sorry, but this isn't a review, this could only be described as the ramblings of an Old man who misses the old school metal era i.e 70s and 80s. If you don't appreciate innovating music then don't listen to it, and please don't review it.
---- Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone.
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| Vonpire Posts: 471  |
Hahahahahahah Hehehehehehe HIhIHIHIHIHIHhihih, OMG what a lulz guy. You're really a joke! Unbelievable. Well, at least all people know your credit equals 0 (or less) But it was a good joke anyway 
---- Beware the Shadows of Dusk
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| GT Coffee!! Staff Posts: 5101  |
Written by Daniell on 13.12.2010 at 10:36 Can only agree with everything said here
----  Dreams are made so we don't get bored when we sleep
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| M Posts: 44  |
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| Winterthrone Posts: 289 |
Written by [user id=35732] on 13.12.2010 at 02:19 First, I wasn't trying to make up the motives of the proofreader, I was just trying to understand how such a piece of shit could find its way on MS. Second, I didn't know that he announced that, thank you for letting me know. But, it doesn't change the fact that such a review should not be published cause it contains false informations and dumbfounded comments that are very far from the standards that a serious webzine should observe. Third, I'm not telling the staff what to do, I was just expressing my disapointment that such pile of crap found it's way on MS. Also I wanted to say that MY OPINION was that publishing this review was no good for MS and no good for the person who wrote this. I think the proofreader should have simply told the person who wrote this toilet paper that he could not publish this for the reasons I mentionned in my post instead of publishing it just to expose this person to public humiliation. Then again, I'm repeating it just to make shure you understand: This is just MY OPINION and I'm not trying to influence MS staff.  P.S: Yeah and "End up to their own conclusions" lol, anybody could have predicted that the vast majority of people would have peed in their pants and humiliated the person who wrote this abomination of a review so it is not a very good argument.
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| K✞ulu Seeker of Truth Posts: 2573 |
Written by [user id=35732] on 13.12.2010 at 20:02 haha awesome.
---- Savor what you feel and what you see Things that may not seem important now But may be tomorrow R.I.P. Chuck Schuldiner Satan was a Backstreet Boy
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| Doc G. Full Grown Hoser Staff Posts: 9718  |
Written by [user id=35732] on 12.12.2010 at 20:07 It's not his out-of-the-norm opinion that makes this an utterly shit review, it's the fact that he really doesn't have any clue what he's talking about. The comparison to Gorgoroth is sign enough that he either A) Downloaded the wrong album, or B) He has only heard 2 black metal albums in his life. Written by RavenKing on 12.12.2010 at 20:11 The MS staff drinks a lot, forgive us...At least, that's the only reason I could think of for this going through. Oh well, pobody's nerfect. Written by Czerny Reiter on 12.12.2010 at 21:43 Define "going through the trouble". It sounds like this review was written with very little thought, research, or any background knowledge whatsoever. Written by Winterthrone on 13.12.2010 at 01:54 Keep in mind this is a guest review, which, sorry to say folks, aren't taken all that seriously in the grand scheme of things. Yeah, they're fun to read and whatnot, but the disclaimer is at the bottom for a reason. Please people, keep this in mind - IT IS A GUEST REVIEW. READ THE DISCLAIMER AT THE BOTTOM. Yes, we are a serious webzine, but guest reviews do not represent us as a webzine. BTW - disregard this entire message if this review is indeed a joke.
---- "I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck." - George Carlin
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| Angelic Storm Melodious Posts: 6675  |
Wow, I really am astounded, and have to laugh at some of the comments here. The sense of irony and hypocrisy is quite staggering. "I know, lets criticise a childish, petty, narrow-minded review by being those things ourselves!" I dont know what's worse, the review, or some of the replies! Unbelievable. 
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| flamey Posts: 109  |
One of the worst reviews I've read on this site. I guess he didn't listen to Enslaved like... ever. I wish you at least googled "Enslaved" before writing this review, it would have helped.
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| Joker Posts: 40  |
Well, a few words to say here: - I love all the bands you mentioned as hell.... - I liked the album.... - I'm not a big fan of the band, it's the 2nd album i got.. - If you're so clever, then you should know that music differs from a person to another in terms of songwriting and tastes...even in the same band, everyone sees the music from his view... - Time changes and solos ain't necessary for good music...some people view it as weaknesses and escape, or a secure way to complete a song... - This band have at least 4 or 5 members, i think they all liked the music they're doing in some way - The most shitty band in someone's opinion, are surely the greatest band in their own opinion cz it's their band and that's why they formed it cz they think they r the best.... - No one liked Judas Priest when they first came out - No one liked Metal - We're all a bunch of idiots in the opinion of britney spears and akon fans.. - I know someone who hates bruce dickinson's vocals - Every fucking famous band have that fear of losing it's fame, so they copy themselves over and over, that's common in the thrash, heavy, progressive, power, folk metal scenes...actually in metal and music in general... - nevertheless they still make masterpieces sometimes.... - It's simple: Listen to it, then Love it, or Hate it....then shut the fuck up... - Nothing is Wrong and Nothing is Right... - Still no one likes Metal - God is Satan - Fuck offfffffff!!!!!!
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| necrovamp Posts: 424  |
Some advice for you when you do a review -Do some reserch, enslaved don't do the whole nordic metal makeup thing -review the album, not the band, all bands have at least 1 bad album, this one may just be it -be objective, not biased, you obviously don't like enslaved, ergo your review will most likely be negative -just because a bands not heavy it doesn't make it rubbish - look at lost horizonm their not heavy but their good -Compare a band to their peers-Slayer, Symphony x, Fates Warning are not enslaveds peers "When did people give up singing for growling, screaming, and grunting as if the vocalist is suffering from a bout of violent diarrhea throughout the entire cd?" - seriously, do you listen to metal? Anal Cunt, cannible corpse, fintroll? these and countless bands who "scream and grunt as if the vocalist is suffering from a bout of violent diarrhea" Please don't do another review.
---- 'I'd rather die than go to heaven' - Murderface
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| RavenKing Posts: 1941  |
"It's basically a carbon copy of Immortal or Gorgoroth" -Ponderer This alone is enough to show how ignorant he is about BM. Not only that Enslaved don't sound at all like Immortal or like Gorgoroth but, if he had only a basic knowledge about BM, he would know that Immortal and Gorgoroth don't sound at all like each other. For example, I like Immortal very much but utterly dislike Gorgoroth. And you can find lots of people like me, as well as you can find people who like Gorgoroth and hate Immortal.
---- They shake your hand and they smile and they buy you a drink They say we'll be your friends we'll stick with you till the end But everybody's only looking out for themselves And you say who can you trust I'll tell you nobody
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| Aetherius Posts: 219  |
Bad review!!! I thought it was a joke at first lol Maybe he just doesnt like the style or the band and is expressing his emotion through this "review". I have seen this guy post some bad stuff about Enslaved in the past, I think when you have such strong feeling of hate toward a band maybe you should not do a review of their material because your emotions have blinded you from reviewing fairly and then you become very biased for all wrong reasons. 
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| Uirapuru Liver Failure Posts: 2955  |
The comments in here are starting to piss me off...
----  ---- member of the true crusade against old school heavy metal, early 80s thrash, NWOBHM, traditional doom, first and second wave black metal, old school death metal, US power metal, 70s prog rock and atmospheric doomsludgestoner. o/
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| ponderer Posts: 153  |
Written by Uirapuru on 16.12.2010 at 18:20 Deixa pra la rapaz. Nao adianta porque eles vão reclamar qualquer jeito. Tudo tranquilo
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| Winterthrone Posts: 289 |
Written by Doc G. on 14.12.2010 at 06:05 Well you are already forgiven! I know guest reviews are not representing MS staff opinions but why do you filter the guest reviews if they don't weigh much in the balance? That was my question. My Mother always told me: "If something is worth doing, then do it good!" That's why I thought the proofreaders were a little more serious than they now appear to be. I mean if I had been the proofreader, I would have deleted that piece of crap with no mercy and told Ponderer what was wrong with he's "review". Yeah there is a disclaimer, but to me it doesn't justify the publishing of this abomination. If you think it justifies it then just publish whatever you receive without proofreading...But I don't think that's what you want?
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| Doc G. Full Grown Hoser Staff Posts: 9718 |
Written by Winterthrone on 16.12.2010 at 22:23 Well, you do bring up a good point, and you are right, but it just comes down to the fact that all the proofreaders have different standards when it comes to letting things through.
---- "I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck." - George Carlin
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| Lucas Mr. Noise Elite Posts: 13427  |
IMO, a review is bad when it has bad grammar and spelling etc. If you think Elton John sounds similar to Darkthrone, I do think you may want to get your ears checked, but ultimately that is your opinion. Bit of a strange thing to say, but I do believe it's true.
---- SLUDGE. DOOM. DEATH. Wait, what?  "The reason I'm running for president is because I can't be Bruce Springsteen." - Barack Obama
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287  |
Written by ponderer on 16.12.2010 at 19:23 yep. the entire point of this "review" was causing a stir with baseless comments and stupidity designed to fire up more stupidity in response. so congrats, mission accomplished.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| Winterthrone Posts: 289 |
Written by BitterCOld on 16.12.2010 at 23:00 And that is why I think these baseless comments and stupidity should not have been published.
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287 |
Written by Winterthrone on 17.12.2010 at 07:48 swell. thanks for your two loonies. much appreciated.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| Valentin B Iconoclast Posts: 10094  |
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