Enslaved - RIITIIR review
| Band: | Enslaved |
| Album: | RIITIIR |
| Style: | Progressive black metal |
| Release date: | September 28, 2012 |
| A review by: | Baz Anderson |
Disc I
01. Thoughts Like Hammers
02. Death In The Eyes Of Dawn
03. Veilburner
04. Roots Of The Mountain
05. Riitiir
06. Materal
07. Storm Of Memories
08. Forsaken
Disc II [limited edition]
+ Behind The Veil
From Viking-tinged black metal band to progressive super-heavyweights, Enslaved have constantly evolved with each release. RIITIIR continues the path of progression as it tackles the near-impossible task of following on from their 2010 masterpiece.
A mightily chunky riff leads us into the album at a steady pace, but it isn't long before the latest evolutionary step becomes apparent in the form of longer, more dynamic, more progressive psalms of extreme metal. RIITIIR is epic. Enslaved own the ambience with their hypnotic, landscaping riffs and excellent musicianship; be it an amazing, well-placed guitar solo or contrasting harsh and clean vocals. RIITIIR is an album to become truly absorbed into with such depth and fine detail on offer; in these progressive aspects the band have out-done themselves once more.
The album is so dense however, that RIITIIR is not an album that can be easily enjoyed to its fullest potential. The album is not as initially captivating as Axioma Ethica Odini, and can at first feel a little estranged or even alienating as it meanders from hymn to hymn. Enslaved have really thought outside of the box with this one, resulting in an album that is initially a challenge to digest - but given time does become clear.
RIITIIR has so many layers to explore, perhaps intimidatingly so at first, but once the layers begin to unravel we are presented with an amazingly dynamic, sonic experience well worth the time. The nature of RIITIIR might not make it as readily apparent, but it is as equally enthralling as the previous album with far more depth and detail. Perhaps alienating to some, but in this progressive vein Enslaved have become one of the finest talents, if not the finest in the field.
Unfathomably the band have created another majestic artwork of music. This one might take a little more time to digest and understand, but the evolution of Enslaved continues only into wonderful places.
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Extreme Progressive metal
Nuclear Blast
Norway
Length: 1:07:13
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 9 |
| Originality: | 9 |
| Production: | 9 |
Comments page 2 / 2
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6099  |
I've listened to the album 2 times so far. It requires a lot more listens. Definitely a lot harder to get into than Axioma.
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| chthonianlakes Posts: 1 |
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| -DC-002- Mastercommander Posts: 1703  |
I'm really liking Death in the Eyes of Dawn and the other tracks are growing on me too. I think I like the more subtle approach to this album, it reminds me of Moonsorrow in how some of it's riffs transition fluently. Some things sound awkward and meandering at first but it seems to make more sense with every listen. I don't think this stands up to albums like Ruun or Vertabrae, to me the best part of Enslaved has happened already but they are good at making music and this album is a pleasure to listen to more or less.
---- Coldgrits
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| Oaken Hipster Posts: 1322  |
I usually dislike genres with the word Technical or Progressive, but there are some exceptions, and Enslaved is one of them. This album is extremely varied, it blends black metal textures with unusual time signatures and even some oriental touches like in "Death In The Eyes Of Dawn". The atmosphere is bone-chilling, and the instrumentation is very tight and well-performed, but it's in the clean vocals where this album shines brightly. Last time I've listened to Axioma was last year, but as I recall, I think the vocals improved a lot.
---- In that case, man is only air as well.
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| Philly_Boy Posts: 19 |
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| Reverend X Posts: 60  |
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| Merchant of Doom Posts: 702  |
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| Ace Frawley The Spaceman Posts: 1459  |
Written by Philly_Boy on 09.10.2012 at 19:13 Wow, that's going back a bit! I think this is definitely a PROG ROCK album though.
---- The sun shines over The Fool...
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| KMR Posts: 1094  |
It's definitely good follower of previous release. The musicanship is better than ever, certainly worth these couple of hours to get through all layers of this album. But progression is about progress and they should move on in the future. Anyway i'm ok with this album even it's exactly what I expected. No suprices, just piece of good work.
---- Nothing is sacred.
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6099 |
Written by KMR on 13.10.2012 at 23:15 "Forsaken" is definitely something surprising. And, seeing as it's placed as the last song, I suspect that it could be a hint about Enslaved's propensity for progress.
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| Soulhole Posts: 119  |
Dude i don't know if i'm missing the ball or something but this album is boring. Oh well
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| s_t_s Posts: 1208  |
Enslaved have such unique style, every album is a thick piece of vking/black art. I love this one as much as I love their other albums (need to buy Vertebrae sometimes, why did I miss this one ?)
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| ivulv Posts: 47  |
Is not good at all I've just listened to it last week I don't get all the rave , let alone the rating this got here all I heard was something boring , monotony in long pieces that every other calls 'epic'. let me tell you that I do not hold in any respect this album that sounded in almost every of its songs like a porcupine tree rip-off if a song had 10 minutes length I invariably struggled not falling asleep in the middle fighting the sleep hard just to catch what can this music say to me and I say all these disclaiming my sympathy for Porcupine Tree.
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| F.N.S.C.A.C Posts: 58  |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 26.09.2012 at 22:20 I didn't understand this until I did some research. I then found ponderer and did rejoice for many days. I now agree, let us bring him back somehow.
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