Enslaved - Ruun review
| Band: | Enslaved |
| Album: | Ruun |
| Style: | Progressive black metal |
| Release date: | May 08, 2006 |
| A review by: | Dream Taster |
01. Entroper
02. Path To Vanir
03. Fusion Of Sense And Earth
04. Ruun
05. Tides Of Chaos
06. Essence
07. Api-vat
08. Heir To The Cosmic Seed
Behold! Enslaved from Bergen, Norway is a legend in the making. After masterpieces such as 2001's "Monumension", 2003's "Below the Lights" and 2004's "Isa" the progressive Black outfit came back stalwartly with "Ruun" in 2006. If you're wondering if their latest is better than "Isa", the answer is no. However, it is the same quality in a different album and makes a perfect companion album to "Isa".
For newcomers like me, Enslaved sounds like a balanced mix between classy Black Metal and dark progressive music a la Opeth or Novembre with Pink Floyd influences. A common measure between those four bands is the amount of creativity crafted into their albums. Far from BM clichés (Cradle of Filth anyone?), the troop led by Ivar Bjornson Peersen (guitars, keys, vocals) and Grutle Kjellson (vocals, bass) has been revolutionizing the genre with trademark songs, and this album is no exception to the rule. By adding clean vocals, lingering atmospheres and solid riffing, Enslaved is expanding boundaries of a genre too often boxed in its own rules.
Each song is noteworthy in its own way and despite the album barely clocking at 45 minutes, Enslaved managed to make the most of all of them. It would take me weeks to come up with descriptions of any of those songs, so let's move on.
I knew little about Enslaved a few weeks ago but after listening to "Ruun", I did some fruitful research. This is easily the biggest discovery of 2006 for me. This album has so much diversity, power, melody and creativity to top any Metal fan play list for a long, long time.
If you're into any of the aforementioned bands - add Vintersorg to that list - Enslaved is a definite pick for you. Not afraid to use clean vocals on most tracks, this band totally delivers one of the most entertaining kinds of Metal in today's scene. And hey, this album is our Black Metal Staff Pick for 2006. That alone, is enough said.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 9 |
| Originality: | 9 |
| Production: | 9 |
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Written on 30.06.2007 by
Bringing you reviews of quality music and interesting questions such as: "A picture is worth a thousand words. How many words is a song worth?" I have only got so much patience and skills, you do the math. |
Comments
Comments: 14
Visited by: 223 users
| ylside Staff Posts: 4750  |
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| Katatronik Angel of Lust Posts: 1018  |
Good album, not my favourite Enslaved album though... ISA is so much better in every single note IMO
---- "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." Howard Phillips Lovecraft
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| Darkside Momo Retired Elite Posts: 9096  |
Written by Katatronik on 30.06.2007 at 22:42 I agree, Isa is even better than Ruun. BUT, the best Enslaved song ever for me is on this album, and it's called Path To Vanir.
---- My Author's Blog (in French)  "You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you" "I've lost too many years now I'm stealing back my soul I am awake"
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| dancingdecember Posts: 264  |
enslaved has been just so fuckin great and proggressive towards years, i respect and like their music very much  
---- i'm super, thanks for asking
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| jupitreas hi-fi / lo-life Staff Posts: 6660  |
I still prefer the old, epic Enslaved of yore with albums such as Frost, Eld and Blodhemn; however, "Below The Lights" was to me a brilliant venture into uncharted territories for Enslaved. "Isa" was in comparison too much a progressive album, with poitnless meanderings and quite a bit of pretentious songwriting. "RUUN" is even worse than "Isa" in this respect. I think the band is a little lost right now.
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| ylside Staff Posts: 4750 |
Written by Darkside Momo on 01.07.2007 at 01:43 Agreed
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| Infurnace Posts: 948  |
This is one of the best albums ever made. And Path To Vanir is certainly one of the best songs by Enslaved.
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| +GLOBOSITOR+ Account deleted |
+GLOBOSITOR+
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Enslaved are great because: Old albums are so fckin blac!! Medium era is so fckin epic and so goooood!! And now, its so fcking progresive!! RUUN is good album, not better than ISA, but very very good. The best song isnt path to vanir , i tjink RUUN is so good  i like it and Api vat is good to.
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| bluemobiusx Account deleted |
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| AnGina-- Dark Phoenix Posts: 3555  |
I think it's a great album, and I haven't been exactly a hardcore fan of Enslaved! I'd give it a 9. 
---- You think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it. Molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was a man. But it was nothing to me but blinding.
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| Deadsoulman Elite Posts: 8004  |
The more I'm listening to this album, the more I absolutely love it. Somehow ISA never convinced me - except for the title track, Bounded By Allegiance and Return To Yggdrasil - so this one is a big step in the good direction for me. It sounds slightly less progressive and a bit more "rock'n'roll' than the previous album. I love the production Oh, and two of my favourite Enslaved songs are on this album: Path To Vanir and Ruun.
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| charless Account deleted |
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| POWERvsHAPPINESS Posts: 3677  |
Damn, I enjoy more the song Essence in this album. Very good video making for that song.
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| Uirapuru Liver Failure Posts: 2955  |
Amazing album. Much more catchy and easy to get into. One of the best in their discography.
----  ---- 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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