NSBM's Involuntary Parody - "E" Review (0%)

Although the artistic merit of propaganda music is often marginalized for its persuasive element, there is plenty of potential for politically-motivated media to impress regardless of the ideology or strength of the platform.

Obviously, propaganda remains largely dependent on the way the message is conveyed and, while the tenets of National Socialism tend to mesh well with black metal's gravitation towards intolerance and tribalism, occasionally resulting in some of the genre's best music - see Graveland, Peste Noire, Antekhrist, Summoning, Absurd, Nargaroth, Dissection, Archgoat and Sacramentum - there is a darker side of the NSBM scene: uninspired bedroom black metal.

Though the style certainly weighs ideology with greater importance than other forms of black metal, there's no amount of historical research, intellectual lyricism, or sincere passion for the topic that can excuse a weak musical component.

In the case of Enslaved's latest album E, there is no such inconsistency in the quality of the product. Not only does the album utterly fail on a musical level, but the execution is so garbled and messy that whatever sort of generic NS politics this album was going for are lost. Seriously. Had it not been for the song titles and SS symbols on the back, I would never have guessed this was very mediocre NSBM... as opposed to very mediocre regular BM.

Even by black metal standards, Enslaved's E is as worthless as worthless gets.

NSBM's Involuntary Parody

Whether Enslaved's ideology concerned with taking care of stray puppies or the tenets of Old World fascism, it wouldn't matter nor justify producing such shit music.

Though it shouldn't surprise anyone who has beheld a black metal album before, the lyrics are virtually indecipherable, locked behind a sheet of amateur studio noise. No lyrics usually mean no way to understand the music, so this could just as well have been inspired by Frank Sinatra than by Adolf Hitler.

But fear not for Enslaved, however, as Enslaved makes use of clean sung choruses like your favourite goth rock emo band.

I think even the "NSBM" tag is too generous, as most NSBM is actually still black metal... this? this is emo. Rather than NSBM, it sounds like what Bullet For My Valentine would compose if they were politicized and heard a Hitler speech for the first time.

The painfully generic, unimaginative way the clean choruses are tossed in is laughable, but they also turn out to be the most musically satisfying part of the album with the speech samples. Love or hate him, Hitler was a damned fine public speaker, and the passion of his speeches seems an ill-suited interlude to what is otherwise an hour long burstfire of basement goth rock.

Although the abysmal vocals and chaotic production could have made a more decent - albeit bland - noise rock album, the guitar "riffs" are just discernible enough to rob Enslaved's E of its last possible saving grace. The guitar parts sound like a pathetic rehash of the tired Norwegian tonally modulated riffs, that go nowhere as they are herein adapted for metalcore, and the drums are so triggered and over-processed that they end up sounding worse than a drum machine.

Before you accuse me of being "biased against NSBM" and just impartial towards what is otherwise "good black metal" (lol), consider the opposite. That being "kvlt" or whatever other rubbish is fine, but there's a point where edgy "extreme" attitudes give way to shitty musicianship. Enslaved falls into the latter category so much it hurts, and as such my - or your - opinions on NSBM really don't matter and wouldn't affect the score, as even NSBM fans would recognize this as shitty emocore masquerading as black metal when it fails to even be music.

Given the generally controversial nature of National Socialism, I imagine it was Enslaved's goal to have people get offended by this album.

However "funny" it is for Dailystormer inspired clownazis to be offensive on the internet, there's an important difference between truly offending people, and making them cringe.

Enslaved's E is musically cluttered, disorganized and feeble - quite the antithesis to the NSDAP's doctrine of martial discipline and uniformity. Were it not for the poorly implemented lyrics, the generic song titles and predictably "offensive" booklet artwork, there would be no indication that this crude snippet of anti-music has anything to do with the ideology Enslaved is so obsessed with.

"Der Führer" and Euronymous would both be ashamed, as this manages the unlikely feat of being offensive to white supremacists and black metal fans alike.

E score: 0/100.

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