Failing Even at Stadium Rock - "Vikingligr Veldi" Review (34%)
One of the worst bands to come out of the early 'black metal' scene, Enslaved essentially play modern hard rock of the most annoying kind. This is just generic, derivative and interchangeable modern hard rock with copy pasted soft parts as the gruff emo shouts take on a more 'emotive' tone while the songs plods forward aimlessly, tripping over themselves. There is an okay screamo riff somewhere on 'Heimdallr' before Enslaved revert back to the retarded pop punk chorus.
Basically Satyricon before even Satyricon realized the full commercial potential of a 'blackened screamo' crossover, this band is a joke and this album Vikingligr Veldi is a mockery of actual black metal music.
'Heimdallr' is the best song if only by virtue of being the shortest track, and capping at a little over 6 minutes it is - like the rest of the album - way too long for its minimal effort, goth rock muzak inspired, proto-Dimmu Borgir content.
The first track, 'Lifandi liv undir hamri', is particularly irritating to metal fans, mostly by its carnival music nature and barely concealed pop rock core under a heavy dose of 'assembly line black metal' aesthetics. A slowed down yet sub-standard melodeaf riff with annoying screams that then breaks into a pop chorus and synth wank before the vocals return but with the Korn styled whiny sounds and metalcore spoken parts in between the shriek. The Djent-lite breakdown in the middle just makes this even more monotonous before the whole cycle repeats again, before the guitarist shows off his 'leads' in the form of Mega Man X 'advertisement jingle' melodies.
Basically, Summoning if they played real instruments instead of MIDI crap.
Failing Even at Stadium Rock
Intended as a tribute to old Norse tales of Vikings, this goth rock abortion nonetheless more resembles modern Antekhrist in its utterly plastic and derivative nature than anything Burzum, Neraines, Bathory or Darkthrone ever released.
Starting with the second track 'Vetrarnótt', any pretensions of playing black metal are immediately discarded as Enslaved fully embrace their saccharine stadium rock sound and some of the most popular chord progressions in pop music.
This is a verse, chorus, bridge affair with the bridge being the classic 80s speed metal chug-fest that goes on for too long before returning to the Manowar styled verse and chorus. Replace with the real thing, at least Manowar's first two albums recognized that they were cash grabbing 'power'/speed metal albums and did nothing to masquerade their music as being black metal or some other form of 'progressive' higher art form.
The next track, 'Miðgarðs Eldar', pretty much only has one riff and it's the same proto-Reinkaos groovy, hard rock inspired, insipid crap. It then has a bit of synth noodling before going back the initial riff. This is useless music made by people who don't know what black metal is and are probably not interested in making good music, as long as it sells and they get to 'belong' to an 'extreme music' genre. This is the type of music for those who pretend to be brutal Vikings at McDonald's but then cry when slapped by the waitress.
The precursors to the rest of Enslaved's career, i.e. turning into a cock rock Opeth clone, can be found right here on their debut Vikingligr Veldi. Forget this album, as it sucks and is not black metal.
Vikingligr Veldi score: 34/100.
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