December 22, 2024

Skylight Webzine

Online since 2000

ENSLAVED ANNOUNCE EUROPEAN + UK TOUR DATES FOR SPRING 2024

Psychedelic prog-metallers Enslaved are proud to announce a new UK and European headline tour for Spring 2024. This news comes a few days after their final live show of the year at Damnation Festival, following on from a hectic festival season with performances at the likes of Midgardsblot, ArcTanGent, Brutal AssaultBeyond The Gates and Desertfest Antwerp, on-top of a co-headline tour across the USA and Canada earlier this year with Insomnium.

The new 16-date run will take place in March 2024, taking the band across 10 different countries. Support on the road will come from British post-hardcore quartet Svalbard and US metallers Wayfarer.

Enslaved‘s latest masterpiece Heimdal came out earlier this year.

Vocalist and bassist Grutle Kjellson commented,

“Friends!
In March it is happening! 
The blare of the great horn shall resound once again, and Heimdal will guide you through pain and anxiety and to victory! 
In other words; we are going to tour Europe again! Due to events and circumstances beyond everybody’s control, our first European club tour since 2018 as a matter of fact! No less!
Looking forward to see you all again. 
Alu Alu Laukar!!
-Grutle”

Tickets will go on-sale Friday November 10th @ 10am GMT / 11am CET via https://enslaved.no/

ENSLAVED – UK + EUROPEAN TOUR 2024
w/ Svalbard + Wayfarer
06/03 – UK  London, Islington Assembly Hall 
07/03 – UK  Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
08/03 – UK  Manchester, Club Academy
09/03 – UK  Glasgow, Slay 
10/03 – IE   Dublin, Opium 
12/03 – NL  Helmond, Cacaofabriek 
13/03 – FR  Paris, La Machine 
14/03 – CH  Geneva, PTR/l’Usine 
15/03 – FR  Montpellier, Victoire 2
16/03 – IT   Milan, Legend 
18/03 – CZ  Prague, Futurum
19/03 – AT  Vienna, Szene 
21/03 – DE  Cologne, Club Volta 
22/03 – DE  Leipzig, Taubchenthal 
23/03 – DE  Berlin, Hole44
24/03 – PL  Warsaw, Proxima

Enslaved have also been announced for Bloodstock Festival UK 2024.

11/08 – UK  Bloodstock Festival, Derby

You can order/stream Enslaved‘s latest record Heimdal here: 
https://enslaved.bfan.link/heimdal.ema

Heimdal tracklisting
01. Behind The Mirror
02. Congelia
03. Forest Dweller
04. Kingdom
05. The Eternal Sea
06. Caravans To The Outer Worlds
07. Gangandi (Bonus Track)*
08. Heimdal

Heimdal was produced by Enslaved‘s own Ivar Bjørnson, Iver Sandøy and Grutle Kjellson. Mixing was handled by Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios, and the final treatment was mastered by Tony Lindgren. The concept and lyrics for Heimdal was, as always, developed by Ivar Bjørnson and Grutle Kjellson in tandem. 

The album was recorded primarily at Solslottet Studios in Bergen, which is owned by Iver SandøySolslottet is a satellite of the well-known Duper Studios, where the drums were recorded and engineered by Iver himself, with assistance from Vegard Lemme. The main guitars, bass, pianos, organs, and vocals were also recorded at SolslottetArve ‘Ice Dale’ Isdal recorded his guitar leads at his own Earshot & Conclave Studios. The final touches and a few experimental ideas were added at the Overlook Hotel using Solslottet’s mobile studio rig. All music for Heimdal was written and demoed at Ivar Bjørnson’s own Crow’s Nest studio.

The record features psychedelic track ‘Caravans To The Outer Worlds‘ from last year’s EP of the same name. Album bonus versions contain an extra track, ‘Gangandi‘, alongside a Blu-Ray copy of 2021’s stunning Otherworldly Big Band Experience streamed event – the band’s boldest project to date, featuring fellow Norwegian prog band Shaman Elephant. The kaleidoscopic stage show features a stellar setlist, covering Enslaved‘s career, both past and present.

Never faltering, Norway’s iconic Enslaved continue to exist as one of the most original and dependable components in our scene’s indestructible backbone. Possessing the reputation as one of the most riveting live acts around, they never fail to offer us talent of the highest calibre, always doing justice to their signature black/progressive sound. Enslaved was formed in 1991 by Ivar Bjørnson and Grutle Kjellson, releasing their first demo Yggdrasill in the summer of 1992, their legendary mini-album Hordanes Land coming out in 1993, and with their debut full-length Vikingligr Veldi arriving in the spring of 1994.

Enslaved in 2023 are a band in stellar form – a band at its most existentialist and self-conscious, proud Bergeners bearing the torch of their hometown’s extraordinary musical history. Their most recent material shows Enslaved at their most unleashed and thought-through – a lethal combination unfurling a potential that’s easily rekindling the furor of their early works while dancing gracefully through their most ambitious, most haunting and most musical tunes yet. A contradiction? Life itself is a contradiction. And yet we all live to prove it wrong.

Enslaved are:
Ivar Bjørnson | guitars 
Grutle Kjellson | vocals
Arve ‘Ice Dale’ Isdal | guitar
Håkon Vinje | keyboards, clean vocals
Iver Sandøy | drums.