Norwegian progressive black metal veterans Enslaved have released their seventeenth studio album, Mið, today via Nuclear Blast Records, and they are marking the day with a visualizer for focus track “I Am Ice.” The song features Sámi musician Johan Sara Jr, whose joik sits at the heart of a track the band say holds the seeds of the whole record.
Buy or stream Mið here.
Guitarist Ivar Bjørnson describes the album as a quest for the idea of a center:
“An album exploring the idea of ‘centre’ raises a question: what are we moving towards? For me, that is the quest: following an idea far enough that it begins to challenge your reasons for following it.”
Ivar Bjørnson
On working with Johan Sara Jr, he adds:
“‘I Am Ice’ is a world of its own, with the seeds of the whole album hidden within it. Johan Sara’s joik opens a space where different ages and distant places seem to exist at once.”
Ivar Bjørnson
Vocalist and bassist Grutle Kjellson took an unusual route with the lyrics, writing them in full before fitting them to the music, while studying the verse structure of Old Norse skaldic poetry. In his words, the song is about “a journey through personal darkness and the process of rising again.”
Our Review and the 2027 Tour
If you want our full verdict, read our Mið album review, which singled out “I Am Ice” for its stomping, tribal pulse. We also covered earlier singles “Solar Will” and “Tales of Trees”. Mið, Old Norse for center or middle, follows 2020’s Utgard and 2023’s Heimdal, and it arrives 35 years into a career that began in Bergen in 1991.
The band play Oslo Spektrum with Dimmu Borgir and Satyricon on October 31. They will then co-headline the UK and Europe with Iceland’s Sólstafir in February 2027, with support from Gaahls Wyrd, and appear at Maryland Deathfest in Baltimore during the May 27 to 30 weekend. Tickets are available through the band’s website.
- Feb 4: Berlin, Germany, Festsaal
- Feb 5: Leipzig, Germany, Felsenkeller
- Feb 6: Hamburg, Germany, Fabrik
- Feb 7: Copenhagen, Denmark, Amager Bio
- Feb 8: Frankfurt, Germany, Batschkapp
- Feb 9: Strasbourg, France, La Laiterie
- Feb 11: Rennes, France, Antipode
- Feb 12: Clermont-Ferrand, France, La Cooperative de Mai
- Feb 13: Toulouse, France, Le Metronum
- Feb 14: Barcelona, Spain, Razzmatazz 2
- Feb 16: Paris, France, Elysee Montmartre
- Feb 17: London, UK, Electric Ballroom
- Feb 18: Liege, Belgium, OM
- Feb 19: Nijmegen, Netherlands, Doornroosje
- Feb 20: Utrecht, Netherlands, Tivoli Pandora
- Feb 21: Cologne, Germany, Live Music Hall
- Feb 23: Solothurn, Switzerland, Kofmehl
- Feb 24: Milan, Italy, Magnolia
- Feb 25: Vienna, Austria, SIMM City
- Feb 26: Warsaw, Poland, Progresja
- Feb 27: Brno, Czech Republic, Fleda
Our Take
Choosing “I Am Ice” as the release day focus is a smart move. A joik on a metal record could easily be a novelty, but here it is the foundation, and Bjørnson’s idea of coming back to it after hearing the whole album is a good way to listen. Few bands this far into their career still sound curious, and that curiosity is why a new Enslaved record remains an event.
Enslaved are: Ivar Bjørnson (guitars), Grutle Kjellson (vocals, bass), Arve “Ice Dale” Isdal (guitar), Håkon Vinje (keyboards), Iver Sandøy (drums).
