Enslaved “Mið” Album Review by Luz Figueroa

Oct 29, 2026

Thirty-five years into a career that has bent black metal into progressive shapes few of its peers ever attempted, Enslaved could be forgiven for repeating a formula. Mið does something subtler. After the mythology-heavy narratives of Utgard and Heimdal, the Norwegians turn away from gods and sagas to explore a single idea, the title’s Old Norse sense of a center from which everything radiates. It is their seventeenth album, and it feels like a band stepping back to ask what, exactly, sits at the middle of its own sound. The answer, as the record unfolds, is surprisingly plain: riffs, atmosphere and a willingness to let songs breathe.

That plainness is the album’s best trick. By most accounts the material came together quickly, written and recorded over roughly a month, and it shows in a looser, earthier feel than the band’s recent travels. “Non-Being” is a short, chilly overture that dissolves into “I Am Ice”, where Johan Sara Jr brings Sámi yoik into a stomping, tribal pulse and the opening riff nods to the primitive snarl of early Bathory. “Solar Will” follows with the clearest hook on the record, a fast, icy riff and soaring clean vocals around a sun that Ivar Bjørnson describes as both nurturing and terrifying. It is one of the most immediate things Enslaved has written in years.

The middle of the record is where the band stretches. “Mountain” begins with calm, post-rock-like passages before dropping into a heavy, doomy second half, and although the transition is graceful, the late breakdown arrives with a tempo that sits awkwardly against the rest. “Spirit Helper” is the album’s most daring moment, with Kevin Kicking Woman, a Blackfeet elder and educator, offering a spiritual prayer over a slow build. It could have been a gimmick, but it works because the music bends toward the voice instead of the other way around, and the song grows more hypnotic with each listen. Guitarists Ivar Bjørnson and Ice Dale, bassist Grutle Kjellson, drummer Iver Sandøy and keyboardist Håkon Vinje play with the confidence of a unit that no longer needs to prove anything.

The last stretch is more cinematic. “Parting”, the longest song at more than eight minutes, mixes progressive ambition with gnarly black metal and a guitar melody that again recalls the band’s early heroes, while “Tales of Trees” is unexpectedly catchy, its uplifting chorus balanced against a colder verse. “I Miðju” closes the record, starting icy before building into an aggressive finale, though at around seven minutes it perhaps repeats its best ideas once too often. Here the album’s fairest criticism surfaces: the pairing of slow clean vocals, deep growls and spacious instrumental passages can start to feel like a template, and some arrangements risk overshadowing the songs they serve.

Even so, the craft is hard to argue with. The production is clean and spacious, every instrument has room, and the cover art, which echoes the band’s older visual language, matches the stripped-down spirit of the music. Mið sounds like Enslaved on its own terms, less compelled to dazzle than to convince. It will not rewrite the story of the band, and long-time followers may find it familiar, yet that familiarity is the point of a record about returning to the center.

My favorite tracks are “Solar Will”, “Spirit Helper” and “Parting”. The first is the easiest way into the album, the second is its most surprising risk, and the third rewards patience with the best riff-work of the set. Worth noting too: the digipak edition adds a bonus track, and the band celebrates the release with a show in Bergen on October 29 and a signing session in Oslo the next day.

Get your copy here: https://shop.nuclearblast.com/products/enslaved-mid

Rating: 8/10