Beginning the festivities was Krakow, a deceptively Norwegian band performing an amalgam of hard rock and post-rock, accentuated with both growls and clean vocals. The playing was consistent, the music was vibrant and the stage presence of Krakow was austere. They were a peculiar choice of opener for a Black Metal band, however, Enslaved are far from an unadorned black metal band.

Continuing the thread of extraordinary support choices was Audrey Horne, although perhaps more predictable having shared Enslaved guitarist Arve Ice Dale. This David Lynch-themed band curiously executed post-grunge meets palatable rock with keyboard embellishments, though the keyboards sunk underneath a humble mix.     Their stage presence was mildly explosive with the frontman leaping on to the barriers and unwontedly singing in the faces of selected individuals in the front row.

At last, Enslaved satisfied the audience by promptly opening with a rendition of ‘Clouds’ from the recently released ‘Verterbrae’, complete with its unorthodox keyboard introduction. The set was strewn with selections from their latest full-length including ‘Ground’, ‘To The Coast’ and ‘New Dawn’. One irritable issue was key’s player Herbrand Larsen’s clean vocals were simply underprovided in terms of might and volume. Nonetheless, the band looked enthusiastic during their performance and frontman Grutle Kjellson and guitarist Ivar Bjornson were emphatic in thanking the audience for their attendance during their entire set. The band attempted to gratify every fan with selections from throughout their career even though the setlist understandably leant heavily towards the tail-end of their career. The title track from ‘Eld’ was a blazing number (underscored with flame-coloured lighting) from the band’s very early days went down a storm. ‘As Fire Swept Clean the Earth’ represented the band’s mid-career days eloquently and ‘Ruun’, along with the fresher material, illustrated the vibrancy of contemporary Enslaved. The encore included ‘Isa’ which set the crowd wild with cheers and was possibly the song greeted with the strongest ovation. The concert closed with the exhausting ‘Slaget I Skogen Bortenfor’, reiterating the variation of Enslaved. This was unquestionably a direct concert with no frills.


Reviewed by Elena Francis
Photography by Daniel Gray

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Enslaved


Audrey Horne


Krakow

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