So you’ve got into Enslaved fairly recently, you have the past four or five albums they have done and you are at that point of thinking you really ought to delve into their earlier back catalogue. Well if you are expecting anything along the lines of Axioma Ethica Odini then think again. Yggdrasill was the second demo put out by the Norwegian innovators in Viking metal. It was originally released in 1992 and is being re-issued by Peaceville (bet you didn’t see that coming). A far cry from the polished avant-garde sounds of today, this is raw, shambolic and just plain nasty. Hearing this really puts a lot of things into perspective as to just how far this band have come in their 20 year career, and is a reminder that once upon a time they were in a similar place to fellow Norwegians such as Darkthrone, Mayhem et al and were all about making the kind of god-awful racket that could make any vicar within earshot quake in his loafers and make a brown mess in his underpants.
Here we have five tracks that are totally under-produced and totally old school…which you would really expect. The first track, ‘Heimdallr’, rumbles in creating a massive amount of devastation and terror. The bass is noisy, guitars sound shonky and the hellish vocal rasps just downright filthy. It’s followed by ‘Allfodr Odinn’ which rolls forth with more of a structured swagger, leading fiercely in to the thick of battle as a black-thrashing frenzy ensues. There is an underlying doomishness at times, as we trudge through slower passages that interpolate the more full-on assaults. Mostly it’s about speed and aggression and that air of foreboding.
The keyboards on this EP add tunefulness and a degree of bombast to the chaos. On the whole they come off as threatening and sinister and they work well with the general vibe of the music. They don’t sound overly polished and despite the bombast it retains the raw quality you’d expect. ‘Hal Valr’ harks in with a funereal church organ intro, before a tangle of noise and barbed wire-esque guitars proceed to shred your flesh to pieces. This is rattling, noisy and ugly as yo’ momma (ooh I went there). ‘Resound Of Gjallarhorn’ chases along with a frisky rhythm to it, drums battering away as they kick up into a menacing furore as the vocals begin to resemble a demon vomiting. There is nothing sharp or defined about this, it is hateful and horrible yet actually quite hypnotic when it gets going. You can really hear that Viking might driving it at times and it’s not too difficult to hear where their modern sound has come from.
This is not one that is going to please all modern day Enslaved fans, and if you love them for their polished sound and progressive approach then there’s a chance this won’t be for you, but still you have to respect where this band have grown from and appreciate how innovative this was at the time.
(7/10 Luci Herbert)
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