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ENSLAVED Release 14th Studio Album ‘E’
October 13th, 2017

Bergen, Norway-based progressive extreme metal band Enslaved issued 14th full-length studio album E on October 13th, 2017 through Nuclear Blast Records.

Enslaved mastermind Ivar Bjørnson commented: “The concept of the album lies in both it’s meaning as a letter in the latin alphabet, and it’s runic reference: the rune ‘Ehwaz’, that is depicted as an ‘M’ when drawn as rune (just to make sure it gets really confusing) – the runes are drawn to look like what they literally mean. Ehwaz (pronounced and used as what’s known as ‘E’, but drawn as an ‘M’) looks like and means ‘Horse’. Which is closely linked to its esoteric meaning; which is ‘trust’ and ‘co-operation’. One of mankinds oldest and deepest pairings / collaborations with any ‘outside’ entities is with the horse. When they were first tamed and utilised there must have arisen the notion of some esoteric link between the two; now we could move swiftly, escape faster and even eat and drink from the animal (both horse milk and horse blood), and of course show off and brag before our enemies and peers with the most spectacular horses.

“So, no, it is not about horses! It is about the symbioses that surrounds us; which are vital to our existence, to our development – on all scales: man and vessel (for instance horse, yes), a person and its significant other, child and parent, musician and instrument, chaos and order, subconscious and conscious, Oden and Sleipnir – wisdom and communication. There are many levels and variations of this concept on the album; the duality of man and nature, present and past personalities within one self, the conscious fear and the subconscious drive. And other symbiosis.”

The recordings for E took place once again at Duper Studios and Solslottet Studios in Bergen throughout April 2017, and were mixed and mastered by Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios in Örebro, Sweden.

The cover artwork was hand-pained by Norwegian artist and longtime collaborator Truls Espedal.

The track listing is as follows:

01. ‘Storm Son’
02. ‘The River’s Mouth’
03. ‘Sacred Horse’
04. ‘Axis Of The Worlds’
05. ‘Feathers Of Eolh’
06. ‘Hiindsiight’
07. ‘Djupet’ *
08. ‘What Else Is There?’ (Röyksopp cover) *

* digipak CD and digital bonus track

Enslaved’s line-up was as follows:

Grutle Kjellson (vocals and bass)
Ice Dale (lead guitar)
Ivar Bjørnson (rhythm guitar)
Cato Bekkevold (drums)
Håkon Vinje (keyboards and vocals)

Music videos were released for the track ‘The River’s Mouth’ and the band’s cover rendition of Röyksopp’s ‘What Else Is There?’. In addition, an animated music video was created for the song ‘Storm Son’. All three clips can be viewed below.

Thirteenth studio record In Times was released in March 2015.