Enslaved: A Summer Saga

We have seen some pretty spectacular livestreams in the past year. We’ve seen some pretty dismal ones too, but there have also been some truly exceptional performances; ones which make a case for the livestream as a legitimate format. Very few bands have thrown themselves into the new paradigm like ENSLAVED have, though. Over the summer of 2020, when the ‘plague’ was at its peak, they embarked on a series of unique performances, which became known as The Cinematic Tour. The idea was to take the idea of a livestream and push it to its creative boundaries. A complete and theatrical production: something which could never be achieved on an ordinary tour. This is the story of their summer saga.

“I thought [livestreaming] was all a bit boring to be honest,” comments vocalist and bassist Grutle Kjellson, “especially in the beginning. The low budget thing, filmed in rehearsal spaces and so on. I understood the urge to do something though, and if the pandemic had lasted for two weeks then it would have been sufficient – but it didn’t! We told ourselves: If we’re doing something at all, then let’s go all the way.”

ENSLAVED established a high standard from the start with their performance at Verftet Online Festival in April, which became known as The Rise Of Ymir. No expense was spared on the production, ensuring the band looked and sounded their best as viewers tuned in from across the world. “Even though the stream was free, people are still spending their time on it, and we wanted to give them a real experience,” explains Kjellson. “That’s one of the benefits of living here in Norway: the cultural department sees the importance of keeping the whole infrastructure alive, and it makes me a bit proud to live here. It’s not all bad weather and grumpy people! It was nice to see that state recognises the importance of culture, and keeping it all above water in troubled times.”

The next stop on their virtual tour was the prestigious Roadburn Festival in July, where the Norwegians recorded their first official live album back in 2017. For this appearance, the band opted to put five songs of their set list down to an audience vote. “We gave people forty or fifty songs to pick from; that’s a lot, and we really put some weird songs in there that we haven’t performed before, or not for a long time, or which are very experimental and challenging, but we did that because we felt we had to. What surprised me was that very few of those songs were picked. Isa was chosen, and we have played that song on almost every set for nearly twenty years!” Chronicles Of The Northbound documents a fan-curated setlist, which sees the band revisiting early classics Fenrir and 793 (Slaget om Lindisfarne) as well as Roots Of The Mountain and Death In The Eyes Of Dawn from the acclaimed RIITIIR.

“I was surprised that [793 (Slaget om Lindisfarne)] was number one; it surprised me that it was even in our most wanted songs.” [Really? We like to think of it as your Echoes.] “It’s not that good, but it is very long,” Kjellson jokes with a knowing grin. The career spanning set is a poignant reminder that ENSLAVED have been ruthlessly consistent throughout their thirty year progression from black metal pioneers to progressive metal skalds. “The fans who are obsessed by the early stuff, they’re obsessed by all the early stuff of all the Norwegian bands, but I like to think that most people who call themselves ENSLAVED fans can enjoy anything from our demo up to Utgard. If you only enjoy Frost, Blodhemn and so own then that’s your thing, and I understand that you would hate the new stuff. I love CELTIC FROST for example, but I would never put on Cold Lake!”

The penultimate performance at Beyond The Gates followed in August, where ENSLAVED played the seminal Below The Lights in its entirety. Adding to the historicity of the occasion, they were joined by Inge Rypdal, who played guitar on the original recording of A Darker Place. The production had, by this point, reached another level of sophistication: pale light cast down, illuminating each member of the band isolated on their separate podiums; surrounded by immersive projections, and captured with some outstanding cinematography.  “We rigged up our gear in a circle. That way, it’s much more convenient for the whole production: the camera, backline, PA, basically everything. On a stage, things are really limited,” Kjellson explains. “The whole idea of performing on a stage is that you can create a certain interaction, a symbiosis between the people on the stage and the audience. When you remove that element, the only people you can relate to are others in the band and the backline technicians! We felt that it was crucial to have some sort of human interaction in the performance to bring it all together, which is why we preferred to play in a circle for these shows. It’s an energy exchange, which is what you try to achieve in a live performance anyway.”

The final stop of the cinematic tour came in October, when the band unleashed their fifteenth studio album Utgard upon the world. Utgard – The Journey Within saw the band putting all they had learned into a sensational premiere event for their new album; delivering choice cuts in a stripped-back but slick production which let the new songs speak for themselves. At this point ENSLAVED had not performed to an audience in over a year, and the band were feeling just as deprived as us.

“There’s just no comparison when playing a live set,” laments Kjellson. “I really do miss is playing front of an audience. We did eventually play some live shows before Christmas here in Norway, with around fifty spectators, and some in bigger halls with nearly two-hundred, but everyone was seated at tables, cabaret-style. Those venues could easily take over five-hundreds! It was pretty weird too. It felt like something in-between a livestream and a real show, but also not something I could ever get used to, and definitely not something I want to get used to,” he insists. “I want to play at festivals and venues with a normal energy exchange between an audience and the band. That’s what I miss the most. I don’t miss the airports, the airplanes, the terrible food. I like the thorough security checks though,” he says grinning, “ but that’s probably because I’m so hot.”

Cinematic Tour 2020 is out now via Nuclear Blast Records. 

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