As the highest-billed band on the Fire in the Mountains lineup that I'm not super familiar with, I've decided to do a deep dive on Enslaved as the festival draws nearer. I listened to the band's entire studio album discography in order and wrote a few quick thoughts on each album as I listened to them. I skipped the live albums, collections, and other releases that fell outside the boundaries of their proper studio releases. My goal with this project it to prepare for their set at the festival, and perhaps establish a new feature for this site - I may do similar deep dives on other bands in the future. 

Read my thoughts on each album below. 

• Yggdrasill: Full disclosure: when I embarked on this project, I didn't know that Yggdrasill was only a demo that didn't "count" as a proper album. Nevertheless, I loved this. Noisy, swampy, heavy and awesome. I'm a little worried that the rest of the catalog won't click for me as immediately.
• Vikingligr Veldi: I'm actually glad I started with Yggdrasill demo, because it gave me a little context of where the band was coming from before the first proper album. This isn't a quantum leap over the early stuff in terms of sound, although it's certainly cleaner and has more of a gothic vibe than the pure blackened rippers of the demo. It's still rough around the edges, but hints at a more progressive sound to come. We're off to a strong start!
• Frost: The transition from the traditional folk sounds of "Yggdrasil" to the gnarly blackened thrash of "Jotunblod"? Chef's kiss. Yeah, I can see myself really getting into this band. 
• Eld: Are Enslaved the kings of the transition? I love it when they seamlessly move from traditional Norse sounds to bone-breaking metal. My main observation about this one is that the two sides of the sound seem a little more fully integrated than the previous releases. Also, "Eld" makes me want to drink mead out of a horn. 
• Blodhemn: Vikings... in space?!? I detect some more psychedelic elements creeping into Enslaved's sonic tapestry, especially on the track "Ansuz Astral." As of yet, there haven't been any major evolutions of the bands sound, more like minor refinements. Of course, there's not much reason to evolve when the core concepts are still bearing fruit. 
• Mardraum - Beyond the Within: I had heard that is is arguably Enslaved best album and I understand why. The black metal and folk elements had been pretty well blended at this point, but this album brings in noticeably more progressive elements as well. The result is an album that's as surprising and unpredictable as it is heavy. Absolutely great stuff. 
• Monumension: English? What the hell is this?! The language switch is certainly a surprise, as is the further exploration of spacey prog elements. That this album expands on the prog elements of the last one isn't so much a surprise, but the fact that it feels so experimental and a little formless is. As of yet I haven't come across what I'd call a bad album from Enslaved, but this one feels a little awkward at times. "The Sleep: Floating Diversity - A Monument Part III" is a big swing, for example. Not necessarily one that works for me.
• Below the Lights: I've seen this album mentioned as another one of Enslaved's best, and again it's easy to understand why. At this point in the catalog, it's the album that feels like the most natural blend of the band's previous sound with the growing prog element. Monumension was probably a necessary experiment to help Enslaved get to this point in their evolution. 
• Isa: At some point, I'm probably going to run out of ways to say "Here's another good album from Enslaved." This one has a great flow to it, with songs that transition seamlessly into one another, creating an album that sounds like a singular, cohesive piece of music. Once again, this is an album that's ranked highly in the catalog, for good reason. 
• Ruun: Every time I feel like I have a complete handle on Enslaved, they find a way to throw a curveball at me. Take the son "Path to Vanir," for example. It's got the now-standard mix of black metal, folk, and prog, then throws in a gentle section that sounds like it's inspired by 1960s pop. It shouldn't work but it does. A similar vibe shows up on the title track. Most lists have Ruun ranked somewhere near the middle but this one is working for me. 
• Vertebrae: Here we hit the first real snag in the Enslaved catalog project. For some reason, Vertebrae disappeared from YouTube Music, causing me to accidentally skip it and and proceed to Axioma Ethica Odini. I found another way to listen to it, but I'm still bummed out to break my arbitrary guideline. Also, this album definitely fits between Ruun and Axioma Ethica Odini - there's more of the somewhat poppy sound and sensibility that appears on the former album and is less prevalent on the latter. I'm looking at you, "Ground."
• Axioma Ethica Odini: Enslaved have many albums tagged as their top tier, and this is another one. I get it - it's a polished collection of muscular tracks. That said, I don't know if it's one I'd personally single out. This feels like Enslaved doing what Enslaved does very well, but I kind of miss some of the weirder swings of some of the previous albums - although "Night Sight" is kind of weird. At this point, Ruun might be my personal favorite, which I know is broadly considered to be an upper-middle tier album. 
• RIITIIR: The flaw in mainlining this much Enslaved music is that it all starts to run together, even the good stuff. This is another good Enslaved album!
• In Times: I feel like we've enter a run where Enslaved are really locked in and producing solid album after solid at this point. In Times, like RIITIIR before it, is strong stuff but doesn't really jump out at me like some of the others. I probably need to set a couple of these last few albums aside and listen to them again in more depth outside of this deep dive to let them stand on their own. 
• E: Back in 2016, Ivar Bjørnson named E as the best album in Enslaved catalog for in a Decibel feature. Of course, it was the most recent album at that time, so of course he was excited about it. I'd put it in the middle of the pack. I've got no complaints - this is another very good album from a very consistent band. 
• Utgard: One of the fun things about listening to Enslaved's catalog in order is thinking back about their growth over their career. Utgard sounds like the albums that immediately preceded it. It basically sounds nothing like their first few albums. At this point they're much more of a blacked prog band than a black metal band with prog elements. The clean vocals on songs like "Homebound" are a little too close to symphonic metal for me at times, but on the other hand it's got fun keyboard-driven tracks like "Urjotun." Album closer "Distant Seasons" is probably the closest I've come so far to skipping an Enslaved track. 
• Heimdal: Here we are at last, the end of the road! I kind of wish I had more to say about this one. Heimdal sounds like late-period Enslaved to me: polished, progressive, perhaps a little too clean at points. The last couple tracks are rippers, but getting to them requires sitting through a good chuck of solid yet unexceptional tracks. "Heimdal" is a great album closer, though. 

And there we have it! After deep-diving into Enslaved, I have a few thoughts on the band overall as well as the process of exploring a band's discography in order. First, I'm very glad I started at the beginning. I had checked out some of Enslaved's music at points in the past, but never in any real depth. I'm now pretty excited to see Enslaved at Fire in the Mountains, but I don't know that I would be if I had just picked a couple of the more recent albums. A big part of the fun of this project was hearing how they evolved over times. The downside of this approach was there were definitely times when it all blended together for me - if I try this again with another band, I will: A) choose a band with fewer albums, B) try to listen to them with more space between, and C) listen to each album at least twice before moving on to the next one. 

After finishing Heimdal, I went back and put on Ruun again, which stood out to me as one of my favorites on first listen. It's noticeable how much rougher Enslaved sounded in their middle period immediately. I need to spend more time with a few of the contenders to name a true favorite, but I'm pretty confident that Enslaved "messy middle" period is my favorite era of their music. 

See you in the mountains!