In current times, many bands that we love, and with who we grew up with, are now starting to celebrate very important anniversary marks of their careers. We were very fortunate in having had the opportunity to witness the mighty Enslaved celebrate their 25th anniversary in an immensely special gig, the first of this unique tour, that took place at the Rockefeller room in Oslo (Norway). During this show we were transported by the magic of the old Enslaved songs, which are now fully grown classics.
As we were arriving at the venue, we managed to see the supporting band, Ribozyme, also Norwegians, that played a good and energetic progressive hard rock that seemed to not entertain the audience that much due to some impatience on seeing the main band, and the fact of this being on a week night didn’t help either.
Enslaved time arrived and the band conquered the audience, opening with “Jotunblod” followed by “Fenris” from their album “Frost”, so lots of intense headbanging were visible from an enthusiastic and cheering audience, and the vocalist Grutle Kjellson saluted and thanked everyone, as he kept the command until the end of the concert.
This concert had everything to be a great one, but unfortunately it didn’t sell out probably due the proximity with other festivals and gigs, and only about 150 people answered to the Vikings call, if it had been on a Friday or Saturday, for sure it would have been different, though we had some unexpected troubles and were almost cast away during “As Fire Swept Clean The Earth”, a minor mishap with the authorization to photograph that was quickly resolved, and fortunately didn’t spoil the mood entirely.
Back to the boat, the Vikings were keeping it as magical as possible with the nostalgia floating in the air and the highlights of the concert were “Frøyas Smykke”, “Daylight” from their recent and highly acclaimed opus “In Times” (in this song Enslaved had special guests, nothing else than a choir of 8 and 10 year old children, making this performance even more magical) and the fan-favourite “Isa”.
Despite the attendance being weak in number, the ones there were feeling it entirely. This concert that had everything to be special, despite some measly technical and sound problems, however the audience was very happy in the end and hopefully more and better times will arrive.
We would like to thank once again to Rune Valle Tangen, Unni Nordheim for the precious help and intervention, Ivar Bjørnson for the setlist and last but not least for the Rockefeller security crew that allowed us to stay in to make this review possible.
Words and photos by: Sandra Luna Steele
Comments are closed.