“Why is it you and not me?” and “but you’re strong enough to live on,” both lines from Destruction pop into my head. I’m undecided if the mighty have fallen or if it is me. On the first few listens the music is too mellow and stripped bare of metalness. I don’t like the new clean vocals, I know they are not really new but if you compare them to “The Crossing” you will hear that they were not quite so whinny then, and certainly not the dominant style on the album, as they are now. I prefer the clean style used on “Neogenesis.” Keeping the harsh vocals as the dominant style has been the key to me still listening at this point.

 

Don’t worry, Vertebrae is just as unapproachable to mainstream music listeners as Frost so no one can throw around the sell out tag. Until they switch to verse chorus verse structure and whine about relationship issues they will still be relevant to metal fans but how relevant depends on your tolerance for bending the boundaries. The list of bands that have moved on to critical acclaim and left me behind is a long one with the likes of Amorphis, Anathama, Therion, My Dying Bride, Arcturus, etc. yet Enslaved moves more and more toward Pink Floyd, a band I have always despised, and I am still here. I think they could record the theme song to Sesame Street and I’d like it. They still remember their origins. No matter how far afield they wander they are always grounded by deep musical roots. After listening to this album I felt the need to pull out Phobia. I swear elements in use today were swirling around in their heads even way back then.

If I rattled off my top twenty five Enslaved songs only one is post Mardraum, and once again nothing off this album will get a spot so I have had to do what many fans do, split at Mardraum, post and pre, and start a new list of favorite songs, to which I think “Reflection” might just join the ranks with “Sigmundskvadet”, “Queen of the Night”, and “The Cromlech Gate” on the tail end of the list.

The first song on Vertebrae that caught my attention was “New Dawn”, and my favorite song would have to be “Reflection,” just amazing. Honorable Mention, “Center,” with its rougher vocals interesting melodies and effortless flow. After living with this disc for a while I have come to the same conclusion I always do. Enslaved are the kings of extreme metal and I am too dense to remember this. I’ll have to erect a rune stone to that effect here in my dooryard so I don’t have to go through all this brain warping next time.

After writing this review I went to the Enslaved website to snag the cover art and discovered this gem: “Vertebrae is a travel through the history of the band, looking both back to the roots of grim black metal and into the future of progressive melancholy ala Tool and Pink Floyd.” That is really all you needed to know.

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments