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Enslaved > Monumension > Reviews
Enslaved - Monumension

Exciting - 85%

lukretion, April 25th, 2022
Written based on this version: 2001, CD, Osmose Productions (France, Copy protected)

Exciting. This is, in a word, how I would describe Monumension, the 6th album of Norwegian Viking metal heavyweights Enslaved. Marking their 10th anniversary as a band, the album was the fruit of 1 month spent in the recording studio experimenting with song structures and arrangements, as the Norse were determined to stretch the boundaries of their sound beyond their black/death origins, continuing and amplifying the metamorphosis that they had started on previous records. And although Monumension is not yet a beautiful butterfly that has completely left the chrysalis, it shows flashes of Enslaved’s immense potential that the band will fully bring to fruition in later records.

The core idea at the heart of the album is simple: genre-bending experimentation. The roots of Enslaved’s sound are firmly set in extreme black/death metal, with fast-paced, aggressive riffs, brutal drumming, and lacerating growls. From early on, the band had started incorporating into their sound Nordic folk music influences, drawing heavily from Viking cultural and religious heritage. On Monumension, Enslaved further weave into their music influences from thrash and classic metal, as well as marked 1970s progressive rock aesthetics. The legacy of bands like Pink Floyd and King Crimson is apparent throughout the record and especially on tracks like “Convoys to Nothingness”, “Hollow Inside” (whose first half is almost an homage to Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd), “The Sleep: Floating Diversity - A Monument Part III” and “Outro: Self-Zero”. Elongated and meandering song structures, psychedelic vibes, Hammond organs, vocoders and other strange sonic experiments clash with double-bass drumming, growls and razor-sharp guitar tremolos, conjuring up a world within a world, disorientating the listeners and leaving them breathless.

It’s an alluring voyage the one that Enslaved invite the listeners to embark on. It’s not a voyage that everyone will enjoy. And there’s plenty of bumps and bruises along the road, as the Norwegians are still trying to find their feet and the sonic experiments are not always successful and occasionally backfire, like on the chaotic “Enemy I” or the unmemorable “Smirr”. But when the genius strikes, the music turns to gold and I am left in awe of the sheer brilliance of the ideas Enslaved put together on tracks like “Convoys to Nothingness”, “The Voices”, “Hollow Inside”, “The Cromlech Gate” and “The Sleep”.

But it’s the raw sense of fearless experimentation that is truly astonishing here. Other bands, with a similar musical heritage as Enslaved, were treading similar waters in those years, like Borknagar or Arcturus. With this album Enslaved outclasses the competition, not because Monumension is necessarily a superior product, but because of its boldness and audacity that leave me breathless and excited about this band still today, more than 20 years after the album’s initial release.

Reaching the future, touching the trivial - 35%

we hope you die, June 4th, 2020

One thing I don’t often remark on is the catalogue of failures that characterised Norwegian black metal artists after the release of their classic canon. It’s tiresome to mourn, after such a burst of intense creativity a decline in standards was inevitable. But looking at the big four of Norway today is like observing a dysfunctional family at a Christmas reunion. Ihsahn as the socially distant, arty student, Abbath as the alcoholic dad playing pranks on the kids, Fenriz sulking in the corner lecturing people about the good old days, Varg camping in the garden with a book on eugenics. But while it is interesting to note how we got to this point, let’s take a look a classic artist from this scene at a time when for the most part, metal of any colour was waning. It’s all too easy to chop this evolution into easily digestible decade long chunks, and that’s precisely what I’m gonna do by taking us back to the murky early 21st century.

Enslaved’s career reads like a checklist of decline, sitting at the very centre of extreme metal’s rise and fall as a serious artform. You can count their earlier works as among some of the best that metal has to offer. But these well-meaning but confused musicians conflated maturity with mediocrity, and diluted the artistic intent of their music with vapid and random flourishes ripped from the book of prog rock. The point is so tedious it feels superfluous to make it, but one can feel accusations of closed mindedness coming my way regardless. The failure of Enslaved by the late 1990s was not down to the fact that they moved away from black metal, or that they apparently experimented with their sound, introducing a strong 70s psychedelia into the mix; the problem is exactly how they went about this. 2001’s ‘Monumension’ is the least favoured of this era among modern fans of the band, but also probably the purest illustration of how honest attempts to learn and grow can quickly become derailed by the trappings of the trivial.

For that reason an argument could also be made for ‘Monumension’ being the most successful rendering of Enslaved’s sound at this time. It wears its failures on its sleeve, they are easily identifiable, one can isolate them and even enjoy the whole as a result. So let’s get the first point out of the way first: what went wrong for Enslaved? The problem is twofold: lack of vision and lack of integration. Things start out promisingly enough with the opener ‘Convoys to Nothingness’, which, despite the so-so death metal riff that drives us through the centre of this track, it has a focus, a narrative core, one that is carried through to the final peaceful refrain. But then things quickly devolve into random collisions of average death metal riffs, even worse technical thrash riffs, not aided by an abrasive guitar tone and flat drumming. There is no focus to the song writing, one is never sure what Enslaved are trying to convey to the listener. Or if some threads are picked up and an interesting idea shines through, it is quickly waylaid by a constant need to demonstrate the breadth and diversity of Enslaved’s influences.

Which brings us screaming round to the next shortcoming. Leaning hard on the prog rock aesthetic and attempting to marry it with whatever scraps were leftover from Enslaved’s Viking metal days. The influence of progressive rock on metal of any colour has a long and proud history to be celebrated. But this history has been marred by albums like this (and Opeth’s career) for the simple fact that they do not integrate these elements into a wider vision. That vision doesn’t have to be a replica of ‘Vikingligr Veldi’, but it does need to be something. What we have here is random and at best cheesy prog leanings working against the narrative arc of the music. They are not integrated into a wider vision. This is partly because there isn’t one, but what scant ideas we can follow through on each track are constantly sidelined by the need to ram the psychedelia aesthetic down the listener’s throat. This is in direct contrast to other more successful attempts to marry these styles (Nokturnal Mortum, Zemial, A Forest of Stars) that are bent on communicating vast and complex sonic journeys, and deploying whatever musical components they see fit to achieve this goal, some of which happen to be borrowed from Camel, King Crimson, and Yes. The follow up ‘Below The Lights’ may have presented a more coherent sound, but the ambitious vision found on earlier offerings from this artist was all but eviscerated for the sake of receiving ‘eclectic’ credentials. Given the rewards Enslaved received for this approach both within and outside metal it’s little wonder that they never looked back.

‘Monumension’ is constantly distracted by its on influences. Despite this, I would say that it still comes across as a sincere piece of music, but sadly that has no bearing on success or failure. To briefly compare this to Thorns' self-titled album released the same year; an album with a similar vibe and intent as far as black metal reaching beyond its boundaries goes, but one that succeeds as a unified work of art. The closest analogy for the distinction between the two would be to imagine people and their relationship to nature. Thorns is the equivalent of an indigenous population that has lived for many generations in their environment, they have an inbuilt respect for the natural equilibrium that sustains them. They understand its subtleties and its dangers as well as its great beauty. Enslaved is the equivalent of an American dentist on a big game hunt. Coming and going without a thought given to the rhythms and biodiversity of their chosen hunting grounds. Proudly shooting trophies that they think would make a good photo op, and putting no work into their acquisition. And the people clapped. And a new century of mediocrity was born.

Originally published at Hate Meditations

Floating patterns of no coherency, none needed - 99%

goflotsam, December 24th, 2019

The year was 2001, Emperor had disbanded and other Norwegian black metal bands were changing their sound. With Monumension, Enslaved said goodbye to their viking metal past, logos included. The Norwegians began to take influence from progressive rock bands like King Crimson and Pink Floyd, merging it with their classic black metal sound. This created the album that would take Enslaved into the new millennium, giving them a brand new sound for a new era.

The most significant change regarding Monumension besides the change in genre is that the music is mostly written in English as opposed to the Norwegian lyrics of earlier albums. This doesn't mean that Grutle Kjellson's screams are gone, as they're still as vicious as before. The guitars are cleaner as the riffs are less black metal-based and have more melody injected. The prog direction have also allowed Enslaved to incorporate guitar solos more often. The Pink Floyd influences give the atmosphere in songs like "Smirr" a psychedelic feel to them. In addition, the change in style has given Monumension a stronger production value. All of these factors combined have helped win Enslaved a larger fanbase.

It may have pissed off many of their older fans, but Monumension is still a worthy album with some amazing highlights. "The Voices" is a good example of Enslaved's new direction with Monumension, incorporating background choirs and Pink Floyd inspired guitar solos that come out of nowhere. "Hollow Inside" is an unusual number that has more in line with psychedelic rock than extreme metal. It primarily has Grutle Kjellson performing clean vocals in some dreamy undertones. "The Cromlech Gate" is essentially a sludge metal song, with doomy guitars and crushing riffs that are backed by vocals reminiscent of bands like Acid Bath (harsh) and Floor (clean). The musical diversity that lies within Monumension makes it stand out among the rest of its peers.

Diversity is generally a divisive topic in music, but with Enslaved's Monumension, it gave the band a reason to continue on. With songs that have varying influences, Monumension was the most experimental black metal album of 2001. It is seen as the transitional album between old Enslaved and new Enslaved, and as an evolution of the black metal genre. Black metal purists may diss Monumension for its traditional riffing and usage of guitar solos, but at the end of the day, Monumension is a one day trip to outer space. Just like The Dark Side of the Moon, this album is essential in every way possible.

Middle child syndrome. - 74%

ConorFynes, September 1st, 2016

I’m torn between thinking of Enslaved’s Monumension primarily as their most overlooked album, or else as “the one that sounds like Pink Floyd.” In reality, it’s both. Monumension seems to get a blind eye treatment even from hardcore Enslaved fans. In some ways, this underexposure makes sense. Not only was Monumension at the heart of Enslaved’s rocky uplift from black metal to prog rock, it was surrounded by two bolder works, 2000’s chaotic Mardraum – Beyond the Within and the band’s “best of both worlds” masterpiece Below the Lights.

While I would argue Monumension is the more coherent effort, it’s always felt like a less assuming younger sibling of Mardraum. That album was the biggest leap Enslaved have ever taken creatively – the risk of Mardraum is apparent in the urgent manner it was all pieced together. So, with that trailblazing complete, Monumension came along to bask in a more clearcut, progressive sound. Even if Monumension hadn’t ended up as one of Enslaved’s most temperate albums by nature, it would have had a tough time standing out in their discography.

Revisiting this album for the first time in years, I think it’s actually quite the shame that Momumension is their career’s kept secret. I only really remembered this album for the overt references to Roger Waters-led Pink Floyd throughout (and particularly on “Floating Diversity”) but there’s a lot more to Monumension than I think people give it credit for. Where Mardraum felt the slightest bit insecure about its progressive outbursts, Monumension settles down, allowing Enslaved the ability to explore prog songwriting without the same need to prove that the formula works.

As was the case with Mardraum, Enslaved still feel like they’re locked somewhere in the midst of a prog labyrinth, and are trying to work their ways out so they can grasp it with a full perspective. Although the overall spacey tinge helps Monumension feel like a more coherent product, they were still at the stage where individual ideas often stood out more than the songs themselves. As highlights are concerned, “Convoys to Nothingness”, “The Cromlech Gate” and especially “Floating Diversity” rank as some of the more dynamic songs these guys have done. The flangered mellowness and anxious clean vocals reminiscent of Roger Waters are what define this album compared to the others, but bolder claims that Enslaved were trying to rip off Floyd’s sound in order to complete their prog transition are vastly overhyped. There’s not near as much of a difference here from Mardraum. Even so, I’ve seen people who adore that album take a fibre-laden shit on this one, so the space rock accessorizing obviously has more of an impact than slight nods usually muster.

From a certain perspective, I think of Monumension as the eye within the storm of Enslaved’s transition. Progressive rock was a part of their formula practically from day one, but that earnest transformation began on Mardraum. I’d say the new style was swiftly mastered by the point of Below the Lights, but it was only fully complete by the time Isa was dawned in all its finesse and polish. Monumension didn’t create the shockwaves of its predecessor, nor did it fulfill its potential like its successor. It’s still a remarkably solid album even by Enslaved’s standards, but it seems inevitable this album would have suffered a case of middle child syndrome.

A new kind of progressive - 75%

flightoficarus86, January 19th, 2015

While Mardraum began a shift in style by taking a few steps towards a simplified, cleaner approach, Monumension represents a giant leap. All but gone are the breakneck riffs of chaotic battle such as “Urtical Gods” from Blodhemn. They have been replaced by bass-heavy, plodding dirges of chord runs, half-paced tremolo, and Floydian keys.

To say, as some do, that this was the beginning of Enslaved’s foray into progressive is a misnomer. Progressive music is simply that which favors a more classical approach containing different movements, textures, and feelings. As such, Enslaved have been progressive since Vikingligr Veldi. The shift that begins here represents more of a change in pace and playing style away from traditional black metal aesthetics to something that is equal parts later Borknagar and Pink Floyd.

The change is not necessarily a bad one. “Floating Diversity” is a huge success in my opinion. There is a strange harmony between the union of clean vocals and synths straight out of Dark Side of the Moon and the foreboding synths and crunchy guitar sustains. It may not pack the punch of anything off of Frost, but it still leaves its own distinct impact.

For longtime fans, there are a few shreds of Enslaved’s former love of the axe. Tracks like “Enemy I,” “Vision…” and personal favorite, “The Voices,” feature harsh, memorable riffs and some excellent drum work. The vocal screeches are as strong as ever, and the pace is faster than anything else on the album.

As far as what to expect from a full listen, Monumension evokes a similar feel as many 70’s prog acts. Darker moments reminded me of listening to “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” while the softer songs always harkened back to Waters and Gilmour. Drums tend to be understated and sparse, favoring slower patterns and atmospheric cymbal choices. Guitars and bass crunch along in a wall of sound that is laden with feeling, but is not very interesting on a technical level. Vocals really run the gamut. Grutle had not yet found the clean style that is easily recognized on later albums like Ruun and Vertebrae. Instead, Monumension is full of old-school shrieks, spoken word, the aforementioned Gilmour imitations, and a few death metal growls for good measure. There is even a lengthy drinking worthy chanting section that harkens back to Eld and Blodhemn, but favors an approach closer to Heidevolk.

For all of its experimentation, Monumension is far from a failure. I never find myself bored or in disapproval with what I am hearing. The journey features plenty of ups and downs, all of which have a nice flow and create something that is truly greater than the sum of its parts. That being said, I still tend to find myself thinking back to the energy of earlier releases. I wouldn’t want Enslaved to keep putting out the same album over and over, but they could stand to infuse a bit more thrill into this new style. I recommend this for a listen, but also encourage readers to look to Isa and Ruun for what I feel is a more memorable fusion of old and new.

Tie-dye Vikings - 95%

Zushakon, August 11th, 2012

Enslaved is a band that has never been afraid to push the envelope. They arose out of the 2nd wave of Norwegian black metal, along bands like Mayhem, Burzum, and Darkthrone. Enslaved at first played much the same kind of black metal - viking themed straight-ahead blast-beat filled black metal. Enslaved, however, unlike the rest of their ilk, was never content to keep playing the same kind of music for any length of time and began to experiment with other sounds and themes to their music, constantly growing and changing - something that has both gained and lost them many fans. Enslaved today cannot really even be called a black metal act, as they have been slowly evolving further and further away from the kind of sound that they started off with, moving further and further into the world of progressive metal while still retaining an air of their viking roots. The change has not been swift by any means, and they have released many albums between 1991 and the present with a heavy black metal vibe but some really interesting influences and experimentation. Between 2001-2003 they released 3 of the most compelling works in their library - Mardraum: Beyond the Within, Monumension, and Below the Lights. All 3 are brilliant works in their own right, but today I'll be reviewing Monumension, which I picked up at War on Music in Winnipeg.

Monumension is a wall of an album. There is so much going on here that it's hard to know where to start when comprising an opinion, let alone a critical review on such an album. Nothing quite like this has been made before or since in my knowledge, so there is not a lot to compare it to. Monumension is essentially what happens when Norwegian Vikings with a flair for the experimental listen to way too much Pink Floyd. Yeah...exactly...

Enslaved have brought something to life here that is truly special. It retains a lot of the viking black metal style that helped make Enslaved popular, but blends it so perfectly into a 70's prog type feel that it's hard to believe no one has done this before. Everything just flows smoothly, like a bunch of tie-dye wearing vikings smoking a hookah on an ice flow riding down a river of blood.

It would take more than the space I have to go into each track in depth, so I'll pick some moments I found particularly memorable. The second track, "The Voices", begins with a killer black metal riff that continues to surface throughout the song, tying together the metal "majority" of the song with the bluesy riffs and synthesizer melodies that emerge throughout. The song maintains the feeling of an ass-kicking viking metal track, but also begins to reveal some of what is to come later on in the album. "Hollow Inside" is the first real dose of the Floydian influences at play here. Vocalist Grutle Kjellson takes on a very ethereal, dreamy tone as his vocals float about proggy blues riffs and keyboard melodies. It reminds me of kind of a Steven Wilson channeling Roger Waters voice, that suits the music perfectly. Half way through the song it builds and suddenly explodes in a very heavy version of what was previously playing accompanied by heavy, intricate drumming, guitars, and Grutle's very doomy sounding vocals. The change in pace is sudden, but flows so perfectly it gives me the chills every time I hear it.

"The Cromlech Gate" is probably my favourite track on the album. This track is heavy in a doomy sort of way, with vocals more reminiscent of doom/stoner metal than black metal a slow, prodding series of riffs that truly give you a mental image of the aforementioned tie-dye vikings coming across a monumental stone gate, adorned with gargoyles, impaled corpses, and a foreboding message of doom to any who traverse it, while being a little too high to deal with the situation. This song is just brilliant and serves as the perfect central point to the album. "Enemy I" has some really interesting overlays of spoken word with growled vocals, as well as harmonizing of high and low harsh vocals, over a very straight ahead viking metal style riff.

"The Sleep: Floating Diversity" is the other true standout track on the album. This song has a lot of sounds and vocal sections that sound straight off of "The Wall" and truly encompasses the influences behind the album as a whole. Grutle sounds exactly like Roger Waters in some parts of this song, so much so I thought it was a different vocalist at first. This song perfectly plays out the album and trails off into "Outro: Self-Zero" (which didn't need to have its own track IMO).

(Oh, there's also that weird viking chanting track, "Sigmundskvadet", that totally doesn't fit the album, but it's a bonus track, so I'm not counting it)

In closing, this album is the embodiment of genius when it comes to blending two very separate genres of music. It's works like this one that go to show how far separated Enslaved is from their peers in the Norwegian music scene - a band that has evolved, while still remembering their roots, bringing progressive viking metal to life in new ways with each release. If you're new to Enslaved I would recommend this album or their 2003 "Below the Lights" as a starting point, as both albums really show off their instrumental and compositional chops. Whichever you would choose doesn't change the fact that Monumension is a landmark album and should be owned by any progressive metal enthusiast.

Space(y) station Enslaved is ready for boarding - 87%

autothrall, December 14th, 2011

Considered by some to be the mellower, matured sibling of the 2000 album Mardraum, and others to be the most contentious effort in all of Enslaved's body of work, I feel that there is perhaps no more divisive a recording in all of this Norwegian band's history. Granted, a lot of the smack I've seen leveled at this record comes from crass and foolish misconceptions rooted in factual inaccuracies. Monumension sounds like Pink Floyd! Yes, to an extent it does. Monumension does not have 100% Viking metal riffing, and it sounds like a famous band, therefor it is weak and the band has sold out! Oh noes! What sort of ass backwards conclusions are these? In what alternate reality is 70s psychedelic rock 'mainstream' or sellout? Pink Floyd might push a lot of records, and fill a lot of stadiums, as they've had decades to build a career thanks to their (largely) wonderful music, but even by 2001, how many newer, psychedelic/prog rock bands with that same, dreary and spacious sound are tearing up the charts alongside the hip hop, R&B and pop-country flavors of the week? Not fucking many. In fact, I'm willing to bet: none.

So then, why the hostility if Enslaved should draw upon some influence from a legendary band whose star shone highest 20-30 years in the past? And not just legendary because they sat around with thumbs up their ass, but because they wrote important, thoughtful, original and conceptual music which tackled their own ids and the social construct at large. Monumension certainly channels the 60s and 70s into numerous dramatic pauses through its runtime, but any assertion that this music suffers due to some imaginary 'lack of metal' is downright false. A large chunk of this record is still quite heavy, and the remainder, in which Enslaved lets their collective imagination out to breathe, is almost without exception a captivating experience. I'm not claiming that Monumension is the band's masterwork, nor even one of the band's most coherent and consistent efforts, but it certainly should not be written off due to some delusional misrepresentation of its content. It's not as if Enslaved cornered the market on incorporating a Floyd-like dreamstate into metal music (listen to Tiamat's excellent 1997 effort A Deeper Kind of Slumber), but I think they've done quite well with such elements here.

Monumension is nowhere near so spastic and jarring as Mardraum, but once again we have a band here which has never had any real intention of aping itself too closely. I found that the mix of the album was pretty close, with a lot of grime attached to the heavier guitars, but there are some notable differences despite the consistent lineup. For one, Grutle's vocals have a more phlegm-choked sound during the rasped sequences, though they also integrate the death growls of the previous album ("Convoys to Nothingness"), and some psychedelic cleans as in "Hollow Inside". In addition, there's this wavering, creepy cleaner voice used almost like some decrepit narrative (again, "Hollow Inside"). The guitar lines feel far more focused than Mardraum, more intent on oppression than acrobatics, so the layered, slower tremolo picked lines in "Convoys..." or the Sabbath-born drudging doom of "The Cromlech Gate" and its excellent gutturals seem perfectly intense.

Judging from what I've already written, one can no doubt surmise that this is quite an eclectic piece of work, and in truth, it visits a great number of climes. No two songs here feel truly alike, yet as a whole it seems to flow effortlessly, not unlike The Sham Mirrors (Arcturus) or Sigh's wacked out Imaginary Sonicscape, both of which combine a wide breadth of sonic ingredients. Monumension ranges from dissonant psychedelic sludge ("Outro: Self-Zero") to old school black and death ("Enemy I", "Vision: Sphere of the Elements") to even a manly, percussive tribal gathering in their native tongue alongside Norse punk legend Trygve Mathiesen on the final track, "Sigmundskvadet". There are some straight blasted sequences in "Smirr" which should not alienate the band's black metal base, but I found that my favorite tracks here were those which traveled in broader strokes. In particular I love "The Voices", a pretty stolid blackened thrash piece with lots of wailing, ghostly melodies and an incredibly interesting, psychedelic death bridge.

Strangely enough, despite its staggering variation, Monumension never comes unglued at the seams. I don't enjoy every riff on the record ("The Sleep: Floating Diversity" is partially boring, for example), but regardless it was the most compelling Enslaved record to its day, second only to the mighty Frost, and well worth breaking out if you've got your copy around and never gave it the chance it deserved. Part of the sonic exploration here would be carried forth to the brilliant Below the Lights, but in general this was a one-time offering. The lyrics are further removed from the band's mythological foundations, but they are excellent nonetheless, and it's even got the first great cover art of their career (the others were too glaringly obvious or cheap). Really worth checking out, just approach it with open expectations, if not open arms.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

When lots of musical trends meet... - 76%

Sigfadir, August 22nd, 2010

Putting out an album after a masterpiece like Mardraum : Beyong the Within is no easy task. Some bands will take the easy path and create a similar product. Enslaved instead took the hard road and chose to evoluate in their musical journey.

Right at the start of the album, you can't help but notice a change in sound. "I've already heard this sound", sounds like Pink Floyd I told myself. But then, heavy riffs and mad drumming kick off. Kjellson's sick harsh vocals are as good as ever. Convoys to Nothingness finishes off with a slow outro, Nicely done.

The Voices is an absolute killer. The guitars and especially the vocals on this one sound as vicious as you can get. The melodies in the middle of the song are rather smooth, but contrast very well with the heavy riffing.

Vision : Sphere of the Elements is a good exemple of those hybrid songs. The song begins with a sharp guitar attack and then goes smoother. There's a nice Led Zeppelin-esque breakdown at 3:50 before that killer guitar riff ends the song

Hollow Inside starts off as a ballad in a pure Pink Floyd tradition. Very slow and atmosphere music with murmured words. Lyrics explore the theme of travelling in your head. The music goes heavier halfway though the song before finishing off calmly. The keyboard is really well used on this song

I definitly hear a lot of doom influences on The Cromlech Gate. You know, with slow and almost whining melodies. The song is about a fool wanting to bring back his father from a paralell existance. The vocals are really deep and gruesome to a certain extent. A+ for this one

Enemy I starts off rather agressive but loses tempo. There's a huge part of the song with no vocals in the middle. Really well done mid-tempo riffs with a few doom and death metal influences here and there

Enslaved goes back to more classic sounding black metal on Smirr. Fast guitars and drums with high sounding harsh vocals. The only problem with this song is that it goes nowhere. The riffs follow themselves in a bizzarre way and the result is quite dull


The Sleep : Floating Diversity is quite a long song but all the parts are put together in a really well done fashion. Lots of progressive stuff on this one and the outcome is epic! Starts off with atmospheric guitars and clean vocals. There's a very good heavy part in the middle. The rest of the song ends up with clean vocals, keyboards and harmonies.

The outro is somewhat forgetable. Focuses on slow drums with guitars doing weird noises around

And to finish off this record right, why not add a song as close as you can get as old norse music? Sigmundskabadet, by HOV, is sung in clean vocals with very few instruments but is an absolute must. 10/10

There's something for everyone on this record. However, to fully appreciate this record, the listener must be open-minded as there are a lot of different influences and musical trends present on this album. Monumension has it's great moments and a few ordinary songs too. It surely won't stand as the best Enslaved album but I have to give the band two thumbs up for the effort, the desire and the courage of exploring new musical realms. Best songs are : The Voices, Cromlech Gate and Convoys to Nothingness

Enslaved + Pink Floyd = Disaster!!! - 50%

Jiri777, July 23rd, 2009

As any black metal fan knows, Enslaved dominated the Viking black metal scene for a number of years. They put out four professional masterpieces in a row. But I guess all good things must come to an end. After a bland album to end their black metal sound, “Monumension” came out in 2001. This release changed the band’s style to psychedelic rock. Enslaved are no Pink Floyd, and there are a lot of problems with this album.

First of all the vocals are still great. However, they really don’t fit in this style of music. Grutle’s vocals are still very strong black metal rasps with full power. They are nasty, powerful and downright dirty. But this vocal style mixed with the psychedelic sound of “Monumension” does not work for me. I don’t know about you, but malevolent screams fronting Pink Floyd is not an ideal match. There are clean vocals here, and I wish they were utilized more than they are. Grutle has always struggled in singing range and power and here is no exception. On “Monumension” he sings in a tenor pitch instead of his usual Viking baritone way. If he stuck to singing throughout the whole album, this album would be rated much higher and might stand a chance at being a good psychedelic rock album. But the very out of place harsh vocals do not fit the music here.

Guitars and keyboards are provided by Ivar. He usually writes great sounding Viking metal riffs but here he holds back. He is clearly influenced by Pink Floyd and his riffs are very repetitive and dull. Un-amplified guitars are present but they are not played in a classical or folk style. Riffs are poorly written and dolefully fail to impress the listener (unless you like over repetitive riffing that sounds like a poor mans Pink Floyd). Keys are also highly psychedelic. They have that classic rock sound that makes you think of rainbows and mushrooms. Ivar actually performs them well, but they do not fit with some of the more metal parts of “Monumension”.

The drumming is done by Dirge Rep. In most of his projects he has proven to be a very good drummer. He is used on this album as a background feature. This disturbs me because he could have dominated this album with frantic blasting. He does not play to the best of his ability but I did not expect him to shine after learning this is a psychedelic album.

The only solid song here is “The Voices”. It actually has a nice melody to it with more metal than rock used. This works because Grutle’s snarls don’t sound out of place. “Convoys to Nothingness” and “The Sleep Floating Diversity” are really boring songs that seem to never end. They are both eight minutes and are not effectively written rock songs. Pink Floyd might be able to pull this length off, but Enslaved are amateur rockers.

I hate to give Enslaved a rating of zero, but they really did not produce one song worth listening to ever again. I’m sorry, but something has to be enjoyable for me to give it a positive rating. Fans of Pink Floyd might like this, but they also might condemn it for not being up to par with the psychedelic greats. I don’t recommend buying this, but if you do, you were warned.

Regression - 35%

Kruel, October 11th, 2008

Supposedly Enslaved went progressive, but as in most cases of "evolution" of bands, this is a regression from black metal art into watered-down mainstream music. It seems like the band lost any sense of subtlety. When it is plain, it just goes right away into stupid third-rate black/thrash. When it is pretentious, it either plays technical prog riffs or throws in ambient parts that don't have anything to do with the rest of the music, just to ensure this is something progressive and different. This breaks down everything in early Enslaved into individual parts, subtracts the good ones and adds some other things, and presents these parts in a horizontal manner rather than presenting them vertically (and by vertical I presentation I mean incorporating the influences into a single, coherent compound that is essentially something new, not layering doom riffs with growled vocals and spacy keyboards). So what you hear is a Sabbath riff after a Floyd solo and a doom/death part after a quasi-Viking narration, followed by an ambience. Add some clean singing, rock solos and sound effects. There is no coherence. No, it doesn't reach the level of randomness of bands like Unexpect on the surface, but inside, it is just as, if not more, incoherent compared to overtly random-sounding avant-garde bands. Just throw in a bunch of influences and make them all obvious, and guess what, it sounds progressive! But of course, in reality it is regressive, bringing nothing new to the table and dumbing-down everything from which it takes influence.

The best of newer Enslaved - 95%

Taliesin, November 2nd, 2006

Enslaved on the previous album Mardraum started to take a different path. One that indeed has its roots in their oldest compositions, but still is just more modern and less concerned with being a viking and more concerned with true ancient Northern mysticism. However, Mardraum is in my opinion the low point of their career. It felt like they had to go through the pointless riff salads of that album then get away from the Abyss studio, come home to Norway and go into Grieghallen to find the inspiration to record this amazing record. Basically they had to throw all of those ideas out onto the wall that they did on their last two albums and then come back to a place in between there and the older works and find a medium that creates the maximum impact of atmosphere.

This album still has a lot of ideas, and the reason it doesn't get 100% is due to the fact that a few of them (namely the songs written by Kronheim) fails miserably either from the start or even more annoyingly half way through. The good thing is that most of the songs do not suffer this ignoble fate and were written by Bjornson and Kjellson. There is indeed a reason that Kronheim was kicked out/left the band after this album. One of his songs is like a stoner rock anthem and the other is overly death metal-ish with stupid solos in place. Good thing it's only two songs to skip. But still it is unfortunate the other members let him do these songs, for they miss the point totally of the other songs and seem very weak.

But the atmosphere on the other songs even the weird almost Sigur Ros like "Hollow Inside" is amazing. One gets a sensation of the cold Northern landscapes that are inside those who follow the pathway of the Northern mystic. Like I said, rather then dress up like Vikings and present themselves as being a part of the ancient past in that fashion, they focus in on the mystical beauty of Northern magic, cold mysterious and above all death like, the atmosphere on the non-Kronheim songs really is amazing, and more then makes up for the two songs you have to skip. Enslaved took the outside the box approach that weakened Mardraum and took out the stupid death metal-ish riff salads and instead focused on writing good songs, that are progressive in a way that is good and wholesome. Reminding most of all of the beautiful atmosphere of the first song from Eld, one feels Enslaved returning to the true ancient roots but far more mystical then before.

It also helps that they provide you with a nice writing that explains the recording and the generally very good lyrics which still give a Northern feeling, but are in English this time and do not feature Norse history lessons.

There is a fragile sense of beauty, eeire, mysterious and other worldly upon this recording. Like being high on a mountain above timberline looking across the alpine meadows and watching the clouds move while a storm approaches, this album seems to cast you deep within the artists minds. It is an amazing journey even despite the few bad moments, songs like "Convoys to Nothingness" and "The Voices" (the one two punch that opens this recording) are filled with such majesty that anyone who loves more outside of the box black metal must buy it just for those songs, and that's not saying anything about the greatness of other songs contained further in.

So in essence if you like Enslaved, even the older things, or the darker side of Northern mysticism, you must own this album. It is a mystical journey of the highest order.

Perfect. - 100%

Wikingus, February 18th, 2005

I have a confession to make; when I first heard Monumension, I threw it across the room and didn't listen to it for about a year. I was disappointed in the new road that Enslaved was beginning to take as far as their style was concerned.
But now, I'm hooked.

It was with this album that the band took a radical new step in their career. The biggest influence for this album were definetly Pink Floyd, which Grutle and Ivar really got into, and decided to make something so radical, so completely different, that it would be a shock to their fans. But most of them loved it.

Some songs (like Hollow Inside) are as far away from metal as one can get. This particular song is a sort of prog-rock masterpiece, which hints at metal only at one point.
Other songs (like The Voices) retain their black metal sound, but with a progressive guitar twist.
The band also started experimenting with 70s style keyboard sounds, which opened an entirely new plain on which their music could be made.
The two songs I named, along with the epic, breath-taking and majestic first song, Convoys To Nothingness, are the tree best ones on the album, and basically, it would be an essential buy even if it included only these 3 songs.
There are also more songs on the album, they are awesome as well, but I have decided to go into details only with the titles which are the best for my taste.
The last song is Sigmundskvadet, performed by HOV. This is as close to real Viking music as you'd get in the genre of Viking metal. Great chanting through the whole song, along with a typically Norse clean vocal make this a winner all the way. It is also the only song on the album sung in Norwegian.

To top it off, the booklet is also amazing, explaning the band's view on neopaganism and the old Viking religion, as well as their method of a personal Ragnarok with the help of the runes. It is this concept that the album is built around, giving the already glorious songs a great lyrical foundation as well.

Essential stuff, but only for the non-narrow minded. This is nothing like Frost.