Review Summary: With the release of Thorn, Enslaved have shown their fan base the ongoing consistency of their progressive route with their music.
For a two song EP that runs about ten minutes in length the listener sees Enslaved showing no lack of inspiration. Instead of having clean vocals from Herbrand Larsen, we instead see an onslaught of harsh black metal vocals from the main vocalist/bass player, Grutle Kjellson. With the complete absence of any melodic guitar hooks, solos, or riffs; this time around we see ambience take place as the lead melody throughout the ten minute journey. For instance in the song “Striker” Enslaved reaches out in the book of progressive music and incorporates a haunting Native American like flute for the second half of the song as the main melody. Generally, while both songs are meant to be experiments in the sense for band to reach out in different territories musically, it also seems to be an experimental release to see how the fan base will react to ambience intruding their everlasting evolving sound. Without having a knee-jerk reaction, and maintaining openness to new ideas musically, the listener should have a positive view point for
Thorn as a full.
To sum it all up,
Thorn shows Enslaved’s fan base that they can still pullout new ideas that don’t falter into infamy, but instead show that they still have potential that will be broadcasted through new material. One can only wonder what the next full length release will bring.
