DarkSideOfLucca
User

Reviews 3
Approval 81%

Soundoffs 3
Album Ratings 1164
Objectivity 68%

Last Active 02-01-22 6:56 pm
Joined 06-15-11

Review Comments 19,174

 Lists
09.26.25 Concerts? ♦06.08.25 ISIS ranked
06.06.25 Cult of Luna ranked06.03.25 Lucca's Top 25 bands of all time
06.02.25 Neurosis ranked06.01.25 Lucca's Ultimate Heavy Lifting Playlist
05.19.25 2010's metal rankeed05.17.25 Best metal albums of 2020's so far ♦
04.29.25 Best metalcore albums?04.22.25 First time listening to Enslaved
04.20.25 Top 50 metal albums of all time04.10.25 Thrash I need to listen to/just heard
04.05.25 Vinyl purchases this month04.03.25 Best comedies of all time?
03.28.25 Yeah but what is the best death metal a03.11.25 Rec me new metalcore pls
03.04.25 Need music to murder Gods to09.07.24 Ensiferum/wintersun ranked
More »

First time listening to Enslaved
1Enslaved
Vikingligr Veldi

4.45/5

Just listened to this last night, and this morning at the meeting I'm currently in for work, I still have that goddamn sick ass riff/keyboard meolody stuck in my head from the first song. Obviously a lot more raw than Isa, and that was to be expected given this is a black metal album in 1994. On paper, this is not my style at all as I only love a handful of black metal bands, but for some weird reason this works ridiculously well for me. This is definitely going to be one of my all time favorites if this and Isa are anything to go off of.
2Enslaved
Frost

4.5/5

Somehow even better than their debut, which is absolutely wild. I still think my favorite song is the first song off the first album, but overall this is much more varied, atmospheric and complete. I do kind of wish I listened to this during that long ass winter though, and not the summer but alas
3Enslaved
Eld

4.6

This is somehow even better than their first two. This is gonna be a really annoying discography to rank. Ugh. Fuck this band.
4Enslaved
Blodhemn

3.2

Yeah I dunno, after the last 4 albums kicking my teeth in, this one just seemed a little by the numbers to me with not much going on. This is also kinda weird because my favorite type of black metal is the Viking kind - moonsorrow, windir, bathory, summoning (well, they’re Tolkien themed but sound wise it sounds Viking black to me)

But yeah, one had to kick me down a little bit. It’s not bad and there aren’t really any complaints per se that I can think of other than it’s a little samey and before the album ended I was ready to get going with the next one,
5Enslaved
Mardraum - Beyond the Within

4.55
Jesus Christ, I’m almost afraid to give these albums ratings until I’m done - this is fucking awesome, there were just like one or two sections I thought dragged a bit and a couple other sections that didnt transition very well but god fucking damn
6Enslaved
Monumension

3.6

The parts of this album that I like, I probably like even more than Mardraum. It's probably slightly even more my style, but it does seem more like a bridge album - and if I'm being honest, there are definitely parts that do seem to drag slightly. Still, a kickass album and I love the admiration for prog here. It just has moments that take me out of it and wish it went along a little quicker (I know it's prog, but still).
7Enslaved
Below the Lights

4.999999999

Alright this is pretty much a 5, I just didn't want to give my second 5 of the list quite yet because I still have like 8 fucking albums to listen to, but this is pretty much the same feeling I had when listening to Isa for the first time (my intro to the band). Basically perfect, immediately one of my favorites in the genre on first listen.
8Enslaved
Isa

5/5

Only heard this twice (back to back last night because I was so damn impressed). Holy fuck. This may go down after I hear their discog, or after the initial recency bias wears off, but this was like the most instant 5 of anything I've heard in a while and is why I am doing this whole discog run in the first place. Perfect hint of prog without being obnoxious as hell about it, and just the kind of black metal I like - I tend to be very, very picky with black metal as I am much more into death, thrash, doom/groove metal but this shit hit me so goddamn hard, like nearly Emperor levels of awesome.
9Enslaved
Ruun

3.4

This had some really solid moments, but overall it just didn’t “wow” me like Isa and Below the Lights. If I gotta be honest, I’m probably not going to revisit this one very often - especially considering how many good albums this band already has, and that I have to spend time absorbing. Not bad, but not much really grabbed my attention in any real way.
10Enslaved
Vertebrae

3.8

Am I crazy or is this better than Ruun? From what I’ve read online people seem to like that one more, but this is more exciting to me. Really what brings it down is that the production sounds a little weird to me, and I just prefer a lot of their other albums. Solid listen, though.
11Enslaved
Axioma Ethica Odini

4.9

Holy shit. The third album in their discography that I consider basically a 5 on first listen. I do slightly prefer Isa and Below the Light as of now, but goddamn if this doesn’t have some of the catchiest goddamn moments in the entire fucking genre. Just as good as I was expecting this one to be.
12Enslaved
RIITIIR

4.7

The first half of this was some of my favorite Enslaved thus far. Unfortunately, this album is over an hour long and I can't really say it stayed AS interesting as it started. Still great stuff, but I feel like Axioma was just tighter and more cohesive. Prob my fourth favorite.
13Enslaved
In Times

3.8/5

For some reason the prog didn’t work as well for me this time around. Album as a whole seemed to be a bit meandering. I still had a good time and all, but was not up to par with the last two at all, which upsets me because this is the most fire artwork of their entire catalogue. 10/10 artwork.
14Enslaved
E

4.89

Wait, what the hell is this? I've literally never heard of this album in my life, and the first thing the album title brought to mind was Chris Barnes so I figured this might be another transition album or some shit, but this is actually WAY up there on my list. Goddamn. The ending of Storm's Run is one of my favorites in their entire discog, and that evil laugh in Sacred Horses reminded me of Loki from Frost. Nothing but straight bangers here.
15Enslaved
Utgard

3.9

This is solid, but I can't really explain why this one just isn't as good as some of their top tier work. Nothing wrong on paper, but especially after E kicked my ass so hard, this was slightly underwhelming, but still better than a ton of other albums in the genre and still very interesting.
16Enslaved
Heimdal

4.0

The title track is definitely the best here imo, but you guys know me and my Meshuggah worship so that’s to be expected. Honestly not a whole lot to say - solid release, not their worst and not their best, but damn that title track SLAPS
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