Enslaved dials back the aggression and gets in touch with the spirit across the progressive black metal of Mið.
Release date: October 30, 2026 | Nuclear Blast Records | Bandcamp | Instagram
It’s not always the easiest thing to approach an album without some preconceived hopes and expectations. Doing that when you’re staring down the new album by probably your favorite band running? That’s just impossible. As a prog kid turned metalhead, it was more or less guaranteed that Enslaved was going to wind up a favorite of mine ever since I heard the frosty, yet grand riffs of Vikingligr Veldi and Frost. Following the band’s work since has been an eternal delight, and as the mornings become misty and frosty, of course I had to check out Mið. The question, as always, was if my absurdly high expectations would be met once more.
Admittedly, Mið has a pretty tough act to follow in the Norwegian legend’s pantheon of great progressive black metal albums. Their previous work, 2023’s Heimdal, was a great synthesis of everything I loved about the band with many fresh textures added, plus an effective consolidation of the current lineup and probably my favorite work from the band since 2010’s Axioma Ethica Odini (which is my favorite of theirs, full stop). And to cut the suspense, Mið is also a great Enslaved album through and through, but it’s definitely one that felt different than I anticipated and took a bit of growing.
Somewhere in the course of the Mið hype cycle, Ivar Bjørnson stated that the album’s writing was aimed towards just accepting what came to him naturally. To that end, Mið definitely feels more earthy, organic, and direct than the more complex and exploratory nature of Enslaved‘s last few records. Now, that’s not to say you won’t be hearing those jazzy chords, mood shifts, and deceptive tempos that Enslaved has always been known for. The tracks just hang onto ideas longer, and don’t swing so far away when they do shift. Fitting the album’s themes, this more relaxed composition makes Mið feel subtly more ritualistic and meditative than previous works.
It also feels that, for all the bite of Björnson and Ice Dale’s guitars and the deft power of Iver Sandøy’s drumming and Grutle Kjellson’s bass (and voice), Mið is a smoother and less aggressive album than the band has done in quite some time, comparable more to an album like E or Vertebrae in their relative breeziness. Opener “Non-Being” consists of little more than some gentle guitars and wind, transitioning into the intriguingly tribal opening of “I Am Ice”. That track lives and dies on a deliberate stomp and the marvelous interplay of the vocalists (Kjellson, Sandøy, and keyboardist Håkon Vinje), featuring a lovely little synth solo towards its ending. “Solar Will” and fellow single “Tales of Trees” mark some of the snappier moments across Mið, allowing Enslaved‘s rapid icy riffs to cascade over listeners while shifting over into some great, emotional clean vocals countering Kjellson’s ever gritty snarls and growls.
And then on the other hand, you have a track like “Mountain” which emerges as quiet, post-rocky guitars chords and singing before the second half of the song surges into a doomy lurch that feels practically tectonic in its heavy guitar tones despite its relative calmness. The guitar melody that emerges from the synth intro of “Parting” is one that Viking-era Bathory would have been proud of, and the song proper thrives on a moody charge that doesn’t feel too hurried or busy, leaving closer “I Miðju” wraps things up in beautiful form with its peaks and valleys.
For all the quality across Mið, I do feel like the mid-album track “Spirit Helper” deserves a particular shoutout. Released before the album announcement as a standalone single, and facilitated through the band’s participation in the Fire in the Mountains festival (check here for more from my fellow writer Brandon), it marks an intriguing collaboration between Enslaved‘s Nordic heart and the voice of Blackfoot elder Kevin Kicking Woman. Kicking Woman’s spiritual morning prayer forms a backbone around which Enslaved crafts an absolutely beautiful slow build, and by the time the song hits its peak intensity I’m usually in full-body chills. It’s not a very direct song, of course, and at the first couple listens I wasn’t quite as sold, but within the album context it just gets better at every listen and marks a beautiful combination of cultures long separated by time and geography that nonetheless feels completely organic and just right.
That element of repeated listens yielding increasingly great rewards is really the central takeaway I got from Mið. It’s not like Enslaved has suddenly become some loose, improv-heavy jazz project or anything like that, but the more hypnotic and subdued vibe of Mið does mark a shift from the more throat-grabbing approach of the preceding Heimdal or Utgard. The album sounds outstanding, of course. Enslaved has never been a band to skimp on great production. And the album art feels like a great throwback to their earlier works and the more rooted, tribal vibe that courses through the album. Make no mistake, Enslaved remains one of the most welcoming bands in the Norwegian black metal scene despite their greater sense of progression and exploration. Mið just may not hit quite as fast as you may recall if you’re also a long-time fan.
Having put in that time, though, I can’t call Mið anything but another great success from Enslaved. It may live a bit more on texture than their usual work, and feel a bit less aggressive, but for all the great albums Enslaved has churned out in their 35 years, that can’t be held against them. They still maintain that sharp balance of philosophical musing and sheer frigid muscle that they always had. Maybe it won’t displace Axioma Ethica Odini or Isa as my favorites, but Mið is one of the best manifestations of Enslaved‘s more cerebral, softer side that the band has managed yet. So gather round the fire with your fellow metalheads and meditate on it a bit. You’ll feel that fire within.
