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ENSLAVED guitarist IVAR BJØRNSON to sit out tour

06-04-2023

Guitarist Ivar Bjørnson of Norwegian metal avant-gardists ENSLAVED will sit out the group’s North American tour “due to immediate family issues that needed to be taken care of.” His bandmates will perform as a quartet on the month-long, North American co-headline trek with INSOMNIUM, which is scheduled to kick off on April 5 in New York City and conclude on April 30 in Baltimore.

Late Tuesday night (April 4),ENSLAVED released the following statement via social media: “Dear friends of ENSLAVED, due to immediate family issues that needed to be taken care of, Ivar was unable to join us for our upcoming tour in the United States and Canada. However, the rest of us have arrived safe and sound on American soil and will proceed with the tour.

“Our voyage starts at Irving Plaza, NYC tomorrow, and since we are reduced to a quartet at the moment, we invite our beloved audience to become the fifth member! Let’s go New York!”

ENSLAVED is touring in support of its latest studio album, “Heimdal”, which came out March 3. Support on the trek will come from BLACK ANVIL.

They have have released a single and video for ‘Forest Dweller‘ from Heimdal, their 16th studio album out since March 3rd 2023 earlier this year. The band now also announce the release show of the new album. 

Watch ‘Forest Dweller‘ below. 

Enslaved’s Grutle Kjellson commented,
“To me ‘Forest Dweller’ was the most immediate song on the album, at least in its earliest form as an instrumental demo. I spent quite some time to get into some of the other songs of the album, but this one seemed somehow logical, well logical by Enslaved standards that is. I had an idea for a lyric, and Ivar’s amazing and diverse riffs on this one made it easy to pan out the scripture. I made a rough plan on what to sing over it, and we actually ended up using some parts of those recordings on the album!

The song sort of showcases our representative samples of inspiration: Led Zep, Genesis, Destruction, Iron Maiden and David Bowie, to mention a schizophrenic tapestry of influences. It mirrors in the lyrics as well, which deals about both darkness and light in connection to the nature of Heimdal.”

You can pre-order Heimdal here: https://enslaved.bfan.link/heimdal.ema
Listen to ‘Forest Dweller‘ here: https://enslaved.bfan.link/forest-dweller.ema

Heimdal album bonus versions will contain an extra track, ‘Gangandi‘, alongside a Blu-Ray copy of The Otherworldly Big Band Experience. This streamed event was the band’s boldest project to date. The kaleidoscopic stage show features a spectacular setlist, covering Enslaved‘s career, both past and present, and several tracks never previously performed live. 

Grutle Kjellson commented,
“Caravans To The Outer Worlds’ was the first material written for our upcoming album, and that first song usually points in a certain direction. However, this song points in several directions, and that really made the whole process immensely interesting, and ultimately pushed us making our best album ever!
This live-version, taken from ‘The Otherworldly Big Band Experience’, our last big project keeping us alive during the pandemic, is the first of hopefully many opportunities to behold a performance of this energetic song. We hope you’ll enjoy it. God Jól!”

Watch the previously released  “Kingdom” below. 

Enslaved‘s 16th studio album, Heimdal, will be released on March 3rd 2023, via Nuclear Blast Records. 

You can pre-order Heimdal here: https://enslaved.bfan.link/heimdal.ema
Listen to ‘Congelia‘ here: https://enslaved.bfan.link/congelia.ema
Watch the ‘Congelia‘ video here: https://youtu.be/hfJ0NsUyhKw

Heimdal tracklisting
01. Behind The Mirror
02. Congelia
03. Forest Dweller
04. Kingdom
05. The Eternal Sea
06. Caravans To The Outer Worlds
07. Gangandi (Bonus Track)*
08. Heimdal

ENSLAVED – ALBUM LAUNCH EVENT
HEIMHUG

03 March   NO, Bergen –  USF Verftet
Head to enslaved.no/Heimhug for more information.

ENSLAVED – ALBUM LAUNCH EVENT
HEIMHUG

03 March   NO, Bergen –  USF Verftet
Head to enslaved.no/Heimhug for more information.

ENSLAVED – 2023 FESTIVAL SHOWS
04 Feb   DK,  Fredericia – Winter Metal Magic
13 May   UK, London – Incineration Festival
05 Aug   NO, Bergen – Beyond The Gates
10 Aug   CZ, Jaroměř – Brutal Assault
12 Aug   DE, Thüringen – Party.San
10-11 Nov   MX, Monterrey – Mexico Metal Fest

ENSLAVED are
Ivar Bjørnson | guitars 
Grutle Kjellson | vocals
Arve ‘Ice Dale’ Isdal | guitar
Håkon Vinje | Keyboards, Clean Vocals
Iver Sandøy | Drums

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