Enslaved
Axioma Ethica Odini

The Enslaved have a special gift. A twenty-year career without ever missing a beat or losing focus: very few can boast of such a feat. Who knows what their secret is. Blessed by Odin? A mysterious spell crafted from an ancient Norse grimoire? It matters little. What is important is that "Axioma Ethica Odini" is yet another masterpiece from this great band.

Once the listening was over, I was crying from emotion and happiness, after experiencing two orgasms. This album is nothing less than a magnificent and perilous journey through a frigid dream world. As soon as we surrender to the northern winds sweeping the cold and desolate land, the storm begins with "Ethica Odini," a splendid opening track where melody and harshness alternate wonderfully and gently, just as the screams and clean vocals of the majestic Grutle Kjellison. Already here, we understand that there is little to do with this work: the only thing is to close our eyes and let ourselves be carried away. "Axioma Ethica Odini" is a parallel universe containing everything and more, from the violence of "Raidho" to the heart-warming choruses of "Waruun" (it will be like sinking into an ebony ocean), from the killer mid-tempo of "The Beacon" to the doom-like riff of "Giants," all with a regard for almost avant-garde solutions.

"Axioma" is an ambient and experimental intro lasting more than two minutes: "nothing special," some might think. Well, know this, in those two minutes, I saw more things than in an entire lifetime. Monstrous. And what about the beginning of "Night Sight"? After a minute, I was already in tears: it was like walking on a dismal rainy evening under amber streetlights. In short, a beautiful high, the kind that happens once in a lifetime, when beer is a sweet and enticing nectar, and you drink until you lose consciousness after indescribable debauchery.

"Axioma Ethica Odini" is an even better work than the previous "Vertebrae," in which Ivan Bjørnson's group refreshes the distinctive traits of their beginnings (though not venturing too far) flawlessly blending them with their other thousand souls, primarily the progressive and psychedelic ones, while always maintaining a certain aura of epicness. An album recommended to everyone. Because this is not great Metal. This is great Music.