ALBUM REVIEW: Enslaved push yet more extreme music boundaries on In Times

EXTREME metal is just noise with growls. Right? No, it is about something that can be transcendental, where the depths and insistent talent throw curve balls at the listeners aural tracts, unbalancing perceptions and blowing apart preconceived notions.

Such is the case with Enslaved. This Friday (March 6th) sees the release on Nuclear Blast of 'In Times' - a pure slab of heaviness and subtleties; progressive extreme metal at its best.

It is not, however, easy listening to kick back to, despite the many nuanced instrumental sections. There is not a song amongst the six on here that is less than eight minutes long, and the title track is 10-minutes plus.

But each journey on this road on 'In Times' is well worth the effort.

Tale 'Nauthir Bleeding'. From an almost gentle tender opening, through clean singing, to black metal style guttural screams, on to carefully chosen changes in tempo.

'One Thousand Years of Rain' rolls in like an arctic storm, squalls of furious intent, rolling thunder from Cato Bekkevold's drums while Grutle Kjellson's bass propels the pace along for Arve 'Ice Dale' Ivar Bjørnson and Herbrand Larse to paint textures: one minute moving from choral chanting to a slick, brief acoustic interlude before thrashing your ass off.

Enslaved have taken their own template from their decades of existence, honed on last release 'RiitiiR' and taken it to the proverbial next level.

Each song has hidden complexities that only repeated listens unveil; such as the deft solo passage over the insistent riffing that lasts for two minutes plus on the title track.

There is not a bad passage of music on this release, let alone a bad track.

In short, on 'In Times' Enslaved have produced a supreme example of what extreme metal can do for the listener.

'In Times' is released on Nuclear Blast on March 6th 2015.

Review by Jonny

INTERVIEW: Audrey Horne's Arve reveals the secret to becoming an overnight success....

WHEN Audrey Horne played Belfast as part of the Youngblood tour it is fair to say that the crowd was sparse - yet such was the strength of the performance that word of mouth has been such that nearly 10 times the actual crowd are now claiming to be present.

We, have the photographic evidence showing that several members of the Belfastmetalheadsreunited/RockRadioni team were present - and if we weren't fans before then we simply left awed by the band.

The fact that it is now 2014 and Audrey Horne are back round Europe backing their 'Pure Heavy' release belies the fact that they have been around since 2002....

Recently we caught up with Arve Isdal (a.k.a. Ice Dale) to hear a little bit about Audrey Horne's onward march as 2015 comes ever closer.

As ever, with all but a few bands, it was the year's of hard work that led to 'overnight success' when 'Youngblood' hit home in charts, live and in the hearts of fans of honest hard rock.

"It was a bit of a breakthrough for us," said Arve. "We had been putting a lot of work to getting to that stage, but when we began to tour to back it we were pleased at the response.

"We got offered more tours and tour slots and began to see more people turning out to see us."

To a large extent the twin duelling guitars of Arve and Thomas and Toschie's larger than life stage presence brought that classic melodic hard rock sound, so it's no surprise when Arve name-checks some of his influences as "Kiss, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Sabbath" and influences such as "Dave Gilmour and Richie Blackmore".

But that two-guitar sound owes a lot of classic Lizzy and UFO - something which Arve concedes, as we explored with him the difference between 'Youngblood' and 'Pure Heavy'.

"When we went into the studio to record it [Youngblood] we had it written, but wanted a rawer, more live sound," he said. "And, that meant we were recorded it relatively quickly and when it came out it had that edge we were after.

"With Pure Heavy we went back to the studio we had the songs written too, but we wanted to add the textures and layers that so many of our favourite artists and bands have developed over the years."

And, in our review on its release we acknowledged the silky rocking quality of 'Pure Heavy' makes it an essential purchase for hard rock fans.

Before we bade farewell to Arve, we wanted to explore that Belfast gig. Everyone there was levelled by Audrey Horne's commitment, energy and passion in front or around 50 people.

"That's kind of you to say that," said Arve. "We always give our all on stage, but when there is a smaller crowd we feel that we have to give that bit extra to sort of say thanks to those people who made the effort to come out to see us."

And, while they certainly did that, we are pretty much certain that wherever you catch Audrey Horne, if you can, on the current European jaunt or future tours it is a live experience that takes the recorded output and gives it a rocket fuelled boost to Pure Heavy rock nirvana...

AudInterview by Jonny