ENSLAVED Featured In New York Times' 'Arts' Section

Norwegian extreme metallers ENSLAVED were featured in yesterday's (Thursday, November 8) "Arts" section of the New York Times. An excerpt from the article follows:

"On Tuesday night, in a plush tour bus parked in this city’s scruffy downtown, a couple of Norwegians were talking about world music. They were talking about the competing musical traditions of Norway and Sweden. They were talking about Icelandic linguistics and Viking mythology. They were talking about indigenous scenes in Canada, India and lots of places in between. In other words, they were talking about heavy metal.

"The Norwegians were Ivar Bjornson and Grutle Kjellson, who founded their metal band, ENSLAVED, 16 years ago. They were once identified with the spooky — and, for a time, hugely controversial — subgenre known as black metal, but they have sloughed off one label after another while slowly building a worldwide following.

"Not a huge one: They are rock stars, more or less, in Norway, but they are decidedly underground figures in most of the rest of the world. Still, that a hundred or so fans came out to see them at the Crocodile Rock Café, a cavernous Allentown club, says something about the tenacity of the genre and the band. The members hurtled through a typically eerie, riveting set, propelled by tricky rhythms, keyboard atmospherics, mutating guitar riffs and careful but cathartic explosions of noise and screaming.

"This was the fourth date of a grueling five-week tour, and the unglamorous surroundings only underscored the mixed blessing of being in a band like this one. Being a working metal band often means touring the world indefinitely."

Read the entire story at www.nytimes.com.

René Ackermann of Contraband Candy had the privilege of meeting up with ENSLAVED vocalist Grutle Kjellson during the first leg of the band's Ruun Tour 2007 at London's Mean Fiddler for an exclusive interview, discussing black metal, metal gigs in India and "South Park", among other topics. Watch the 10-minute clip below.

ENSLAVED was honored with the Spellemann award (the Norwegian equivalent to the Grammy Award) in the "Metal" category for its "Ruun" album, which came out in May 2006 via Tabu Recordings (Candlelight in the U.S.). The largest and oldest Norwegian music awards show was held on January 27, 2007 at the Thalia Theater, Chateau Neuf in Oslo, Norway and was broadcast live on the Norwegian channel TV2.

Remaining ENSLAVED North American tour dates:

Nov. 09 - Jaxx, West Springfield (VA)
Nov. 10 - Mark's Place, Bedford, NH
Nov. 11 - Club Soda, Montreal (QUE),Canada
Nov. 12 - Imperial de Quebec, Quebec City (QUE)
Nov. 13 - The Opera House, Toronto (ONT)
Nov. 14 - Peabody's DownUnder, Cleveland (OH)
Nov. 15 - I-Rock, Detroit (MI)
Nov. 16 - The Pearl Room, Mokena (IL)
Nov. 17 - Station 4, St. Paul (MN)
Nov. 20 - Roseland, Portland (OR)
Nov. 21 - El Corazon, Seattle (WA)
Nov. 23 - Slim's, San Francisco (CA)
Nov. 24 - Galaxy Theatre, Santa Ana (CA)
Nov. 25 - Key Club, West Hollywood
Nov. 26 - The Clubhouse, Tempe (AZ)
Nov. 27 - Launch Pad, Albuquerque (NM)
Nov. 28 - Bluebird Theater, Denver (CO)
Nov. 30 - White Rabbit, San Antonio (TX)
Dec. 01 - Ridglea Theater, Ft. Worth (TX)
Dec. 02 - Meridian, Houston (TX)
Dec. 04 - The Muse, Nashville (TN)
Dec. 05 - The Mad Hatter, Covington (KY)
Dec. 06 - Huntington Music Hall, Huntington (WV)
Dec. 07 - Uncle Pleasants, Louisville (KY)