ENSLAVED: New Album Update

Norwegian masters of progressive/experimental metal ENSLAVED are currently recording their new CD at Duper, Earshot (keyboardist Herbrand Larsen and lead guitarist Ice Dale's facility) and Peersonal Sound (owned by rhythm guitarist Ivar Bjørnson) studios in Bergen, Norway.

Commented guitarist/songwriter Ivar Bjørnson: "As we are recording, we are also filming quite a lot — from the actual recordings in the studio, as well as around the studio discussing gear, bringing along the camera for the occasional trip to the pub for beer sampling, celebrating Herbrand's birthday with Demonaz [of IMMORTAL] and other friends, filming trips to festivals, and on tour while the album is being made. It is all going to be some kind of 'behind-the-scenes' thing that we will release in connection with the release. More details on that later.

"We are at the stage where things are starting to really take shape. All 'basics' are in place: drums, bass and rhythm guitars. [Lead guitarist] Ice Dale and I have been through a round of adding some dubs, melodic leads and effects; we'll do some acoustics next before the keyboard, organ and vocal departments overtake the studio for a while before [adding] additional percussion. Ice's leads and my wacko-effects will be the last thing to be added.

"Parts of April will have other focuses: we are artists in residence at the Roadburn Festival in Tilburg (NL) and will do a short week's worth of supporting ARCH ENEMY on the Metal Hammer Meltdown Tour of the U.K. Coming back from all that, we will be heading for Örebro [Sweden] and Jens Bogren's Fascination Street for the mixing.

"We are pretty confident that we have found a golden ore in terms of the production.

"It can be a hassle setting up the recording ourselves, but having the technical competence of Herbrand combined with the really strong convictions on how we should sound within the band is the best combination for the recording at the point we're at. I am not sure it is the right way to go for every band. It probably wasn't the right way to go for us some years ago — but now we've come to the point were certain aspects of the creation needs to be fully controlled by ourselves in order to take that extra leap forward.

"Again, it will be me and Grutle [Kjellson, bassist/vocalist] doing the lyrics. Grutle's the first one to have complete lyrics ready and they look great.

"Again, we have deeply resonating and multi-layered, metaphoric lyrics with his unique mythological references. My own scribbling is slowly taking shape, and I feel we have found our strongest, most ambitious and most challenging concept so far. It should be interesting both as just words to music as well as trigging more 'philosophical' contemplations. You chose."

Fans sent in their questions via Facebook, MySpace and Twitter and ENSLAVED answered them during their time in the studio during the recording process for their upcoming album. Watch the results in four parts below.

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Part 4: