Yggdrasill

About

Yggdrasill is the second demo recording by the Norwegian Viking metal band Enslaved. It was recorded on June 28 and 29, 1992, with S. Sjøen as sound engineer and producer. Yggdrasill was released on cassette that same year and reissued in 1995 along with Satyricon's second demo, The Forest Is My Throne, and a bonus track from each band. Yggdrasill was reissued on its own in 2009 as a picture disc LP by Blut & Eisen Productions, also in 2009 as part of a wooden box set released by Viva Hate Records, along with the albums Frost, Eld, Blodhemn, Mardraum: Beyond the Within, Monumentsion, and Below the Lights. In 2011, Peaceville Records released Yggdrasill on LP and in 2012 on CD, each with the bonus track Enslaved from the split release with Satyricon. The cover insert shows a black and white image of a lightning bolt, while the split release with Satyricon features a blue-toned photograph of the band. Enslaved's style has been described as black metal-influenced folk metal with epic song structures. Yggdrasill opens with the thrash -heavy Heimdallr, but the remaining tracks are more akin to the "neoclassical, epic sound they perfected on Vikingligr Veldi." The ethereal tremolo melodies are less folky and more metal -oriented than on later releases. Keyboards are used for melodic emphasis. Drummer Trym plays a kind of primitive proto- blast beat. The vocals are brutal by Enslaved's standards and comparable to Quorthon on Blood Fire Death.

via Last.fm