Vikingligr VeldiStarting in 1992 the Black Metal world started to be turned on its head and not in a good way. In May of ‘92 the Storetveit Church in Bergen was burned down. Then in June the Fantoft stave church in Bergen was burned down by Varg Vikernes (the man infamously behind Burzum, more about him later). Then in August the Revheim Church in Stavanger and the Holmenkollen Chapel in Oslo were burned down. The latter of which was done by Varg, Faust (of Emperor), and Euronymous. On the way home from this, Faust killed a guy in Lillehammer by stabbing him 37 times. In September the Ormøya Church in Oslo and the Skjold Church in Vindafjord were burned down. The latter was done by Varg and Samoth (of Emperor). In October the Hauketo Church in Oslo was burned down. Then in December the Åsane Church in Bergen was burned down by Varg and Jørn Inge Tunsberg, who was briefly in Immortal until he was kicked out.
Then there was the whole Bergens Tidende newspaper article in January of ‘93. The story goes, Varg set up an anonymous interview with the newspaper with journalist Finn Bjørn Tønder. When he and the other journalists arrived at the interview location they were told they would be shot if they called the police and during the interview Varg told them that he had burned down the churches and knew who else was involved. He also told them he knew who killed the guy in Lillehammer and that church burnings and murders would continue. According to Varg the goal of this interview was spreading fear, promoting black metal, and getting more customers for Helvete, Euronymous’ record store. Consequently, a lot of the people involved in what they had called the Black Metal Inner Circle were arrested and questioned, but at the time nothing stuck. Varg was in jail for about 6 weeks because of this stunt. Euronymous also decided to close his record shop Helvete because of the attention it was getting from police and journalists, which pissed off Varg.
This incident was the beginning of the rapid decline of the relationship between Varg and Euronymous, both of whom were in the band Mayhem at the time. Although, there was animosity brewing between the 2 for the past couple years already. This ultimately led to Varg killing Euronymous on August 10th 1993, with the accomplice Snorre Westvold Ruch, who was also in Mayhem at the time. Varg and Snorre were arrested on August 19th along with a lot of others in the Black Metal community. A lot of them admitted to the church burnings and were sentenced. Samoth was in prison for 16 months. Faust was outed by Varg for the murder of the man in Lillehammer and for helping with the church burnings and was sentenced to 14 years in prison, but only ended up serving about 9 due to good behavior. Varg was sentenced to 21 years in prison for the murder of Euronymous, several church burnings, and for possession of 150kg of explosive when he was arrested, but was released after 15 years. Snorre was sentenced to 8 years for being an accomplice to the murder.
As a side note, it was Euronymous and Snorre that had pioneered the Black Metal tremolo picking style in the late ‘80s.
Lastly, there was a rivalry forming between the Norwegian Black Metal scene and the Swedish Death Metal scene, as well as a rivalry between the Norwegian and Finnish Black Metal scenes. Death threats were made and there were a lot of snarky comments made back and forth between all 3 scenes.
All this to say the Norwegian Black Metal scene was getting a bad reputation from all angles and justifiably so. So let’s circle back to March of ‘93 and back to the main reason we are all here, Enslaved. Immediately after finishing Hordanes Land, the band got back to writing new music for a proper album and seeing the direction most of the other bands in the Black metal scene were going, they decided to go their own way. Ivar and Grutle didn’t care about the political and religious aspects of what their contemporaries were doing and didn’t want to get involved, they just wanted to focus on making awesome music and writing lyrics about Norway’s history, mythology, and vikings. In March of ‘93 they went into the Grieghallen Studio in Bergen and started recording the album Vikingligr veldi, which was completed in April. This time going much bigger and grander than they had on the EP. The new album consisted of mostly new music, but they did rework and re-record Heimdallr, which was originally on the Yggdrasil demo. To help with their grand vision they had Eirik Hundvin (known as Pytten to most) produce, mix, and engineer the album. He became known for pioneering the reverb heavy production of a lot of the early Norwegian Black Metal bands and has worked with most of the big Norwegian Black metal bands, among others. On top of that, the well known Ronn Chick mastered the album.
Vikingligr veldi is a concept album of Old Norse history and the lyrics were all written in Medieval Icelandic with the exception of Heimdallr which was written in Old Norwegian. The album was originally slated to be released in the fall of ‘93, but with the aforementioned murder of Euronymous his record label was effectively shut down. So the band had no way to release the album and with the shutdown of Deathlike Silence Productions and the album was handed off to Deathlike’s partner label Voices of Wonder to be released. The problem was the label didn’t release it until February 22nd 1994, almost a year after they finished recording it. The album was ultimately dedicated to Euronymous in the liner notes.
Other notes of interest. Ivar was only 15 at the time this was recorded and he wrote the vast majority of the music and all the lyrics for the album. Also because of some legal technicalities and issues, this would be the only time the band would work with label Voices of Wonder (the label basically screwed the band over). This was the album that really set the band apart from the rest of not only the Norwegian Black Metal community, but the Black Metal world at large and firmly planted them at the forefront of Norway’s best Black Metal bands.
Tracklist1. Lifandi lif undir hamri 11:31
2. Vetrarnótt 10:58
3. Miðgarðs eldar 11:16
4. Heimdallr 06:15
5. Norvegr 10:56
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Topic: Enslaved Discography and Listening Party: Vikingligr veldi (Read 4618 times)
