Enslaved is one of the most interesting bands in the contemporary landscape of extreme and progressive metal. And yet, my interest in them waned a little when keyboard player Herbrand Larsen left the band five years ago. His warm, soothing voice was an important part of what made their latter day progressive albums so appealing to me. The atmospheric, multi-faceted sound remained, however, and last year’s ‘Utgard’ shows that it might have even been expanded, which may be a result of line-up changes. Whatever the reason, ‘Utgard’ is both surprising and familiar and might be the best Enslaved album since ‘Riitiir’.

Instead of one clean singer, Enslaved now has three different flavors of clean lead vocals. Frontman and bassist Grutle Kjellson has been increasingly alternating his harshes with a surprisingly deep clean voice, keyboard player Håkon Vinje has a timbre uncannily similar to Larsen’s and now, new drummer Iver Sandøy adds a powerful, highly emotional and ever so slightly raw voice that would not have sounded out of place in a relatively accessible rock band. These vocals alternate and harmonize when the music calls for it, adding yet another layer of depth to Enslaved’s already fairly deep and varied sound.

Musically, ‘Utgard’ is not even that much different from anything the band has been doing for the last two decades, though the songs are notably more compact, with only three of them passing the five-minute mark and not even by that much. The songs are still built upon Ivar Bjørnson’s immense atmospheric, often dissonant chords, over which there is plenty of room for Vinje to add a spacey layer or guitarist Arve Isdal to put down a melodically strong, almost dreamy solo. Contrasts are still very much part of Enslaved’s musical fabric as well. Just listen to how the thrashy verses and atmospheric chorus in ‘Homebound’ enhance each other.

That does not mean there are no stylistic detours on ‘Utgard’. In fact, the ones that are here actually account for some of the most interesting moments on the album. ‘Urjotun’, for instance, has an insistent repetitive keyboard pattern and a bass line that give it a distinct post-punk vibe, without sounding unlike Enslaved for a second. Opening track ‘Fires In The Dark’ builds from Scandinavian folk to contemporary prog rock with subtle lead guitar parts highly reminiscent of Steve Hackett’s work with Genesis, while closer ‘Distant Seasons’, despite developing into a fairly typical Enslaved song, has the most prominent folk leanings of the album.

But even in more familiar waters, Enslaved delivers, such as the highly dynamic ‘Flight Of Thought And Memory’ and ‘Storms Of Utgard’, which would have not sounded out of place on ‘Axioma Ethica Odini’. ‘Utgard’ just manages to tweak the Enslaved formula slightly enough to still sound like them, but also move the band forward. This in itself is an impressive feat. The fact that it resulted in an album as listenable and moving as ‘Utgard’ is a joy for fans of contemporary progressive music. Also, Kjellson’s harshes aren’t nearly as irritatingly compressed and forward in the mix as they used to be, which solves pretty much the only gripe I had left.

Recommended tracks: ‘Flight Of Thought And Memory’, ‘Urjotun’, ‘Storms Of Utgard’