RUUN

"Ruun" marks certain streamlining of Enslaved songwriting skills. Compositions are easy to consume, relatively catchy, far from being epic like on the previous releases, more conventional and less experimental. That does not mean that instrument playing isn't creative, you will spot plenty of icing on the cake. Sometimes you mark simplified rhythm section suggesting rock/heavy metal with growling/screaming vocals like on the melodic "Path to Venir". Echoes of Pink Floyd or even Katatonia can also be heard here.

"Fusion of sense and Earth" has a magnificient name, however the starting tones are pretty straighforward blackened heavy metal. This song features some of the most evil riffs on the album but have you noticed the retro keyboards in the background?

The title track is pretty anthemic and heavy but it's the "Tides of Chaos" that has quite rhythm complexity with irregular periods. "Essence" has a couple of genuine black-metal moments, pretty speedy parts in the end but fails to grab my attention.

"Heir to the cosmic seed" is closer to progressive rock than extreme metal. It has clean multiple vocals, clear guitars instead of tremolo/distorted.

I must admit that I consider this album inferior to a couple of previous outputs, it lacks the creative and I think even a bit instrumental edge. This would improve again in the future.