Enslaved Family Tree
Metal Family Tree
This is a project aimed at making it easy to see who inspired the bands you love or even hate. For this I try not to use any influences that the band don’t claim themselves. There will be a focus on predecessors but successors will be added as they site the band. These trees become more and more interactive as new bands are added, allowing you to click any band that has a tree and jump to it.
We want our lists to be better. If you know something that belongs on this list, let us know. When in doubt we will leave it out, so we need reliable sources.
Enslaved start as a black metal band / viking metal band but over the years has ventured into more progressive metal. Since the beginning Grutle Kjellson has been on bass and vocals and Ivar Bjørnson has been on guitar and keys as well as backing vocals. The first album was entirely written by Ivar and the second and third split more evenly between them. After that point though Ivar would write the vast majority of the music with other members contributing here and there on occasion. Richard "Roy" Kronheim was on guitar for three albums and contributed to writing during that time. Other members of Enslaved have either contributed very little to writing or none at all.
Steve Reich
Klaus Schulze
Ivar said that their progressive influences were some of their earliest influences but they were not good enough to play in that way and instead gravitated toward death metal. He said they thought death metal was more confining where black metal offered more freedom and allowed for a more versatile sound. On a side note he talks about going to Euronymous’s record store to get the newest extreme metal records but Euronymous would say “Don’t bother with that shit” and instead point them Tangerine Dream and Brian Eno as well as lesser known Scandinavian prog bands. Ivar said that he had a big impact on guiding Enslaved to be more progressive.
Ivar and Grulte were in a death metal band called Phobia before starting Enslaved. They name some of their death metal influences as Autopsy, Carcass, Nihilist, Entombed, Morbid Angel, Nocturnus, and Obituary.
Grutle said they were pretty much inspired by all the black metal scene of the lat 80’s.
Ivar in one interview was asked what he was current listening to. He said he an d Grutle are both fans of Intronaut. Ivar loves Aura Noir and is a big fan of The Residents. Ivar says he listens to everything from classical, death metal, black metal, rock, jazz and even some pop. He pretty much listens to whatever.
Grutle talks about some of the bands he grew up listening to but didn’t name them all as an influence, These included Kiss, Iron Maiden, UFO, Slade, Deep Purple, Rainbow and Nazareth. Moving into heavier stuff he named Venom, Mercyful Fate, then thrash bands like Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, and German thrash as well as bands already named above. Similar to Ivar, Grutle listens to many types of music including classical, jazz and even listens to The Beach Boys. Grutle says that Ivar is better with keeping up on new music where as he likes to discover bands from the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s that he hadn’t gotten into before. In a more recent interview he names being into Jethro Tull and Funkadelic as well but didn’t specifically call them influences. It is important to note that newer influences of Grutle have far less impact on Enslaved because most of his writing contributions were earlier in their career with the exception of lyrics.
Richard "Roy" Kronheim played guitar and contributed to the writing on three albums but I’m unsure of his influences.
Other members are not credited for writing or if they are it is very sparingly.
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-b-uhWXvnc
https://www.brooklynvegan.com/enslaveds-ivar-bjornson-discusses-10-songs-hes-been-listening-to-this-year/
https://crypticrock.com/interview-ivar-bjornson-of-enslaved/
https://www.loudersound.com/features/enslaved-have-gone-more-prog-than-ever-and-theyre-not-looking-back
https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2017/01/23/viking-tales-an-interview-with-enslaved-s-ivar-bjrnson/
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2vualr
https://loudwire.com/enslaved-grutle-kjellson-in-times-album-more/
https://crypticrock.com/interview-grutle-kjellson-of-enslaved/
https://www.insertreviewhere.com/post/2018/08/27/interview-grutle-kjellson-of-enslaved
https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2019/01/29/long-cold-winter-the-making-of-enslaveds-frost/
https://www.metalsucks.net/2008/11/04/enslaveds-gruttle-kjellson-the-metalsucks-interview/
http://www.metalstorm.net/pub/interview.php?interview_id=555&page=&message_id=&new_resolution=1600