As their black metal roots have receded over the last ten years or so, the unconventionality that have always differentiated Enslaved from their fellow countrymen who came into their own in the early 90's becomes more and more obvious witch each successive release, with E (at least for me) being the best they've done so far in regards to blending all their different tangents together into one sound. I've liked the last few (including In Times), but this one ups the ante in subtle ways.

Their closest counterpart in the metal world as far as overall trajectory is concerned is probably Opeth, but where I feel the latter band lost their way a bit by embracing their 70's prog roots above all other aspects of their sound, what Enslaved are doing on E actually sounds best when a Hammond organ, flute or saxophone suddenly rolls in over a tremulous riff storm (such as the bangin' 'Sacred Horse' or the billowing 'Hiindsiight'). Those out of left field slices of instrumentation complement the primordial atmosphere and give you more variety than your average metal fan likely bargained for, and that goes double for some of those wordless Norwegian vocal harmonies that occasionally show themselves between bouts of snarling.

Could this end up being in that rare company of black metal albums that could help introduce more people into the genre and still hold its own against the big boys? Only time will tell, but it has certainly been one of the highlights of 2017 for me.