Norwegian progressive extreme metal act ENSLAVED will release their twelfth studio album, Riitiir, in Europe on September 28th and in North America on October 2nd on CD, vinyl and digital download. Check out the lead-off track 'Thoughts Like Hammers' below:

Riitiir tracklisting:

'Thoughts Like Hammers'

'Death In The Eyes Of Dawn'

'Veilburner'

'Roots Of The Mountain'

'Riitiir'

'Materal'

'Storm Of Memories'

'Forsaken'

Vinyl tracklisting:

Side A:

'Thoughts Like Hammers'

'Death In The Eyes Of Dawn'

Side B:

'Veilburner'

'Roots Of The Mountain'

Side C:

'Riitiir'

'Materal'

Side D:

'Storm Of Memories'

'Forsaken'

From the woods in Sweden, Enslaved guitarist/songwriter/founding member Ivar Bjørnson shares the following: “The album is, as mentioned, entitled Riitiir - a self-made ‘Norse-ified’ version of the words ‘Rites’ / ‘Rituals.’ Riitiir = ‘The Rites of Man,’ to put it in a formulaic and easy way. There is no story with a timeline; again we’ve built structures that lay above the independent lyrics that we feel more comfortable with letting the reader explore, interpret, or simply discard themselves. It is entirely up to them. Meanwhile, we are extremely excited to see what visual artist Truls Espedal has come up with this time. The collaboration between him, myself, and Grutle (Kjellson, vocalist and bassist) was closer, more understanding and powerful this time than ever before in our more than decade-long cooperation. The album concept and our feelings connected to it hit home instantly with Truls, in the same way that his initial ideas resonated intensely with us from the second he shared them with us. We will, of course, discuss some key concepts and potential interpretations in deeper song-by-song analysis – but let’s cross that rainbow when we get there.”

Enslaved will be performing in this year’s Barge To Hell cruise from Miami to the Caribbean, beginning on December 3rd.