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. The lead-off track 'Thoughts Like Hammers' is available for free download at this location.

In the first of eight installments, Enslaved rhythm guitarist/songwriter/lyricist Ivar Bjørnson and bassist/vocalist/lyricist Grutle Kjellson offer song commentaries on the Norwegian strain of progressive extreme metal they’ve come to be known for.

Bjørnson on 'Thoughts Like Hammers':

“This was a song that I was very proud to have made when I presented it to the guys - and a song that triggered some light worry with Herbrand [Larsen, clean vocalist and keyboard player] due to its inherent ‘weirdness’ (snicker snicker). I just had to ask him to simply trust me, his own, and the band’s abilities to transform the vision into a full-fledged Enslaved-classic. As it turned out, it became one of his favorite songs in the end - and mine, too! For me it is also a song that taught me a thing or two about Enslaved and our relationship to ‘structure.’ While I earlier on might have thought that we were moving away from structures, this song has made me realize that we have simply gone further into exploring structuring and arrangements, not going away from it. Switching to lyrics: this is a song that is about what it says it is about from several perspectives - or maybe it is simply just a cool title? Nietzsche coined the phrase “philosophizing with a hammer,” which on an individual level is what this could be about: testing your own values/idols/ego with a hammer rather than the usual light tapping with chopsticks. Are you man/woman enough to scrutinize your own inner world in the most brutal manner? There are many mythologically and psychologically-based starting points to look at it from. For me it could very well be a tribute to every process and ritual that seeks subjective truth at the merciless expense of objective illusions.”

Kjellson on 'Thoughts Like Hammers':

“I’ve always been a sucker for strange music, not necessarily strange in the sense that it’s very technical or having loads of odd-beat themes; more like the feeling I get while watching a David Lynch movie… an ‘I don’t get this’ - at the same time something is challenging enough so that I want to dig deeper into the core. There´s nothing wrong with franks and beans, but a plate of oysters IS more interesting, if you catch my drift. So, moving away from the silly metaphors for a while, I really enjoyed the sketches I got from Ivar on this song. Although I didn’t clearly see the direction the song would take, I instantly felt the potential. After a couple of hours in the rehearsal room with Ivar and Cato (Bekkevold, drummer), I strongly felt that this had to be the opening track! It has everything an opening song requires: a natural intro, a bit of the challenging ‘weirdness’ I mentioned, and last but not least: it introduces a lot of elements that come around later on the album. Ivar was quite puzzled when I introduced the idea of having ‘Thoughts Like Hammers’ as the opener, but after giving it a couple of days, he agreed. Ice (Dale, guitarist) and Herbrand were kind of skeptical, but during the recording session all of us grew to enjoy this piece more and more, and it ended up being among everyone’s favorite. Ivar’s lyrics fit perfect for a song like this: another journey into his universe of metaphysics and mysticism. ‘Mud-dwellers at the star floor’ sounds like nothing but thoughts like hammers!”

Check out '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.