Enslaved celebrated in new 12-part documentary series

Enslaved
(Image credit: Roy Bjorge)

A brand new documentary series on Norwegian prog metallers Enslaved has begun airing on YouTube. The 12-part series, Heimvegen (The Way Home) has been created by Dag Olav Husås, who works for a local television station in Haugalandet, the area of Norway where the band formed.  Made with full cooperation with the band, it allows a rare insight into one of prog metal's premier bands. You can view the first part in full below.

"Enslaved started out in the region of Haugalandet in Norway," Dag tells Prog. "I work for the local television station here, TV Haugaland. We follow founding members Ivar (Bjørnson - guitar) and Grutle (Kjellson - bass, vocals) as they walk in their own footsteps of the early days.

"It gives a unique local perspective on a progressive metal band that has gone on to have international success. We go through their upbringing and early musical influences, to the recordings they did locally, up until they moved the band to Bergen, and we also gaze a bit into the future.

"We really go in detail, and I would say it's a quite unique look into the formative years of these now prog metal masters. You get to see them in their "natural habitat", so to speak. We meet their parents, we visit the old studios and producers they used, we visit their old rehearsal space, we talk about their first tours (with some insane stories from the US and Mexico). we reunite Phobia (the predecessor to Enslaved) for the first time in 29 years, and there's tons of insight from journalists and both local and international music personalities who were there when it all happened.

"The entire documentary series will be posted on YouTube, with English subtitles. The first episode was released November 7th with a new episode coming every Saturday going forward (with the exception of Christmas)."

Enslaved recently released their acclaimed fifteenth studio album Utgard.

Jerry Ewing

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.