Excellent music, BUT....
Owen Cunningham | Southern New England | 03/19/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"...the (expletives deleted) over at Osmose Productions have decided to make this disc copy-protected without labeling it such anywhere. This means you can listen to the disc only on "real" CD players (stereo equipment, DiscMan, etc.) but not on a CD-ROM drive attached to a computer...That said, I have to say I'm very impressed with this album. I realize I'm in the minority when I say that "Mardraum" left me cold (and not in the good way that "Frost" leaves me chilled!). I absolutely hate thick, sludgy guitars where you can't tell what note or chord they're playing... and "Mardraum" was chock full of that kind of playing... But I'm pleased to report that the melodic and atmospheric guitar playing that made Enslaved's early work great is back in force on "Monumension." Not to say that the songwriting style is a regression to older days -- far from it! The psychedelic element that was hinted at in "Blodhemn" ("Ansuz Astral") and properly introduced on "Mardraum" ("Entrance Escape") has finally matured and sounds,paradoxically, much less experimental -- it sounds deliberate, structured, and composed, to breathtaking effect. This album ROCKS, but not in the "I'm a witless headbanger" way that albums are said to rock...The vocals have also changed -- Grutle has supplemented his impressive grim scream with a deep death-metal grunt. The only thing I'm less than pleased about is that, except for the last track (an amazing choral chant based on a 9th-century epic poem from the Faroe Islands), all the lyrics are in English. But them's the breaks."
Track Listings (9) - Disc #1