Enslaved received the Norwegian Artists' Association's honorary award 2011!
/ 01/11/2011 / codexMinister of Culture Anniken Huitfeldt presented the award to Enslaved at the Pop Center in Oslo on Monday, October 31. A full band was present to receive the award. Enslaved celebrates its 20th anniversary as a band this year and received the Spellemann for the album Axioma Ethica Odini earlier this year.
Congratulations TONO!
This year's award winners were teenagers when they formed their group in the Sunnhordland municipalities of Etne and Sveio in 1991. Due to a lack of rehearsal space, they had to travel all the way to Haugesund every time they had to practice. The first album, Vikingligr Veldi, (which means the Kingdom of the Vikings,) was released in 1994, and with a record deal in France, the album Frost was released the following year. Genre-wise, the first two releases were placed in the Viking/black metal category. On the albums Eld and Blodhemn, the band continued their search for a definitive platform stylistically, and the album Mardraum represented the mixture of power, tradition, progressive elements and dark psychedelia.
When Isa was released in 2004, the group also took off internationally. Isa gave them both the Alarmpris and the Spellemannpris. Later, there have been 3 more Spellemann harps, most recently this year for The current lineup has been playing together for eight years, and today the music can be described as progressive extreme metal. The group has built an international career, and has toured North America almost annually since 1995. The group has also gained a large European fan base, in addition to a growing fan base in Asia.
The prize winners are currently based in Bergen, and can be described as pioneers in culture and industry. Although there are very few people who manage to make a living from music in Norway, the group operates as a small business. That is probably why they also got involved when a political party advocated making all downloading from the Internet legal and completely free. A fictitious kidnapping of a sheep during prime time was all it took to get the message out that without income, art is killed. This also shows that the group dares to take a political stand on difficult issues, something very few artists do. It should also be mentioned that the group has also held courses for its musician and artist colleagues for several years, and generously shares its experience and expertise.
It is a great honor to be able to give the Norwegian Artists' Association's honorary award for 2011 to Enslaved.
Previous winners: Nora Brockstedt, Jahn Teigen, Åge Aleksandersen, Jan Eggum, Bjørn Eidsvåg, Anne Grete Preus, Henning Kvitnes, Marit Larsen and Hellbillies.