Norway’s Enslaved released their latest innovative creation, Heimdal, one year ago. To celebrate the studio album’s first anniversary, the band recently announced the Heimdal (Deluxe) digital album, due out on March 1 2024.

Heimdal (Deluxe) will include the studio album, as well as alternative versions of two album tracks, “Forest Dweller” and “Congelia,” both with exalted performances from renowned cellist Jo Quail, bonus track ‘Gangandi’, plus the entirety of “The Otherworldly Big Band Experience”. Enslaved’s stunning 2022 streaming event features fellow mind-altering Norwegian prog band, Shaman Elephant.

Today, Enslaved have released the alternative version of their track ‘Forest Dweller’, featuring internationally acclaimed composer and virtuoso cellist Jo Quail, alongside a beautiful visualizer video created by Costin Chioreanu.

“Forest Dweller” is a song about survival and inner turmoil. The protagonist is suffering in more ways than one. He befriends a slave he doesn’t know who is rewarded from his “treacherous lust.” The lyrics take their time in the song; they are sung slowly and after long pauses. The two search for the protagonists house, only to find “the realm of the king” through “time and space.” It seems that this story takes place during Viking times with the mention of runes. The song ends with a depressing tone because in the end, no one remembers the protagonist. “Awaiting my deserved death yell / Long forgotten, no one whispers my name / In the mountains and the forests, I’ll dwell.”