Metal Family Tree

This is a project aimed at making it easy to see who inspired the bands you love or even hate. For this I try not to use any influences that the band don’t claim themselves. There will be a focus on predecessors but successors will be added as they site the band. These trees become more and more interactive as new bands are added, allowing you to click any band that has a tree and jump to it.

We want our lists to be better. If you know something that belongs on this list, let us know. When in doubt we will leave it out, so we need reliable sources.

Enslaved start as a black metal band / viking metal band but over the years has ventured into more progressive metal. Since the beginning Grutle Kjellson has been on bass and vocals and Ivar Bjørnson has been on guitar and keys as well as backing vocals. The first album was entirely written by Ivar and the second and third split more evenly between them. After that point though Ivar would write the vast majority of the music with other members contributing here and there on occasion. Richard "Roy" Kronheim was on guitar for three albums and contributed to writing during that time. Other members of Enslaved have either contributed very little to writing or none at all.

Steve Reich

PInk Floyd are perhaps the most well known of the progressive rock bands. Ivar talks about being obsessed with them after his dad get him a collection of their records.

Deep Purple was an important hard rock and early heavy metal band. Grutle named them as an influence.

Yes were a progressive rock band. Ivar named them as one of their progressive influences.

Genesis, before getting more poppy, were a hugely influential progressive rock band. Ivar named them as one of their progressive influences.

King Crimson are another hugely influential progressive band. Ivar named them as an especially important progressive influences on them.

Van der Graaf Generator are another progressive rock band. This time Grutle names them as an influence.

Led Zeppelin are one of the earliest and most important hard rock bands. Ivar said that Grutle is a huge fan.

Klaus Schulze

Rush unlike a lot of the progressive rock bands on this list came out later and was more of the 70’s hard rock scene instead of the 60’s rock. Ivar named them as one of their progressive influences.

Kiss are one of the biggest American hard rock bands They was one of the firs bands Grutle got into and was an influence on him.

Motorhead are an important hard rock / heavy metal classic. Ivar when said Motorhead were high on the list of band that influenced them.

Few bands have been as influential as Iron Maiden. Grutle names them as an influence.

Venom are the band that first inspired and coined the term Black Metal. Grutle named them as one of his biggest inffluences.

Mercyful Fate were a big influence on the black metal genre mostly due to their lyrics and image where musically they sound way more traditional. Grutle named them as a big influence.

Sodom are are considered part of the first wave style black metal but went on to be one of the big German thrash bands. Ivar named them as an influence.

Metallica are the fathers of thrash. Grutle named them as an influence.

Slayer were one of the most aggressive thrash metal bands. Grutle named them as an influence.

Celtic Frost was a very important band for both the death and black metal genre. Ivar and Grutle named them as an early influence on Enslaved.

Bathory can be considered the first black metal band as it is known today. Ivar and Grutle named them as an early influence on Enslaved. Ivar says they continue to be one of the core influences on he band.

Destruction are a big German thrash band. Ivar named them as an influence.

Kreator are on of the big German thrash bands. Ivar named them as an influence.

Mayhem are one of the earliest and most infamous black metal bands. Grutle named them as an early influence on Enslaved. Ivar also talks about Euronymous guiding them to be more progressive which is detailed farther below.

There are several bands by the name Tormentor. Ivor and Grutle said they were influenced by a Tormentor from Eastern European band named Tormentor. This one lines up as the likely candidate being an early black metal band from Hungary.

Sarcófago were an early black/death/thrash band who’s members went on to be part of the earliest Sepultura line up. Ivar named them as an influence.

Morbid Angel are an important death metal band. Ivar said they remained and influence even after Ivar and Grutle stopped playing death metal and moved on to black metal.

King Diamond went solo after spliting from Mercyful Fate. Grutle named King Diamond as an influence.

Master’s Hammer was an early black metal band from Czechoslovakia. Ivar and Grutle said they were a huge influence on Enslaved.

Pink Turns Blue are a post-punk band. They were an early goth rock band in Germany and pioneers of darwave. Ivar named them as an influence.

Autopsy are one of Enslave’s death metal influences. Grutle says they are a band they still listen to in 2008.

Darkthrone are a influential early black metal band. Ivar named them as an influence on Enslaved.

Rotting Christ has undergone stylistic changes over the years but were almost always rooted in black metal. Ivar said their influence can be heard on songs from the early Enslaved demos.

Carcass started as grind core, then went to death metal and were pioneers of melodic death. They are one of Enslave’s early death metal influences and Grutle said in a 2008 interview they were still an influence.

Entombed are a huge band from the Swedish death metal scene. They were one of the early death metal influence on Ivar and Grutle but the influence has stuck around.

Ulver began as a black metal band but has since switched to being and experimental ambient electronic thing. Ivar said they were a “huge inspiration in terms of how many weird and wonderful turns a seemingly straight-ahead journey can take”

Ivar said that their progressive influences were some of their earliest influences but they were not good enough to play in that way and instead gravitated toward death metal. He said they thought death metal was more confining where black metal offered more freedom and allowed for a more versatile sound. On a side note he talks about going to Euronymous’s record store to get the newest extreme metal records but Euronymous would say “Don’t bother with that shit” and instead point them Tangerine Dream and Brian Eno as well as lesser known Scandinavian prog bands. Ivar said that he had a big impact on guiding Enslaved to be more progressive.

Ivar and Grulte were in a death metal band called Phobia before starting Enslaved. They name some of their death metal influences as Autopsy, Carcass, Nihilist, Entombed, Morbid Angel, Nocturnus, and Obituary.

Grutle said they were pretty much inspired by all the black metal scene of the lat 80’s.

Ivar in one interview was asked what he was current listening to. He said he an d Grutle are both fans of Intronaut. Ivar loves Aura Noir and is a big fan of The Residents. Ivar says he listens to everything from classical, death metal, black metal, rock, jazz and even some pop. He pretty much listens to whatever.

Grutle talks about some of the bands he grew up listening to but didn’t name them all as an influence, These included Kiss, Iron Maiden, UFO, Slade, Deep Purple, Rainbow and Nazareth. Moving into heavier stuff he named Venom, Mercyful Fate, then thrash bands like Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, and German thrash as well as bands already named above. Similar to Ivar, Grutle listens to many types of music including classical, jazz and even listens to The Beach Boys. Grutle says that Ivar is better with keeping up on new music where as he likes to discover bands from the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s that he hadn’t gotten into before. In a more recent interview he names being into Jethro Tull and Funkadelic as well but didn’t specifically call them influences. It is important to note that newer influences of Grutle have far less impact on Enslaved because most of his writing contributions were earlier in their career with the exception of lyrics.

Richard "Roy" Kronheim played guitar and contributed to the writing on three albums but I’m unsure of his influences.

Other members are not credited for writing or if they are it is very sparingly.

More Family Trees

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-b-uhWXvnc
https://www.brooklynvegan.com/enslaveds-ivar-bjornson-discusses-10-songs-hes-been-listening-to-this-year/
https://crypticrock.com/interview-ivar-bjornson-of-enslaved/
https://www.loudersound.com/features/enslaved-have-gone-more-prog-than-ever-and-theyre-not-looking-back
https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2017/01/23/viking-tales-an-interview-with-enslaved-s-ivar-bjrnson/
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2vualr
https://loudwire.com/enslaved-grutle-kjellson-in-times-album-more/
https://crypticrock.com/interview-grutle-kjellson-of-enslaved/
https://www.insertreviewhere.com/post/2018/08/27/interview-grutle-kjellson-of-enslaved
https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2019/01/29/long-cold-winter-the-making-of-enslaveds-frost/
https://www.metalsucks.net/2008/11/04/enslaveds-gruttle-kjellson-the-metalsucks-interview/
http://www.metalstorm.net/pub/interview.php?interview_id=555&page=&message_id=&new_resolution=1600