Enslaved Collaborate With Norwegian Rock Choir On Sea Shanty Recordings “Fire Marengo” And “Anna Lovinda”

Norwegian progressive black metal pioneers Enslaved have unveiled an unexpected new collaboration, joining forces with the Storm Weather Shanty Choir for a pair of sea shanty recordings that bridge centuries of maritime tradition with modern metal sensibilities.

The newly released tracks include interpretations of the traditional shanty “Fire Marengo” — a song with origins tracing back to American cotton fields of the 1800s — alongside “Anna Lovinda,” a Norwegian sea shanty written in the 1960s by late sailor and cultural figure Erik Bye.

The partnership highlights a shared cultural lineage rooted in Norway’s coastal history, something the band explored in depth while discussing the project:

“Enslaved was formed on the western edge of Norway, where mountains fall into the sea and history is carried by wind and tide. Bergen is not simply a coastal city; it is a threshold — between land and ocean, between myth and lived experience. The sea is not scenery here. It is memory, labour, departure and return.

Among the most powerful living symbols of this heritage is Statsraad Lehmkuhl, the great Bergen tall ship that still sails the world’s oceans. Around this vessel lives and breathes the shanty tradition — songs born of rhythm, rope, salt, and collective effort. From this environment emerged Storm Weather Shanty Choir.

Our connection to the ship began in 2014, when the Tall Ships Races concluded in Bergen. We were invited to compose and perform a commissioned piece on the deck of Statsraad Lehmkuhl. Metal echoed across the harbour that evening — a meeting of ancient wind-powered technology and modern amplified ritual. It felt less like contrast and more like continuity.

Since then, a friendship has grown — particularly with Haakon Vatle, director of the ship’s foundation and one of Norway’s most devoted custodians of the shanty tradition. He often remarks that sailors were the first metalheads — people who faced elemental forces daily and answered them with song. There is truth in that. Shanties were not entertainment; they were functional incantations — rhythm as survival.

In November 2025, during the choir’s 20th anniversary concert in Bergen, we joined forces on the traditional “Fire Marengo” and the Norwegian shanty “Anna Lovinda,” written by the late sailor and cultural figure Erik Bye. The collaboration felt less like fusion and more like recognition — two expressions of the same coastal inheritance meeting at the centre.

After the performance, it was clear that this convergence should not remain ephemeral. We met again in early 2026 to record the material — not as novelty, but as continuation.

Because at the centre — at mið — we find not isolation, but shared origin. Wind, rhythm, voice. The same pulse that once moved sails now moves amplifiers. The same call-and-response that coordinated labour now shapes modern ritual.

The sea remembers. And so do we.”

Rather than presenting the collaboration as a stylistic experiment, Enslaved frame the recordings as a natural extension of shared heritage — merging maritime folk traditions with the atmospheric and historical themes long present in their music.

You can hear both tracks below.

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