Emperor mastermind Ihsahn releases his eight solo album with a metal and an orchestral version. A new cascade of complex music constructions is ready to be absorbed by the fans and interested music lovers. Ihsahn (Vegard Sverre Tveitan) needs in fact no introduction as one of the most important and influential voices in the extreme music spectrum. In his more than thirty year career as a genre-bending musician, composer and producer we have never missed one album he was involved in.
Ihsahn (the metal part) expanses as an new listening adventure in which the Norwegian musician seeks anew his competence into an intricate form of sound expressions and compositions. His dedication and evolution as a master smith melting his own black metal influences with progressive rock, classical, electronica and industrial music seems unstoppable. Ihsahn’s newest self-titled album contains a series of complex black metal infused prog-metal songs with versatile vocal work. He pushes himself across new borders of creativity with this dual recording, resulting in a progressive adventurous metal album and an orchestral soundtrack of a movie that doesn’t exist.
Both versions of Ihsahn can be seen as independent albums and shine with high quality shape shifting compositions and fascinating atmospheres. The desire to keep his loyal fan-base and himself interested boosted his inspiration and dedication as a composer. The stunning orchestral part are variations of the same metal music version and show a complete new side of the musician. Ihsahn works again with drummer and percussionist Tobias Ørnes Andersen (Leprous and Shining) and Tobias Solbakk who also plays drums on Emperor’s live performances. Ihsahn’s son Angell Solberg Tveitan is responsible for additional percussion and the contemporary violinist Chris Baum supports the Wagnerian bombast of this album with excellent violin work.
Ihsahn is an outstanding maze of musical creativity. Once you get into it (this dual album isn’t just a quick piece of ear candy) you don’t want to get out of it. Ihsahn once said why he won’t write a new Emperor album because you can’t compete with nostalgia. We agree, we only wish that he continues to surprise and astonish us with new complex musical creations. The vinyl fans have the opportunity to purchase a 4LP limited edition version of this amazing piece of art.
