| CD REVIEW Ihsahn |
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Band : Ihsahn Multi-instrumentalist Ihsahn (real name Vegard Sverre Tveitan) is hardly an unknown entity in Extreme Metal circles, him having been the frontman of globally appreciated Norwegian Black Metal act Emperor! He started his career at very young age, playing piano at age 7, guitar at 10, and starting to record soon after…joining his longtime musical partner Tomas Haugen (known as Samoth) in Death Metal act Xeresia in 1990. That same year the band changed names to Embrionic and recorded the one demo, before again changing names to Thou Shalt Suffer in 1991. They recorded a demo and full-length album before Haugen left. Tveitan was left as only member, and he’s seen TSS as a side-project ever since (releasing a 2000 album). However, Haugen and Tveitan immediately started Emperor, a worldwidely appreciated refined Black Metal act that was to produce a total of 4 full-lengths, one 12-inch EP, a 7-inch EP, and one CD-EP of studio material, one live album, and 3 additional split albums. In 1995 Tveitan (playing synths), alongside other members of Emperor and Satyricon, featured on the cult album Blood Must Be Shed by Zyklon-B. That same year Ihsahn guested as synth player on Wongraven’s Fjelltronen album. In ’98 he started the more experimental project Peccatum (sprouting his already typical synth sounds plus both clean and Blackened vocals) with his wife Heidi (nickname Ihriel), which would eventually make a total of 3 full-length albums and 2 EPs before being ended in March 2006. In 2001 Emperor released its last studio album Prometheus: The Discipline Of Firre And Demise, completely composed by Tveitan and displaying the band’s most complex music ever. Soon after the group disbanded in mutual agreement. Emperor however made a surprise return in 2005, but only to do a couple of shows at festivals and following touring. Ihsahn actvities during 2002 worth mentioning include him doing guest vocals on one track of the Arcturus album The Sham Mirrors, and contributing guitar and bass (among others) to the Star Of Ash album Iter. Viator. Ihsahn released his first solo album The Adversary (showcasing both his progressive, Heavy Metal, Black Metal, and Classical influences)in April 2006, with all instruments save for percussion (done by Asgeir Mickelson) played by himself. Kristoffer Rygg (of Ulver, a band Ihsahn had done guest vocals for on a track of their 1998 album Themes From William Blake’s The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell) guested as vocalist on one song. The album was recorded at his own Symphonique Studios and released through his own label Mnemosyne Productions, formed in 2003 with his wife. In 2007 Ihsahn not only gave his voice to an animated character from the Adult Swim cartoon Metalocalypse in one specific episode, but also released the Grimen album with his new project Hardingrock (a colloboration with his wife and fiddler Knut Buen aka Grimen). On his second solo album (writing session for which started in early 2007, right after Ihsahn’s return home from touring with Emperor) Ihsahn again used Mickelson for drum duties, and introduced bassist Lars K. Norberg. A guest performance on one song was laid away for Mikael Äkerfelt (Opeth). Ihsahn’s third solo album (which he sees as the completion of his planned trilogy of releases under his own name) has both Mickelson and Norberg (both of Spiral Architect, by the way) returning, and sees a collaboration with Shining saxophone player Jorgen Munkeby on no less than half of the songs. And in doing so Ihsahn sees his wish to incorporate sax in his music finally fulfilled. Musically, After is a logical continuation of Ihsahn’s first two solo albums. A combination of Progressive (Pink Floyd style in some instances – I mean, for the title track he even rips off a PF riff, which he then repeats throughout the song somewhat) and layered Extreme Metal (molten to an Epic whole that is simply compellingly attractive), and with vocals going from Blackened to clean. During “A Grave Inversed”, he includes a piano passage, and during the overall calmer “Austere” he adds a classy organ to the instrumentation. I have to say, although the other tracks are certainly exciting enough as well, I kinda prefer those with the sax in ‘em…as that instrument adds an extra warmth and layer to analyse! Now I’ve been trying to find you some place on the Internet where you might find music off this album, but you’ll find none at either ihsahn.com or myspace.com/ihsahnmusic (although the latter has two songs off each previous album available). You càn however check out samples from the album at Amazon.com! Of course, the album’s out by the time you get to read this, so perhaps you might just as well go downtown to your favourite record shop and hive the album a listening session there! I’m sure they will have it in-store! Meanwhile, I’ve found one of the first album released in 2010 to be added to my year-lists! 98/100 Tony. |