Ihsahn (ex-Emperor)

I have to open a topic, now that the guy just released the best metal album of the decade...

For those not in the know, Ihsahn was the mastermind behinf Emperor, one of the greatest black metal bands of all time. He deeply influenced the sound of the band, and was the main composer on the last albums they did, bringing heavy, epic, orchestral stuff to their music.
Then the band splitted, and he went on his solo career. He released two pretty good records, which he entirely wrote, and on which he performs nearly every instrument (except drums, played by Asgeir Mickelson from Spiral Architect) :



They were good. But he just outdid himself.



Adding Shining's sax player to the fold, and welcoming Spiral Architect's bass player Lars, what he did on this third album is just downright brilliant. I said it before but think Emperor had a baby with King Crimson, then the baby was hit over the head with a shovel and went dark side of the Force. Yeah, right ?

The whole album was done on 8-string guitar, the sax adds SO MUCH it feels obvious, and Spiral's rhythmic section grooves like hell. Though his clean singing is really soulful, Ihsahn's shrieking remains unparalleled, and his composing skills never reached this high. This is absolute prog metal ; the genre itself was never best represented imho. Not that the other bands/artists are suddenly all lame, mind you, but this is something else.

Do I need to add the record was produced by Jens Bogren (Opeth, Katatonia...) ? Do I need to add two of these 8 tracks exceed the 10-minute mark ? Finally, do I need to add it's 3 am and yet I'm still spinning the fucking CD ?

I don't know when it's gonna be released (this is a promo CD I have), but if you can stand extreme vocals and jazz-metal stuff, don't miss it. And even if you don't, damn, give it a try.

Mindblowing

welllllll I see You started to listen black metal more and more detaily....wooooooooow!!!!

I always listened to black metal ; well, consistently for the last ten years or so. I just always was really picky
Usually the progish stuff I enjoy, but then again I tend to get really picky so even in this sub-genre of prog/ambient/melodic/thing BM, I ain't no easy client.

I mentioned Emperor/Ihsahn, Code and a few others already ; bands like Ulver (early releases), 1349, Enslaved, Burzum, Primordial are also huge faves of mine.