By Nicholas Kobe, Staff Writer 

[Candlelight Records; 2024]

Rating: 5/10

Key Tracks: “PILGRIMAGE TO OBLIVION”, “A TASTE OF THE AMBROSIA”, “HUBRIS AND BLUE DEVILS”

Best known as the vocalist, and guitarist of the legendary black metal band, Emperor, Ihsahn has crafted a career defined by pushing the boundaries. As Emperor stopped making albums, Ishan’s outlet for continuing to grow creatively has been through solo work. Ishan’s newest, self-titled release follows up 2018’s Ámr, as his eighth studio album serves as a prog tinged love letter to the genre he helped create: symphonic black metal. 

From the opening track, the instrumental “CERVUS VENATOR”, it’s clear that Ihsahn is very skilled at orchestral composition. It’s something Ihsahn clearly wanted to put a heavy focus on, considering there’s a whole separate orchestra-only version of the album. The mood conveyed by the orchestra does more to lift this album’s concept than the lyrics do. Ihsahn does some of his best work on this album when he’s letting the orchestra carry the emotions of the album. Like all good orchestral pieces, he not only creates atmosphere, but works in strong, memorable melodies, to make this more than just background noise.

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How much the orchestra was at the forefront of Ihsahn’s mind is very clear just by listening to the standard version of the album, even if you do not know his previous work in this genre. This is most evident for me in the production. The abrasive, chaotic mixes of straight-forward black metal are gone in favor of a record that, even at its heaviest, sounds crisp and clear. This helps the orchestra by making each instrument pop, especially whenever they need to do the heavy melodic lifting.

The issue is, to achieve that clarity, some unfortunate sacrifices had to be made, mainly to the metal side of the record. Don’t get me wrong, in a concept album such as this, I do appreciate the clearer mixing, simply because I can make out the lyrics. But considering black metal is a “vibes first, lyrics second” genre, an otherwise bad mix can complement the abrasive and downright evil instrumentation. It allows every instrument to form into one overwhelming and incoherent mass of sound that tramples you in all the best ways. Instead, due to the very sleek mix, we’re missing that effect. 

This is almost entirely a production problem, and not as much to do with the actual arrangements, which in my opinion, handle the flowing between orchestra and metal pretty well. It’s just hard to focus on when the metal sections are off putting, ironically, because they’re not off putting enough or in the right ways. 

Considering Ihsahn’s history, it’s not surprising he has that frying scream down to a science. I also love those classic tremolo picked guitars and the mountains of dissonance that are off putting in all the best ways. The black sections feel too sanitized to have the type of power it was designed for, lacking what makes an abrasive genre of music like this so great in the first place. 

Despite being a concept record, Ihsahn stays pretty obtuse lyrically. The story about fleeing civilized life to live in the untamed and hostile wilderness is enough to keep your mind engaged, but it’s not going to give you the answers or clarity found in something like The Wall. The reason Ihsahn works lyrically is how its themes play into the instrumentation to create a very cohesive atmosphere. 

As a symphonic black metal record, Ihsahn’s self-titled album has to mainly succeed at being good symphonically and being good black metal. Symphonically, it’s a pass with flying colors. In terms of black metal, while I like everything on paper and it’s all well performed, Ihsahn loses sight of the appeal of black metal when cleaning this record up. While there’s a lot more in the pros than the cons column, the lack of the truly intense energy of black metal means I probably won’t be coming back to this record often, despite its objective strengths.

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