At this point, Ihsahn needs little introduction. His work first with Emperor and then as a solo act has established him as one of black metal’s luminaries, endlessly ambitious and creative. That holds when his music is many times removed from the classic sound he helped pioneer; his status means his experiments stretch the genre’s boundaries where other artists would be seen as having left. This is a particularly pertinent point for his recently released self-titled effort. You see, while some aspects of the album are clearly black metal accented, others call to mind nothing so much as a schmaltzy Hollywood blockbuster. Which, while arguably very emblematic of mankind’s brutality, are considerably less black metal.
It’s not that this sort of symphonic approach is inherently bad. Opener “Cervus Venator” has those overtones, but balances the innocent grandeur with a sense of foreboding. It’s a fitting prelude to “The Promethean Spark” and “Pilgrimage to Oblivion”, in which Ihsahn‘s blackened and avant-garde approach to metal straddles emotions. It’s by turns bombastic, melancholic, tense and angry. They are excellent examples of why Ihsahn is such a big deal. Then all of a sudden, songs like “Twice Born” and “A Taste of the Ambrosia” abandon this poise and sound like nothing so much as Disney inspired video games for long stretches. The tonal whiplash is considerable. These saccharine moments continue to crop up throughout and they make this a hard album to love. It’s not until the grandly elegiac “At The Heart Of All Things Broken” that Ihsahn pulls it back together and delivers great rather than good.
If a young band wrote this, I’d praise the ambition and express excitement for the future. I’m not going to hold Ihsahn to a higher standard, but it’s hard to form a narrative of a developing act with him. This album has to stand as it is, a mix of cinematic score and blackened prog metal that doesn’t always meld seamlessly. The metal world will continue to await Ihsahn’s work but I hope he turns his attention to other ideas rather than continuing to evolve this one.
