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Ihsahn: Standing on the Shores of a Black Sea

Oh sure, I’ve serenaded the dusky welkin with the occasional anthem, I’ve been disciplined in fire and demise, I’ve enjoyed the periodic nightside eclipse and even [insert something clever about the self-titled Emperor album here], but there is a fandom cult league for highly influential Norwegian black metallers Emperor to which I simply don’t belong. Not that I can’t or don’t appreciate the records, I just don’t salivate like a Pavlovian dog at the mere mention of their titles.

Accordingly, I feel in some strange way qualified to review After, the third post-Emperor solo outing of frontman Ihsahn (né Vegard Sverre Tveitan). I’m familiar with his work, but not masturbatingly so; having heard both 2008’s angL and 2006’s The Adversary, it’s possible to have some sense of what he’s done since Emperor’s disbanding and what exactly he’s changing up with After. You know, other than throwing in some free jazz saxophone and that kind of thing.

Ihsahn, who also recorded After in his Symphonique Studio, still plays with the melodies and progressive death metalisms he showed on angL, it it’s not until the title track, third of the total eight, that that side really shows up. The first two tracks, “The Barren Lands” and “A Grave Inversed” — the latter featuring that aforementioned free jazz saxophone — are righteously heavy and nearly if not completely blackened metal. Even on “After,” Ihsahn’s vocals morph into his trademark throaty approach, although they do so over an angular Opethian riff with single notes layered before shifting back into a melodic chorus. Nothing’s ever the same.

That tradeoff between what made Ihsahn a major cult figure in metal and where he wants to be driving his songs is essential to After. More so than The Adversary or angL, here on a song like “Frozen Lakes on Mars,” he seems comfortable striking a balance between what’s expected of him and his own creative whims. The result is a truer look at progressive black metal that comes off less pretentious or self-indulgent than his previous solo output (anyone who knows Emperor knows there’s going to be a certain amount of both no matter what), with a genuine focus on songwriting that feels refined and natural. As the album shifts into its second half with the 10-minute “Undercurrent,” Ihsahn has set a strong foundation from which to explore as he will.

“Undercurrent” reverses the heavy/soft switch, starting off melodically and working to a sax-laden apex toward its midsection before bringing in epic guitar riffing and multi-layered vocals. His construction of this song almost makes me wish he hadn’t produced After himself, but rather had brought in a non-strictly-metal co-producer who could better highlight the intricacies in the sound. Not that they’re not audible as “Undercurrent” moves into the Katatonia-esque melody of “Austere,” but on the whole, After seems as though it would benefit from a less isolated production. Something bigger but not necessarily louder.

“Austere” bravely holds back its heavier side and boasts toward its end a bass solo from Lars Koppang Norberg and rich guitar and synth work from the man himself. It becomes increasingly clear that After’s side B is the more experimental, but “Heavens Black Sea” once again brings back the structure familiar from the album’s first half, injecting it with a brazen (and brilliant) guitar solo around the 2:30 mark and seamlessly transitioning into the song’s back end which again brings back the saxophone and heavy riffing, finalizing in the noise that leads into closer “On the Shores,” After’s longest track at 10:13 and perhaps also its most dynamic.

The song opens with a slower doom march (once more topped with sax), as Ihsahn opens with heavy vocals. This leads so a dropout and atmospheric guitar lines and a chorus of Ihsahn singing and harmonizing and another one of those moments where I just want to be surrounded by the sounds and am not. The classic prog feeling made avant by the saxophone is among After’s richest moments. Shortly, the opening riff returns triumphantly and sends us into faster, thundering guitar work and the album’s best drumming from Asgeir Mickelson. It should be noted that at this point “On the Shores” is only half over.

The rest works its way out as it came in, more ambient guitar leading to the slower progression and saxophone closing the album out on its own as if to say, “Hey, in case you missed it, there was sax on this record.” By then you would not have missed it. Jorgen Munkeby, who handled the instrument throughout, could have been more subtle in places, but his playing proves virtuosic for the duration.

Ihsahn seems to be a figure who has always struggled to move past the tag with which his career has been saddled, namely black metal. If that’s still the case, After doesn’t show it. He not only seems comfortable being as heavy as the songs call for, but the fluidity with which he transitions from part to part within the tracks makes each individual piece an album in itself. The cult should be pleased, and though I don’t know how far beyond that the appeal of After will reach (hey, I like it, if that’s any indicator), Ihsahn strikes as the kind of guy who’s making albums for himself anyway. He, too, should be pleased.

Ihsahn on MySpace

Candlelight Records

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