Ihsahn is a name synonymous with black metal. He played an essential role in pioneering Norwegian black metal as vocalist and chief song writer of Emperor. Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir may possess a fatter wallet than Emperor, but Emperor set the standard for symphonic black metal, releasing classics such as In the Nightside Eclipse and Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk. After making a name for his self in Emperor, Ihsahn began to work on various projects. Ihsahn, his wife—StarofAsh and her brother Lord PZ formed the avant-garde metal band, Peccatum .
Peccatum released its debut album, Strangling From Within in 1999. The next year was a busy time for Ihsahn. He revisited his first group, Thou Shalt Suffer, and took Peccatum and Emperor to the United States on a brief tour with Witchery and Borknagar. In 2001, Emperor released Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire and Demise, which signified their swan song. After the demise of Emperor, Ihsahn continued working on Peccatum and made guest appearances on Ulver and on StarofAsh—his wife’s solo band.
The Peccatum efforts weren’t black enough to satisfy many of the fans he gained with Emperor, so the blackened, up tempo rhythms that characterize his initial solo release came with great satisfaction. The Adversary (2006) saw a return to the savage sound of Emperor, yet included some of the avant-garde, experimental ideas Ihsahn toyed with during the post-Emperor years. After receiving an excellent response to The Adversary, Ihsahn will soon see his second studio output, angL, hit store shelves. The said album maintains the direct approach, atmosphere and dynamics of the first record, but Ihsahn presents richer melodies and places a greater emphasis on progressive chords.
“I put the finishing touches on it in the last couple months,” begins Ishahn. “I would say I’m very proud of it. It turned out very much like I planned. From what I’ve seen of the responses, most people seem to be satisfied with it. That is a plus.”
Popularity is definitely a plus because it means the album will sell. Too often artists feel compelled to write an album based on the fan response, but in the end, the artist has to be satisfied. Ihsahn agrees. “That is the only measure you can put on it. Having done this for half my life, I’m a better songwriter at 32 than when I was 16. People tend to rave at what I did as a teenager, still—the early Emperor albums. If I were to measure my success on what people think, I am way past my peak and I could retire. That is not the way I see it. I still believe my best is yet to come. I left Emperor in my mid-twenties. It was just one band. That doesn’t mean I’m going to retire. I’ve been just as busy with music, ever since. People measure things differently.”
Bands often release great albums that set the bar early on in their career. After that, people want the artists to continue making albums like their initial efforts. The albums Ihsahn released with Emperor at the start of his career helped pioneer the rise of black metal. Because of their initial success, many fans have expressed a desire to see Ihsahn to go backwards to the sound expressed in early Emperor records. Ihsahn feels this creates a paradoxical situation.
”It’s a kind of no-win situation because if you repeat yourself, people will say you are repeating yourself. If you do something new, they complain about it not being the same thing they liked before. What I say is if you prefer that material, you always have those old albums. From my perspective it can be annoying to always be seen as my own little brother. Because I played in Emperor, everything I do will always be compared to Emperor.”
Although Ihsahn becomes annoyed with the constant comparisons to Emperor, he understands the fan mindset. “As a music fan, I am like that, too. I have my favorite albums. It is kind of hard for me to sometimes warm up to some bands’ newer material. It is not that their music is getting worse or better, it is just that I invested so much of my own experiences and feeling into those albums, so they are more important on a personal level, and maybe not as important on a musical level. That is how I feel when I meet people on the Emperor reunion tours. They may shake or cry when they meet me. I don’t take anything away from that. They have invested a lot of memories and feelings to music that I happened to be part of. That is what I represent to them.
I can understand this mind set. The Nightside Eclipse was my introduction to Norwegian black metal. I will always be personally attached to that album and the times associated with it. Emperor will always be a part of Ihsahn. The Emperor influence is quite noticeable in certain parts on his latest recording angL; however, Ihsahn’s progress as a musician is quite noticeable.
“I think I needed to do something different for quite a few years after Emperor,” he relates. “On a personal level, there were so many people that had differing opinions about what our band should be about. That is not particularly the best inspiration for someone who is playing black metal, making them do stuff that they don’t want to do [laughs]. I think that part of my own creation was taken away from me. When you release stuff, you share things with others. Music is such a personal thing, so when people tried to pull our band in so many different directions, it just didn’t fit anymore. Of course, there were all these other reasons such as musical differences.
”When I started to write my solo material, I think I had come to terms with my musical past with Emperor. Earlier, I would think if my music sounded too much like Emperor, I would have to drop it. Now I think, this might sound like Emperor, but that really isn’t that strange because I wrote the majority of Emperor’s material. Of course, when I write metal music, some of it may resemble Emperor. I would say the majority of my new material does not resemble Emperor.
In addition to Ihsahn’s growth as a musician, he has also matured greatly as a song writer. Emperor’s lyrical themes became more philosophical and intelligent. The blunt, Christian-hating, pro Satan lyrics of his early career took a more ambiguous form. His solo efforts show a continued lyrical maturation. Ihsahn agrees that his songwriting ability has improved, but feels angL revisits the energy from his dark past.
“In a way, I feel I have come full circle,” he explains. “With these two solo albums, I have come back to the same kind of energy I fed off of on the first Emperor album. If you look at the lyrics from Anthems, Equilibrium, and onward, there is a change there. It goes from this hatred and black-and-white criticism of everything and the dream of something else to more objective lyrics. Those are as self-critical as they are to other things. When I started doing my last solo album (The Adversary), I was thinking about going back to being direct. I was tired of being too objective. I wanted to bring things back to the edge, and have a say about something: very concrete, directly and honestly. People will just have to react to it or not react to it. I have come back to the same energy, but on a whole different perspective. Lyrically, these two albums are probably the harshest, anti-social/misanthropic lyrics that I have ever done.”
According to Ishahn, many of the ideas on his solo albums express thoughts and beliefs scribed by Friedrich Nietzsche.
“It (angL) is not a concept album. I haven’t changed my lyrical themes that much over the years. I have just built on this theme of the individual fight against conformity, and many aspects of that. For each solo record, I have been greatly inspired by Nietzsche, in particular Thus Spoke Zarathustra. I like that book not just for its philosophical content, but also for its grand, biblical-like language that I find very beautiful and inspiring. The Antichrist is a much harsher and direct book, as are many of his other writings. It is the general principal, his guidelines of the reevaluation of all values, and the responsibility that we have to take as human beings. It is also about trying to find a moral system based on what is in your heart, not based on the ideas that political systems and religious institutions try to force upon you. The way I understand it is God is dead, and now it is time to take responsibility for your own morals, conscious and actions. You cannot lie that in the hands of destiny and some god, and use that as an excuse. It is all on yourself.”
