Style: modern classical, score, prog black metal (instrumental)
Recommended for fans of: Hans Zimmer, Gustav Holst, John Williams, Septicflesh, Einar Solberg
Country: Norway
Release date: 16 February 2024
This is what our blog is all about. We’re the fancy-pants twats to take on a classical disk by one of the most accomplished composers in metal’s fifty-four year history. While Ihsahn, the man behind Ihsahn (who could have guessed), soars well above our typical listener cap and this is a one-off review of a unique album other blogs likely won’t review, releasing an accompanying orchestral version to some of the best progressive black metal of the decade that stands alone is the heart of progressive music, a glorious achievement in the world of prog metal more artists should strive toward and something we here at The Subway™ strive to promote.
Of course, I should talk about the Ihsahn-cum-metal version briefly: It’s near the zenith of orchestral metal, breathing with a string-laden pulse that’s as much metal-driven classical as it is the opposite. Ihsahn has few peers in this regard—Aquilus, Septicflesh, Lamentari, Xanthochroid, Wilderun, and Haralabos Stafylakis are the only artists in the conversation for their masterful usage of an orchestra in metal. Ihsahn’s storied career—ranging from the teenage years in the early black metal scene as a founding member of the forever-kvlt Emperor to his recent a-ha covers with his brother-in-law and prog-metal-legend-in-his-own-right Einar Solberg—ranges the entire spectrum from rawly produced trem-picking and shrieks to clean pop. Ihsahn is the synthesis and culmination of over thirty years of musical experience, marrying the best of each of his eras and then adding the awe-inspiring orchestration to elevate it above it all. It wouldn’t be an outrageous wager to bet that Ihsahn would be what Emperor grew into had they continued based on their last few albums, but I also think he takes from his post-Emperor experiences to craft this multilayered behemoth of an album.
Now, back to scheduled programming: Ihsahn [Orchestral] could only have been written by the man himself. I could draw comparisons to composers aplenty—particularly in the film world—but the orchestration bubbles and overflows into huge crescendos particularly redolent of the fraught intensity of metal. Moreover, Ihsahn himself says why this album is so successful in “At the Heart of All Things Broken” (metal version) right before the final intensely orchestrated, bombastic, orgasmic climax when he sings, “A seed of the sublime.” Yeah yeah, I salivate over that word to describe metal because of my academic research and theories of metal, but Ihsahn *is* Romantic in every sense of the word, these orchestrations in particular. Listening to “Hubris and the Blue Devils” or “A Taste of the Ambrosia,” I cannot help but imagine myself at the top of a mountain in a sea of fog or experiencing a euphoric opium high. The orchestration provides a sense of majesty and wonder that I’ve never heard quite as explicitly in a composed-for-metal composition, ebbing and flowing with ornamented splendor as horns and strings dance together in euphony.
I do believe Ihsahn changed the arrangements slightly from the metal disk to fill in some of the space that the electric instruments vacated, but at times Ihsahn [Orchestral] can feel ever-so-slightly hollow as if it does rely on the dynamics with those guitars and drums. However, the compositions still easily stand on their own although an increased presence of the rich, sonorous horns to fill out the lower end of the orchestral side would have completely ameliorated my issues with the album. Finally, the production here is absolutely stunning, capturing an orchestra as organically as a living superorganism of human instrumentation should be recorded—truly phenomenal.
Ihsahn has upped the ante—lowered the bar (if this is limbo, that is)—for progressive metal. The next generation of prog metal composers will have to be “real” composers in addition to their metal passion projects if they want to fill the shoes of the old guard. While recording an album gets easier with each passing year with the advent of new and affordable technologies, the pedigree required to make a lasting impression has risen at a higher rate. With a single bonus disk, Ihsahn has changed the progressive metal landscape—good riffs no longer cut it.
Recommended tracks: A Taste of the Ambrosia, Hubris and the Blue Devils, At the Heart of All Things Broken
You may also like: Haralabos Stafylakis, Xanthochroid, Aquilus, Casey Crescenzo, Lamentari
Final verdict: 8/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Candlelight Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website
Ihsahn is:
– Ihsahn (vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards)
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