9. Ihsahn - Das Seelenbrechen
In at 9 is the latest effort from black metal legend and pioner Vegard Tveitan, aka Ihsahn, frontman of Norwegian titans Emperor. Ihsahn's solo career has not been lacking in experimentation, from the more traditional metal sound of debut The Adversary to the brilliant, flourishing appearances of saxophone on 2012's Eremita. The experimentation and wider influence of musical styles continues on Das Seelenbrechen (which I believe literally translates as "the soul break"). On this album Ihsahn manages to revisit the bleak, desolate lands he often frequented with Emperor whilst creating a record which sonically sounds different to anything his former band created. In doing so he manages to give black metal a rebirth that it so dearly needs, with the majority of high quality output in the genre having come from it's heyday in the 1990's - putting stock into the idea that black metal is an attitude, not a style of music. On Das Seelenbrechen, Ihsahn seems to make a concerted effort to disarm and disturb the listener - anyone putting this album on after listening to Eremita is likely to be disconcerted by what they hear. Large, looming walls of distorted guitar infiltrate the album at various points, backed by crashing drum fills that roll from side to side without any sort of tonal merit, as demonstrated on Hiber and Tacit 2. That's not to say that Das Seelenbrechen is one giant, atonal, misguided piece of art - it's far from it. Part of it's ability to disarm the listener is created by the juxtaposition between different tracks - from the progressive rock styles of NaCl to the more electronic themed Pulse, which is almost reminiscent of something Nine Inch Nails would put out. All in all, Das Seelenbrechen is probably Ihsahn's finest piece of solo work, and whilst it may not be the best album from his back catalogue to start with as a new listener, it is definitely likely to please long time fans of his work.