By: DeathViking

Posted: Jun 19, 2006

Ihsahn has finally put out his official solo album. He is responsible for almost the entire album. All of the music was recorded, produced, and mixed by Ihsahn. The drums were recorded and edited by Asgeir Mickelson and the vocals on 'Homecoming' were recorded by Kristoffer G. Rygg and Tore Ylvisaker. Now that is out of the way and there are only a few more things to rundown. First and foremost being that this is not an Emperor album. Just forget about it! With that being said, this is still Ihsahn and you can most definitely tell that it is him by the styling of the music and his unmistakable voice.

There were a few things that I instantly became confused about upon listening to this album the first time through. I remember reading an interview where he stated something to the effect that this album would be like a span of his musical career in the metal world. I expected to hear songs in the vein of his other projects that he has been with. What I did not expect however, was for it to happen during every song. Instead, it seems that he has taken the influences through his musical career and through his own style; he gives it back to us his way. As already stated, this is Ihsahn… maybe to expect something particular out of him, other than the style of his guitar playing and the sound of his voice should be forgotten about as well. He has not played well with expectations thus far. Why start now?

The production on this album may or may not be well received depending on your perspective. It is very similar to the production style on "Prometheus: The Discipline Of Fire And Demise" with yet even more of a clean, sterile sound. The string sections that he uses in this album are well heard and very clear. This is very fitting for this particular album. The elements in the music that he uses throughout this album really call for a clean sound. It brings out the best quality in the music, and it just really can not afford to have the gritty sound that other albums can get away with.

Musically this album is a hard, soft, hard, soft, hard, soft... you get the point. Most albums that take this route I have disregarded even after giving it more chances than it might deserve. This one is different. Perhaps because of the way that it has been done. When the harder parts are playing through, even though the sound is very clean, it is still fast and dark. It does not have a hurry up to get to the slow part, or make it really soft for the hard part to kick in extra hard. Each part comes in when it happens to come. When the clean parts do come in, the piano and the strings have a very elegant sound to them. The singing on this album is varied quite a bit more than what one might be used to coming from the previous experiences. There are points when the falsetto really comes out as the way you will expect it to when you hear it done well. The guitar playing on this album is very good and the solos are few but do not lack the luster that they deserve. The clean parts on this album are very tasteful in most of its aspects. It does seem however that there is just a little too much usage of the piano and strings. If it just had a little more of edge and bite to the album I think that might make it more satisfying.

Throughout the entirety of the album Asgeir Mickelson does a great job adding in his flare to the songs. His playing style really suits this album with the slower clean parts adding splashes of color filling out the songs and giving them the right boost of energy without disturbing the flow. He was the perfect fit for this project. Kristoffer G. Rygg and Tore Ylvisaker also add exceptional parts on this album adding some great harmonies in 'Homecoming' which was probably one of the more progressive and softer songs on the album. The diversity of this album is maybe not as broad on the whole, but you can expect to hear influence from black, death, and progressive metal along with the non metal or rock interludes.

This is a very mixed album. There have been parts that sank in very well the first time listening through it, but there were also a few parts that just did not quite fit into the expectations that I had going into the album. This is definitely not one of the albums that you listen to and fall in love with instantly. This is one of those albums that have had to grow on me. For that I am still unsure about a couple parts. Typically when these albums come around that take more time to absorb, once they have, the greatness of the album comes out even more, and it seems to get better with every play.

Rating: 8/10

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