I must admit that debut Ihsahn solo album ‘The Adversary’ pretty much passed me by with a few cursory listens and never really did that much for me. Now I am going to have to go and give it another spin as follow up angL (and yes that is how the title is presented) strikes me as a much more thorough and compelling listen. Perhaps like many I was pissed at Emperor’s demise and didn’t give the first solo album the fair attention it deserved.
I cannot see this album leaping off the shelves in the shops as far as the cover is concerned, being pretty much black on black with only the title standing out, but then again with the artist having such a reputation this is an album many are going to no doubt seek out rather than one being purchased on a whim by the curiosity seeker with money burning a hole in their pockets. Onboard to help out with the instrumentation are Spiral Architects Asgeir Mickelson (also Borknagar) on drums and Lars Norberg on bass. Apparently lyrically this is personal with a deep Nietzchean thread, so no great surprises there really.
With nine tracks at a 45 minute running time there is little time for eccentricity and pretension here as one may have worried about. Indeed as the opening bars of ‘Misanthrope’ played in, a fellow reviewer chanted ‘Curse Ye All Men’ summing up the fact that many Emperor fans should well be comfortable here. The swathes of keyboards wash over this with a pompous sounding austerity whilst the vocals gruffly forge ahead with a somewhat filthy demeanour. It has to be said this sounds like it could have been a track falling in continuation from ‘IX Equilibrium’ as do other parts of the album in fact I could go out on a limb here and say that I may even end up enjoying this more than Prometheus as time goes on.
One always expected progressiveness would come into play as well and the skew-whiff guitar work on ‘Scarab’ proves exactly so. A lighter airy track this without the hectic keyboards at first, it is on the whole allowed to breathe before going into a more haywire constructed flurry complete with chaotic guitar soloing. The first real clean vocal parts also make their appearance here just in case you were wondering. It is the vocals of ‘Unhealer’ that are going to be one of the albums moot talking points being provided by Mikael Åkerfeldt. I must admit although noticing instantly they were not provided by Ihsahn, I could not place them until I read this. This somewhat different approach makes the song a bit of a mystery, the clean soulful singing of Mikael really does stand out here. It has to be said the death growls he provides ala Bloodbath are very much more comfortable listening.
At times the melody is both complex and deliriously executed ‘Emancipation’ is one such example along with vocals flying off the stratosphere this is an excellent number that cascades away albeit with a somewhat surprising joyous sounding vibe. By the hammer-blow delivery of ‘Malediction’ it is evident as far as this review is concerned that it is going to be difficult not to mention each and every song on this album. This in my opinion is the sign of one that is going to both stand the test of time and have something exceptional going about it. This is one raw and angry Empirical number and one I would suggest any fan of Emperor listen to first and see if they find it easy to dismiss this album out of hand then.
Rather than turning this into a 1500 word review I am going to cut to the chase with the second half of the album and just say listen out for the segment of ‘Elevator’ which sounds like it could have escaped from the new Opeth album, the smooth tones of ‘Threnody’ slipping down like a nice pint of Guinness and ‘Monolith’, mournful and mellow at start, violent and angry like an exploding volcano seconds later.
What you have is an album of complexity and depth one that I am glad found its way to me as I probably would not have had this at the top of my shopping list. Where Ihsahn goes from here is anyone’s guess, will he think about touring the solo stuff live, somehow I doubt it. Will Emperor reform and record another album, will they even just do some more gigs with the old stuff, who knows? Whatever happens angL is worthy of the legacy behind it.
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