IHSAHN
Das Seelenbrechen
Candlelight (2013)
Rating: 7.5/10
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Emperor and former Peccatum mainstay, Ihsahn, returns with his fifth solo album for Candlelight Records. Entitled Das Seelenbrechen, it is yet another pretty damn indefinable piece of music that leans far more to the artsier, more cinematic side of Ihsahn’s musical personality. If you thought the Norwegian multi-instrumentalist’s previous albums were schizophrenic, wait until you hear this one.
Everything about this album screams for the cinema. Each track could easily be made into a mini-movie on par with Let The Right One In (2008) or The Signal (2007). ‘Rec’ is one of the prime examples of this, starting out with a dark humbleness that oozes creepy vibes before building into a sinister, twisted carnival of odd guitar tunings and drill noises… and it’s only two and a half minutes long. It does more in that two and a half minutes than most whole albums though, winding its way from sparse music to the sound of insanity you are more likely to expect.
By contrast, songs like the slightly noisy but gorgeous ‘Sub Ater’ and the almost Anathema textured ‘Pulse’ help the album to rise above any preconceived notions. The absolutely stunning and powerful ‘Regen’, features sung vocals, extreme vocals, choirs, progressive guitar solos, and tons of dark atmosphere. All are quite accessible by Ihsahn album standards.
Stating in interviews that if Emperor were making new albums it would sound like his solo albums, there are a few songs here that definitely lend credence to that idea. The progressive aspect of Prometheus (2001) is certainly the basis for the side of his personality that spawns songs like ‘Tacit 2’ and ‘Tacit’ (yep, in that order). They effortlessly fit into that era of Emperor. The opening track, ‘Hiber’, has a lot of these elements as well, particularly the first half of the song and it’s distinctly styled lyrics, snarled by the one who is both poet and madman.
Das Seelenbrechen is like all Ihsahn albums in that it is tremendously interesting. It’s never idle and it never allows you the comfort of predicting what might come next. In that sense, it can be a challenging listen for those that look for an album to be fluid. It’s more like the musical equivalent of playing Whack-a-Mole. While there are moments I absolutely love and a few that I just can’t get into, I respect everything here. Like any atmospheric, cinematic album though, this album demands your undivided attention and if you give it any less, you won’t enjoy it at all.
Mark Fisher
