The Ever-evolving Symphony Of Ihsahn

As the frontman of Emperor, Ihsahn rose to prominence in a black metal scene laced with screaming and violence. However, his music’s only grown more progressive, symphonic and melodic since. The avant-garde maestro tells Prog why his new, self-titled album is his most definitive and complex release yet.

Matt Mills

It’s a frigid January when Prog video-calls Ihsahn. Outside, our hometown of London is enduring a particularly harsh winter, with temperatures hovering below freezing and ferocious winds only strengthening the bite of the chill in the air. However, we’re on the phone with a progressive metal musician who’s lived his whole life in Norway: we don’t get any sympathy. “It’s around 0˚C?” Ihsahn asks rhetorically, sat in his home while wearing a jet-black turtleneck jumper. “That’s springtime!” Ihsahn grew up looking the extreme potential of Norwegian nature dead in the face. When standing right outside the farm he was raised on in the rural town of Notodden, he could see snow-capped mountains and icecold rivers. Indoors, he spent most of his time shielded from the elements playing piano and guitar,…

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Prog Italia (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 148

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