### Ihsahn: AngL

#### 31/03/11 || The Duff

Before re-inactivating the now once more defunct black metal legendary outfit Emperor, Ihsahn dumped his floundering side-project come (cum?) main outlet Peccatum for his first solo outing not that different to Emperor’s majestic swansong “Prometheus”, just with more of the man’s progressive adornment that could be found throughout said album of which he was the sole writer; “The Adversary” was an album overall well received by the metal masses, and ever the prolific musician, soon to be followed up just two years on with “AngL” (pronounced Angel or Angle, evidently), an inferior, less grandiose effort but a black/thrash/prog juggernaut much the same.

Opinions on “AngL” were certainly divisive upon its release; it would appear that fans of the “The Adversary” shied away from the more straightforward attack, and in this regard, it is no doubt a disappointing affair much as I’m sure the final two Emperor studio efforts were to fans of “In the Nightside Eclipse” and “Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk”. As a standalone piece, though, “AngL” rarely lets the listener down, and any fan of well written, versatile metal played with the mind and heart of a class-A music-enthusiast should greatly warm to what’s on offer.

Where Ihsahn has changed his style from the prog/black metal of “The Adversary” (and the jazz-upbeat meets hauntingly depressive style of his latest, “After”) is that this is a lot less conceptual; nine tracks that stand perfectly fine all by themselves, each one different than the other yet a common thread tying all the pieces together, chiefly Ihsahn’s trademark chunky and tight rhythm playing and highly identifiable shrieks (juxtaposed his heart-tugging croons). Quite the experienced sound engineer, if this album was recorded in any way like “After”, the guitars were laid down and arranged at home, on a desktop by Ihsahn himself, the job overall very professionally rendered.

The classical influence is centered predominantly on the guitars this time, the bombastic instrumentation of “The Adversary” lost to thick layers of straightforward distortion. The music is of course replete with over-flared, gracefully executed solos, busy, elegant riffs, harmonies and such, mixing the entire range of the man’s most common influences: metal, jazz, prog, classical. Recruited is the multi-talented although not to everyone’s tastes for some reason Asgeir Mickelson who provides little outside of his usual style, some dude on the bass and Mikael Åkerfeldt as guest-vocalist on track “Unhealer”, proving once more that he is the definitive deep and haunting death metal growler.

A very fulfilling effort but agreeably his weakest of three thus far.

- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Candlelight
- Website: http://www.ihsahn.com/
- Band
- Ihsahn: vocals, guitars, synth/keys
- Lars K. Norberg: bass
- Asgeir Mickelson: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Misanthrope
- 02.Scarab
- 03.Unhealer
- 04.Emancipation
- 05.Malediction
- 06.Alchemist
- 07.Elevator
- 08.Threnody
- 09.Monolith