March 2022 Feature Release – The Infinite Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month’s feature release for The Infinite has been nominated by Xephyr. It's the 2008 sophomore album "angL" from Emperor front man Ihsahn. I don't think I've ever given this one a full listen before but I quite enjoyed Ihsahn's highly regarded 2010 follow-up "After" so I'll be interested to see how it compares.

https://metal.academy/releases/3849

Yeah, this is a really solid outing that might just be my new pick of the Ihsahn solo work I've heard. It's very professionally performed & produced, offers enough traces of genuine black metal to keep the extreme metal tragic in me satisfied & features some really interesting & exciting progressive lead guitar work. There's not a weak track on offer but the Mikael Akerfeldt collaboration piece "Unhealer" is the clear highlight which is an indication that Ihsahn's clean vocals aren't exactly in the same class as his Swedish counterpart. I'd also suggest that the hooks aren't strong enough to push this into the upper ratings but it's hard to be too critical of a package that's this well executed. Perhaps the symphonic more moments don't fit quite as well inside my wheel-house but this is about as "progressive metal" as progressive metal gets & will undoubtedly offer a lot of appeal for fans of bands like Opeth & Enslaved.

4/5

Ihsahn (b. Vegard Sverre Tveitan), as I'm sure everyone already knows, was the mainman behind black metal legends Emperor. Even before Emperor had been put to sleep he had formed a progressive / avant-garde outfit called Peccatum, playing alongside his wife, vocalist / keyboard player Ihriel (who, incidentally, is also the sister of Einar Solberg of Leprous). At this point Ihsahn was way more interested in the progressive and avant-garde than in continuing to recycle the same old material in Emperor and so the band split in 2001. Five years later and Ihsahn was ready to release his first solo album, The Adversary which he put out on his own Mnemosyne Productions label in April of 2006. Now, personally, I was a massive Emperor fan at this time (and still am) and, to be honest, I really wasn't ready for Ihsahn's new direction and never really engaged with The Adversary at all, so despite giving it cursory attention I rapidly dismissed it.

So a couple of years passed and Ihsahn released a follow-up entitled angL, again released on Mnemosyne in May of 2008. I decided to give Ihsahn another go at this point and actually bought a very nice slipcard-enclosed CD copy which I still have. Sadly, I still couldn't really get to grips with this Ihsahn music that wasn't Emperor and the CD was put on a high shelf to be forgotten... until now that is. Thankfully, and in no small part due to the influence of my membership of Metal Academy, I have become more open to music that pushes boundaries and leads me out of my own personal comfort zone, which Ihsahn's music most definitely does, and listening to this afresh, I now have a much more positive connection to it than I had previously and, indeed, derived a great deal from it and some idea of why Ihsahn felt he could no longer be confined by the limits of Emperor.

Despite saying this, angL actually opens with a track (Misanthrope) that could easily have been released on an Emperor album without raising any eyebrows. However, second track Scarab reveals more of what solo Ihsahn is all about, a song that is far more progressive metal than black metal, despite his typical black metal vocals, with several twists and turns that also illustrate how his songwriting had developed and illustrate why he was unable to stay within the confines of a purely black metal outfit. The next track Unhealer has a guest vocal performance from a certain Mikael Akerfeldt, a musician whose quest for ever more complex musical expression is something I'm sure Ihsahn could identify with at this point. This is quite a melodic little number and suits Akerfeldt's vocals beautifully, with a nice light/dark contrast between gentler, clean sung parts and the heavier sections complete with Mikael's distinctive death growls that makes for a track that will sound familiar to Opeth fans.

Emancipation is a weird track, it is another melodic number, but it's verses sound, in a weird way, a bit like David Bowie and Robert Fripp and another nice melo-prog number. Malediction is another more black metal infused track, in similar style to the opener, Misanthrope that is reminiscent of some of the material on IX Equilibrium such as Curse You All Men! or An Elegy of Icaros. The Alchemist is another track that contains Ihsahn's clean vocals and I'm sorry, but he really does remind me of David Bowie with his intonation (and I don't think this is a bad thing - I love Bowie!) Some great guitar work on this track too that makes it a bit of a standout for me, although everyone else seems to hate it.

Elevator is a dark, disorienting track that feels like a journey into another dimension where up and down, left and right are indistinct as Ihsahn's crooning, cajoling voice anchors the song and provides a stable focus. Next up is Threnody and this starts off sounding very much like Benighted from Opeth's Still Life before opening up with some more nice guitar work. Closer Monolith is once again a more straight-up melodic black metal offering, although it does have a softer proggy centre, and it's weird that all three of the more black metal tracks on angL are the ones that begin with the letter "M" - not a coincidence I'm sure.

Mikael Akerfeldt's presence on angL is no coincidence either I don't think, as it feels like Ihsahn was trying to take a similar kind of direction with his own music as Akerfeldt was doing with Opeth at this point (Watershed was released the same year) and may have been keen on swapping ideas with Opeth's creative mastermind. This is certainly nothing like as difficult a listen as I remember it being, it is probably still 30-40% black metal and quite a bit of it is exceedingly melodic and, dare I say, even catchy, with the avant-garde being (thankfully) non-existent.

I've really got to thank Xephyr a lot for nominating this as it has given me a chance to re-evaluate a release I had initially dismissed and found it to be a hugely enjoyable experience. I'd better move the CD from it's position on the highest shelf to a place where I can reach it much more easily as I think I'll be coming back to this one pretty damn soon!

4/5

Emperor are usually among the short list of bands in the black metal genre that are among essential listening for getting into. And, like with so many others, In The Nightside Eclipse and Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk are excellent records. Although I will admit, digging further into the Emperor rabbit hole and hearing the quasi prog/avant-garde leanings of Prometheus left me fascinated what this band could do beyond symphonic black metal.

The shame is of course the band disbanding very shortly after that album released. After a recovery window, frontman and brains of that band, Ihsahn, went on to form his own solo project that could double down on the progressive tendencies and not be bogged down by the former bands legacy. And angL is a fascinating album; not quite as good as the best solo projects like the far more successful follow up After, but you can hear strides leading them down the path.

I think my biggest complaint with this album is how much is sounds like an Opeth record circa 2001. I'm sure this is not meant to be a surprise considering Mikael Åkerfeldt actually shows up "Unhealer" and the two of them have some really strong chemistry. And that's before mentioning how well the track blends its styles and themes together. It's very well done and mimics the best parts of Opeth songwriting, without resorting to the ten-plus-minute epic trope.

That said, I cannot wrap my head around tracks like "Elevator" and "Scarab". Both songs are really good with "Scarab" being an album highlight, but they both use the similar songwriting tropes of a Blackwater Park with soaring open chord harmonies in the guitars, alternating harsh and sung vocals, and slow, comfortable grooves not allowing the percussion to truly break free. Honestly I question myself if this is a good thing or not: "if it worked so well for Opeth, why not just replicate it" I think. And sure that is a valid point, but Ihsahn could really do a lot more with the sound than just play it straight.

As Sonny alluded to, this album's three outliers are "Misanthrope", "Malediction" and "Monolith". These tracks are much heavier on the black metal tones; tremolo guitar melodies, sweeping rhythm chords, blast beats and primarily harsh screaming. They sound much cleaner than some of the later Emperor cuts on Prometheus, and ditch the symphonic tones for technical prowess; a sound that Ihsahn pulls off remarkably well. The alternating time and style changes, especially on "Monolith" do not sound phoned in.

angL has the feeling of a test run for me. It's Ihsahn trying to see how much he can get away with without disappointing or outright insulting the black metal fanbase, before going full balls to the wall progressive black metal on After a couple of years later. I think the shorter song structures and runtime only play into this albums benefit, since Ihsahn is such a proficient writer, he can make tracks feel like they could go longer. The production is solid and the tracks flows smoothly into one another. But sounding like an Opeth album instead of a...y'know...an Ihashn album, does leave it a tick lower in my books.

7/10

I have listened through angL on a few occasions this past week.  As Saxy calls out it is a lot like Opeth at the peak of their powers with Blackwater Park and whilst this is perhaps a back-handed complaint, it is important to point out as I feel it sacrifices a lot of the albums identity.  Not to say that this a clone of course as there is reference aplenty to Ishahn's genuine brilliance and enough Emperor call outs to keep the corpse-paint wearer in me satiated.  

Overall I find it a very succinct listen with the overall track structures sounding very compact despite them exploring some lengthy ground in the process.  I am not moved enough to add it to my listening rotation but it has served as a nice variation away from my regular listening patterns this week.

3.5/5