THE ADVERSARY

Ihsahn is a Norwegian composer/multi-instrumentalist. His work with black/death metal band (don't ask me what the difference is) Emperor, and with a more adventurous and experimental Peccatum (his best work, if you ask me) has not been overlooked by metalheads. I am friends with one such metalhead, who lent me this aggressive piece of work. I have to say, it generally is a made-for-metalheads album. With the dissonant vocals (which is reduced to screaming at times), the apocalyptic and demonic lyrics, the blast beats and twin pedal abuse, and...orchestra? This is really an scalp-scratcher album. I really don't get this guy. The most aggressive, deathly song I've ever heard will fold right over into a slow piano led composition. And, though the orchestra sounds very synthetic, the melodies are quite nice.

But after a brief glimpse of personality to his music, it will fold back with the dissonant vocals again. The flat and static riffs are very generic death metal, and the metal side of the album is not overly original (or even energetic). However, these few moments of touching, almost uplifting music are really great. But there are more variations to the music than metal-to-orchestra. There's a few soft metal tunes, and even some classic rock riffs to even things out. I even swear I heard some Styx vocals in there! Once again, all this confuses me. And as, the vast majority of the album is this unsophisticated form of metal, the album still leaves me feeling rather unsatisfied. Without a doubt, this is worth checking out for you death metal/black metal fans!