THE ADVERSARY

A work of art.

The Adversary is the long awaited debut solo album by the Norwegian mastermind Vegard Sverre Tveitan, much better known as simply Ihsahn. The effort is the culmination of the man's career, showing his talent as a composer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, as well as his past experiences in such groups as Emperor and Peccatum. Although it may seem that Ihsahn is one of the many groups with various musicians handling their own instrument, this is not the case here, as the genius takes care of every instrument on the album besides drums and vocals on one single track, thus making it a solo album in the literary sense of the word.

Prometheus - The Discipline of Fire & Demise was the last Emperor release before the group disbanded and is still considered to be the first Ihsahn's solo album, as he was entirely responsible for its songwriting and lyrics and additionally played most of the instruments. In any case, it can be safely claimed that it is relevant to regard The Adversary as Prometheus's successor. Many similar elements are present and associations with that album are bound to spring, however, the five years since the album's release are noticeable, as we see a completely different Ihsahn. The Adversary sees the man approach Heavy Metal, which he has been playing since a young age, from a progressive, complex perspective. Owing to that, the release will be especially interesting to fans of modern Progressive Music, even those who generally are not enthusiastic about the idea of Extreme Progressive Metal. Yes, it is 'extreme' enough, there are riffs reminiscent of Black Metal and harsh vocals. Speaking of the latter, there are less of those than on any Emperor release in relation to clean vocals, and the vocals also lean towards a softer, more accessible side (if you have been following his output with Peccatum, it is that style he uses on their last recordings). Not only does it manage not to sound over the top and redundant, which not everyone enjoys, but all of the lyrics are audible and that is a refreshing change. More importantly, while one can say that his clean singing, which has clearly evolved and is now as enjoyable to listen to as never, is derivative of other singers (Garm, King Diamond), his shriek remains classy and unparalleled.

As it has been already mentioned, Ihsahn shows confidence in his skills by handling all of the instruments, except drums (which are handled by the guest drummer Asgeir Mickelson), supremely. His songwriting relies heavily on duelling guitars that guide the album in its direction, and his technique, while surpassed by many, proves to be absolutely satisfactory in terms of precision, emotion and originality. There are many great and memorable riffs, leads and solos to be found. Keyboards lack the cheesiness that early Emperor was guilty of and are usually played in the background rather than for masterful soloing purposes. The orchestrations he has written for this creation are just as brilliant, whereas the bass work is adequate and more audible during the quite parts. Asgeir's performance behind the kit is flawless, as you would expect from a musician from Spiral Architect. Furthermore, his contribution is different to that of Trym on late Emperor efforts, as he is significantly more versatile and diverse, when compared to Trym, who relied too heavily on blastbeats (which, let's be honest, were appropriate for that kind of music). Of special note is Garm's (who is the favourite singer for many listeners and an influence on Ihsahn) appearance on the fourth track, which is more mellow than the surrounding songs and features a Dream Theater-esque tech riff. The album consists of nine compositions, all of which aside from the magnificent epic "The Pain Is Still Mine" are between four and six minutes in length, yet manage to be captivating and substantial. The quality of the songwriting can be discovered by giving the record repeated listens, which reveal things and layers you haven't noticed before. The last song should be given a particular emphasis, being just over ten minutes long and having more significant progressive, classical and opera influences than the other tracks in the album. "The Pain Is Still Mine" is the record's most dramatic and grand number and the culmination of the album.

In the end, Ihsahn manages to create another masterpiece in The Adversary and prove that he has still a lot of creativity left in him for more fascinating work. The effort is vital for any person who already appreciates the man's talent, and is a perfect starting point for those who find Emperor's output to be too extreme and on the noisy side of things.

"The Adversary" is the debut full-length studio album by Norwegian progressive extreme metal artist Ihsahn (Real name: Vegard Sverre Tveitan). The album was released through Mnemosyne Productions in April 2006. The former Emperor frontman/guitarist busied himself with the Peccatum project with his wife Ihriel (real name Heidi S. Tveitan) after Emperor disbanded in 2001, but then opted to pursue a solo career and decided to name his solo project after his stage name Ihsahn.

The last couple of Emperor albums were increasingly progressive and less black metal oriented compared to the band´s early material and it became more and more obvious that Ihsahn was the member of the band, who pulled Emperor in that direction. While the other members of Emperor went on to form the death metal act Zyklon, Tveitan maintained his progressive approach to writing music both in Peccatum and in Ihsahn. To call the music on "The Adversary" a continuation of the music on "Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise (2001)" (the last Emperor album) is maybe stretching it too far, but some of the progressive elements from the latter mentioned album, have been refined here and put into another context.

Stylistically the music draws on a number of influences and black metal is just one of them. Of course Ihsahn´s raspy vocals will always lead the listener´s thoughts toward black metal, but there are clean vocals on the album too. Mostly sung by Ihsahn but Garm (Real name: Kristoffer Rygg) (Ulver, Borknagar, Arcturus) performs lead vocals on "Homecoming" (which also features Tore Ylwizaker on vocals). Ihsahn create both raw extreme metal parts, epic keyboard heavy parts, beautiful melodic parts and manage to make them work together. The songwriting is very adventurous and it´s obvious Ihsahn has put a lot of thought into creating something unique.

The musicianship is not surprisingly, if you are familiar with any of the output that Ihsahn has been involved in earlier in his career, on a very high level. Other than Garm´s and Tore Ylwizaker´s guest appearances, and the drums which are played by Asgeir Mickelson (Borknagar, Spiral Architect, Vintersorg, ICS Vortex, Sarke), Ihsahn plays and sings everything on the album. At times the sound production and especially the drum sound is a bit thin, but it´s rarely a major issue, and overall the sound production (which Ihsahn is also responsible for) is professional and suits the music well.

"The Adversary" is probably an album that for most listeners require more than one spin to sink in (myself included). This is not full speed ahead bang your head type of metal, even though it´s powerful and raw enough when that is needed. The compositions are generally a bit more clever thought out and performed than the material on your average extreme metal release. So that´s what you get when listening to "The Adversary" (and to Ihsahn in general). A challenging, intriguing listen and a 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved.

'The Adversary' - Ihsahn (9/10)

After an illustrious and now-legendary tenure with symphonic black metal pioneers Emperor, former frontman Ihsahn was thirsting for something different. For quite some time now, Emperor had virtually been an Ihsahn solo project in itself, but he wanted to do something other than the black metal that he had become so well-known for. Using his own pseudonym as the title for his new project, the new face of Ihsahn's music is an extreme progressive metal symphony. 'The Adversary' is not so far from the music of Emperor before they split up, but it has certainly been refined; refined to a point where some black metal fans may declare that Ihsahn has gone soft on them, but also opens up the man to an entirely new realm of possibilities. Now with a successful solo career established, it is clear that this was a good decision for Ihsahn. 'The Adversary' is a masterful display of edgy symphonic heavy metal, as well as a brilliant reinvention of one of metal's most enduring figures.

Mr. Tveitan (Ihsahn) has branched out from black metal, but there are still clear signs of his heritage within that genre. Tremolo picking, blastbeats, and his ever-distinctive vocal rasp are in full play here. That is only an aspect of the sound on 'The Adversary', however; the best way to describe what Ihsahn has done here is 'extreme progressive metal', or even 'symphonic metal'. The first thing that someone is bound to notice here is the technicality of the guitar playing; Ihsahn's tight songwriting is driven by plenty of gorgeous leads, solos, and riffs that would leave most black metal musicians either scratching their heads, or asking for lessons. The only other musician on the record is drummer Asgeir Mickelson, who invites a welcome dose of double-kick into the sound. Possibly the most surprising aspect of 'The Adversary' however are the symphonic, classical elements. On top of the guitars, he also plays a soft piano, and arranges some authentic-sounding orchestrations to run overtop the metal. The result is something that balances perfectly the gentle and heavy.

Ihsahn's vocals are quite strong, on both a clean and harsh front. Much like Opeth frontman Mikael Akerfeldt- who would later perform on Ihsahn's second album 'Angl'- Ihsahn is able to capture the best of both worlds. What particularly impressed me were the vocal harmonies he performs here; Ihsahn is able to overdub his voice to make the performance that much more beautiful, or epic. Ulver and Arcturus vocalist Garm (Krystoffer Rygg) also does a very nice vocal performance on the fourth track, 'Homecoming'; the songwriting is graciously arranged to allow him to explore the range of his voice. Ihsahn also has his moments of vocal glory; 'Astera Ton Proinon' lets him go from gentle vocals, to screams, to choral chanting, all within the space of three or four minutes. The trophy for brilliant songwriting goes to the final track however, 'The Pain Is Still Mine.' It very much encapsulates everything that succeeds with 'The Adversary'; lush orchestrations, vicious riffs, and above all, the perfect balance between black, and progressive metal.