DAS SEELENBRECHEN

"Das Seelenbrechen" is the 5th full-length studio album by Norwegian extreme progressive metal artist Ihsahn (Real name: Vegard Sverre Tveitan). The album was released through Candlelight Records in October 2013. Ihsahn is best known as the frontman/guitarist in Emperor, but has since the split-up of that band busied himself, first with Peccatum (with his wife Ihriel (real name Heidi S. Tveitan)), and then with his solo act Ihsahn.

The music on "Das Seelenbrechen" is best described as extreme progressive metal, even though it features elements from both noise/drone, avant garde, ambient, black metal and other musical genres too. Ihsahn creates quite a unique sound although I do hear nods toward artists like Opeth and Devin Townsend here and there. Especially the clean vocal sections on the album lead my thoughts toward the former mentioned, while the occasional layered "wall of sound" leads my thoughts toward the latter mentioned.

"Das Seelenbrechen" is a pretty varied release with both beautiful melodic material like "Pulse" and "NaCl" (which also features an irresistably charming hard rocking riff), progressive extreme metal tracks like "Regen" (which is an absolutely fantastic track) and "Hiber", a Pink Floyd influenced track in "M", and more experimental material like "Tacit 2" and "See". If you are not ready for the eclectic songwriting approach, I can see a few listeners getting dissappointed somewhere along the way. The first four tracks on "Das Seelenbrechen" are probably the most easily digestable material on the album, while the latter half of the album is more in experimental mode.

The sound production is clear, powerful and professional sounding and the musicianship is outstanding. Ihsahn plays and sings everything on the album except for the drums which are played by Tobias Ornes Andersen. Ihriel provides some choir vocals. It´s not surprising that "Das Seelenbrechen" is of a very high standard on all parameters, because Ihsahn has always been an incredibly talented musician and composer. His eclectic musical style might not be to every listener´s liking, but it´s apparent that he does exactly what he feels for and you gotta respect that. A 4 - 4.5 star (85%) rating is deserved.