Ihsahn: “What I do now is musically still black metal.”

Ihsahn is recording his upcoming solo album right now in Norway according to Blabbermouth. Furthermore Ihsahn believes that black metal is not a specific type of heavy metal music but rather a mind set and that the random progressive rock and jazzy instrumental masturbation Ihsahn performs now is still actually “black metal” despite not even being metal music to begin with, yet alone black metal.

It’s kind of paradox. I mean, this whole black metal scene, with all these rules and kind of fashion police [laughs] coming out from this very individualistic and free-thought type of philosophy. So, for me, I think, in my own mind, what I do now musically is still black metal. For me, it comes from the same source. So, to me, black metal is not a type of guitar sound played at this or this speed with screeching vocals. For me, black metal is an attitude and an atmosphere. For me, Diamanda Galás’ ‘Plague Mass’ is just as black metal as any BATHORY album.”

Yes, Ihsahn thinks a pretentious, ill-structured noise music opera about whiny New Yorkers dying of AIDS, a disease they contracted through degenerate homosexual hedonism, is as black metal as Bathory‘s The Return……. Yet Quorthon practiced the heathen faith of his forefathers that apotheosized the strong and damned the weak. What happened to Ihsahn’s satanic sociopathy? What about Emperor not caring at all when Faust curb stomped a gay cruiser for coming on to him? Ihsahn has truly sold out ideologically and philosophically in addition to musically. Ihsahn even looks like black nationalist (and probable Caucasian) Shaun King if he converted to Islam.

Was In the Nightside Eclipse really inspired by Ihsahn’s parents making him go to bed by 8 pm with no night light rather than by Tolkien? Ihsahn’s compositional talent or lack thereof was on full display in later works from Emperor when Ihsahn became the primary songwriter after Faust and Samoth were imprisoned. The great earlier works Emperor made were not due to Ihsahn’s musicianship alone. He is no heavy metal auteur; Samoth shared equal songwriting credit and it was Samoth and Faust’s “rhythm” work which made Emperor and In the Nigthside Eclipse so flowing.

Theses ludicrous statements ares not the first time Ihsahn has desecrated Bathory’s black metal legacy though:

Emperor’s cover of a “A Fine Day to Die” from a 1997 show in Bergen Norway was done well enough but what was with Ihsahn’s outfit? That leather loincloth is somehow worse than Quorthon’s leather underwear as Ihsahn looks like he is cosplaying as Princess Leia in her slave outfit from Return of the Jedi. What’s with the nipple ring? Worst metal stage gear ever.

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62 thoughts on “Ihsahn: “What I do now is musically still black metal.””

  1. truth be told... says:

    Varg has repeatedly stated that Emperor were always posers. Even back in the day.

    1. aol instant messenger says:

      Varg also thinks Somewhere in Time is the best metal album ever, that ancient Sumerians were nordic, and that autism gives you superpowers.

      1. Seth says:

        https://www.sciencealert.com/oldest-hominins-could-have-lived-in-europe-instead-of-africa-claims-new-study
        He might not have been too far off on the assertion of Sumerians possibly being Nordic, or at least of some European descent.

    2. Marc Defranco says:

      I think I heard/read somewhere that emperor were considered an immortal clone. Also that Filosofem was a reaction to black metal bands like emperor and enslaved not having their own personal sound. Described as “anti black metal”.

  2. butt_faust says:

    to be completely fair, I was asking for it

  3. M says:

    Some US music journo published a book maybe around 2002-3 (sorry can’t remember author or title right now; I’m in bed nursing a head cold with whiskey) arguing that bands like the Rolling Stones should just retire gracefully in order to (a) not further disgrace themselves, and (b)allow “airtime”, “stage-time” or whatever to worthy up-&-comers. By “disgracing themselves” he and I both mean ridiculously inappropriate age, genre, etc. attempts at maintaining “cred.” All this applies to the above, IMHO.

    1. Rainer Weikusat says:

      While I consider “current Ihsahn music” (judging from the lone example I’ve exposed myself too) a superficial potpourri of mannerims supposed to make the Vice/ Noisey crowd feel special about itself via “underground culture signalling”, he obviously has an audience who likes it. Which as obviously applies to the Rolling Stones, Slayer, Memoriam and whoever else some master of the envyverse decreed to be to un-new to satisfy his lusting for New Stuff™ and to still be able to excusably partake in something he regards to be yoof culture.

      Suggestion: Try to come to grips with the idea that people live until their death and may have their own ideas re: what they consider appropriate behaviour.

  4. KillThePoser says:

    http://www.commdiginews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/shaun-king-black-lives-matter-550×281.jpg

    Shaun King is not African. He pretends to be African for his career in social justice.

    1. Psychic Psych Toad says:

      I believe his father is black. This SJW pos brings his weak morals into MMA also, pushing for the decline of the sport through disgusting racial awareness issues… fucking vomit.

  5. Claudia Roth says:

    Dude looks exactly like one of those chubby commie child molesters that used to play in 70s krautrock bands.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iLTtVgXhbY

    1. Rainer Weikusat says:

      Ugh … Floh de Cologne is neither “1970s” nor “Krautrock” (regardless of what the guy who wrote the English Wackelpudia page believes about this …). They were an anarchist/ communist musical carbaret group founded in the late 1960s.

      1. aol instant messenger says:

        >anarchist/communist

        exactly why they fit the krautrock label, radical leftist politics was one of the few consistent throughlines for that “genre”.

        1. Rainer Weikusat says:

          “Leftist politics” (whatever) where ‘all the rage’ pretty much everywhere during this time. But this doesn’t turn a satirical/ parodistical theatre group into an experimental (psychedelic) (post) rock band, something the lady who was mocking you probably knew: I suspect this was part of the joke.

          This is decidedly German music, strongly influenced by medieval singer traditions (Baenkelsang) and Brecht/ Weil stuff. The main content is the sung text which is about (Marxist) »alienation«, that the people who do everything own nothing, that the fruits of the labour end up fattenting the capitalist parasites who don’t even value what they get, just that they can sell it to become fatter, and how this unnatural state of affairs would come to an end if only the workers realized their strength and the weakness of the other’s,

          Der Unternehmer heisst Unternehmer weil er etwas unternimmt
          Die Arbeiter heissen Arbeiter weil sie arbeiten
          Wuerden die Arbeiter etwas unternehmen, muessten die Unternehmer arbeiten

          Krautrock is something like this:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3YA_jR6qn0

          originally brought to you courtesy of Richard the Branson, the well-known communist leader …

          Statement which shouldn’t be here: No “political standpoints” of whatever shape or design explicitly or implicitly endorsed. Politics is hordes of squabbling monkeys who think their internal differences are Terribly Important™. To someone, they surely are.

          1. you're gay says:

            ‘After you people laughed at it, it became an academical movement!’

            ha ha

            I was always under the impression that the early Kraftwerk stuff was krautrock.

  6. Iceman says:

    Wouldn’t “sexual hedonism” been just as effective of a description, without the needless derogatory adjectives added in?

    1. Maverick says:

      We’re not gay, you’re my wingman.

      1. you're gay says:

        you’re totally still gay

    2. PPK says:

      Fuck off with that PC shit.

    3. HessianMurdererOfBlackDeath says:

      Although many people here dislike gays, in this case the homosexuality remark was relevant, because gays get STDs more than non gays. This is a statistical fact, which I can find sources for if you truly mistrust me. The reasons for this are the cruising culture, and that anal sex spreads it more than normal sex.

      1. >cruising culture

        You mean mental illness, right?

  7. Lance Viggiwhatever says:

    Samoths death metal is complete trash. Literally everything by any member of emperor circa ITNE outside of that album completely blows.

    1. Phil says:

      Probably due to the transition from introverted, contemplative teenagers to socialised careerist rockstars.

      1. Lance Viggiwhatever says:

        Is this leading into a polemic on how INTJs are the master race?

        1. Phil says:

          I dunno what an INTJ is, some kind of gay alt-right lingo?

          1. lance vigianno says:

            Is zealotry going to go back to writing cool af solos for the next record, Phil T?

            1. Profanatica "Queefing in Heaven" says:

              HA! Got eeeee #pwned

      2. Rainer Weikusat says:

        The person in the MTV interview is already someone I wouldn’t want to shake hands with without counting my fingers before and after.

    2. thewaters says:

      Sammoth is in Zyklon B, and that EP kills.

      1. you're gay says:

        definitely does not blow

  8. Phil says:

    No, you mincing elven fart, we have labels for things that actually share characteristics, not for showing how you feel about certain things.

  9. PPK says:

    “For me, Diamanda Galás’ ‘Plague Mass’ is just as black metal as any BATHORY album.”

    What a faggot. This piece of shit should get AIDS and die already.

  10. Rainer Weikusat says:

    This has now made me listen to full Black Isahn Metal™ called Mass Darkness. Didn’t make much sense, favorite soundbite Surrender to darkness/ To shine like a star. I think I can do this better:


    Dig a hole in the sky
    Reach for the sunken dark stars
    Of the mystery underworlds
    Above

    Turn right to the left
    No one’s left, all right
    Right to the wrongs to be left
    Left of the rightly wronged
    (Or the wrongly righted)
    Fronting the back of the public, secret garden staring right in your face from behind

    Akku leer alles bar

    … was ein Scheiss …

  11. Black wizard n°535 says:

    Plague mass is better than whatever he’s been doing for at least ten years

    1. That’s not a compliment. So is Aerosmith.

      1. canadaspaceman says:

        aerosmith turned homo after the “done with mirrors” Lp, ishanawitz turned homo along time ago.
        the entire world is turning homo. screw you all you homos! ah, wait, no , I will NOT screw you…
        ..dammit… it is all hell in a hand basket.
        Team America-EVERYONE HAS AIDS!
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yC7HwPh6Es

  12. Parasite says:

    Black Metal is a force that passes from one host to another. Once this force has been satiated it leaves and nothing more than a husk, a shell of the former self remains.

    1. you're gay says:

      unless you’re Summoning

      1. Marc Defranco says:

        Total agreement there. Silly while you have current Abigor saying Summoning isn’t really black metal

        1. you're gay says:

          pfff. the entire Abigor catalog has produced, what, one album that wasn’t a wandering mess or complete shit? and it sure as hell wasn’t the most recent one.

          1. Marc Defranco says:

            Hah exactly

          2. Fratnir says:

            The first two are decent that’s about all. One or a few of their members are in Amestigon which is much better.

  13. GGALLIN1776 says:

    Is he a Professor or janitor at Yale now?

  14. Exfoliation says:

    He looks.like a bitchy cat lady liberal, what a total.fag, you don’t dress like Princess Leia unless you’re a fag, and Emperor was always shit to me, might as well talk about Cradle of Filth.

    1. GGALLIN1776 says:

      Welllllll they did tour together in 1993.

  15. Kris says:

    There are few things I hate more than musical purists and black metal purists are some of the worst. Having chosen a niche musical style at some random point in time and having decided that music shouldn’t evolve beyond that, you are the amish of music fans: a closed minded bunch of fanatics, doomed to remain isolated and never experiencing any of personal growth. You call Ihsahn a poser. If you ask me, it’s you, black metal purists, who are the posers. You think you’re so tough and superior, while you talk and act like angsty, privileged teenagers afraid of anything slightly deviating from your arbitrary norms or from the environment you so happened to be born in. Ihsahn, meanwhile, tries to be nothing more than a musician evolving his style. You may find his music pretentious or simply not like it and that’s fine (I’m not fan of his recent work either), but berating him for trying something different, frankly, makes you a hypocrite. Remember that black metal didn’t spring into existence out of nowhere: It came from thrash metal bands trying out different sounds, a genre which in its turn is an evolution of punk and heavy metal, going even further back to rock, rock & roll, blues, gospel, etc. So if it wasn’t for musicians stepping out of the boundaries of their own musical style, your little white boys club in which you feel so safe wouldn’t even exist.

    1. The pussy hipster whine rock bands play rock music to make beta males like you feel special while someone else is fucking your “partner” on a Saturday night. Ihsahn wants money now and plays turtleneck rock.

    2. greatwebsite says:

      The fact that you posted this and set little Danny boy off as seen in his angry response proves that you touched a nerve. Keep posting here and one day Daniel might do the world a favor and end it all. Many of the old readers of this site would thank you, likely also including his parents or anyone else who has had the misfortune of meeting him in real life. This excludes the possibility of friends, because we know he has none.

    3. canadaspaceman says:

      “Remember that black metal didn’t spring into existence out of nowhere: It came from thrash metal bands trying out different sounds, a genre which in its turn is an evolution of punk and heavy metal, going even further back to rock, rock & roll, blues, gospel, etc.”

      By your own words, you agree with “black metal purists”.
      Black metal is not thrash metal, thrash is not speed metal, speed metal is not power metal, power metal is not just heavy metal. See where this is going?
      The same could be applied to death metal.
      Even if there is a history of where it originated from, it can not be called the same genre.
      Punk from 1977 is not the same as Hardcore punk from the late ’70s/early 80s. A new label/genre-defining term was created.
      Only hipster idiots only call themselves black metal to leech off that scene.

    4. Rainer Weikusat says:

      If I’d go to a blues festival (something I recently tried but quickly abandoned) I expect blues bands to play there (believe or not, there’s still something like a ‘blues underground’ although the music is of extremly mixed quality, to put this very politely). I probably even wouldn’t mind some bands playing all kinds of blues-influenced hybrids or completely other music provided it’s good. What I would mind was a hip-hopper claiming he’s doing “the real blues” because only he himself mattered for this (say, because he was black). Such a someone could rightfully be called ‘a poser’ in this (contrived) context.

      And that’s the same issue here.

    5. Africans can be wizards too says:

      I must make it clear that Ishahn has never tried to hide his blatant homosexual tendencies. I hope you aren’t trying to obfuscate this historic fact.

      Faust killed the wrong fag.

      1. HessianMurdererOfBlackDeath says:

        He can fuck a male ass if he wants to, but he may not claim to make black metal without making black metal.

    6. you're gay says:

      ‘music can evolve, maaaaaaaan’. no shit. what faglords like Ihsahn are doing is not evolving. it’s cramming a bunch of shit together in a desperate attempt to convince himself and others that he still has that artistic fire that came out as his early work (and to maintain his status as an ‘artist’). he doesn’t and it’s obvious. when people i once admired climb completely up their own asses i’d prefer faglords like Dan calling them out on it. not faglords like you saying that just because Dan has a fucking opinion that he is a big meanie black metal elitist who can’t handle change. if somebody creates some black metal that actually picks up where Hvis Lyset and Transylvanian Hunger left off (ie ACTUAL evolution) i’m sure this site will be among the first to praise it. the likelihood of that happening continues to dwindle as garbage like Ihsahn’s latest turd are labeled ‘black metal’ and the any meaning the term once had is being erased for the next generation of potential musicians. people like you are the ones stifling the ‘evolution’ of black metal with your conflation of label and substance, you dumb fuck.

      go fuck yourself

      1. Some bands did continue. Ones that start with S, our letter of the day on Death Metal Undeground, are Summoning and Sammath. Art fats like Kris will never pay attention to Summoning and Sammath as they actually play black metal and haven’t killed anyone.

        1. you're gay says:

          Sammath killed me

  16. Profanatica "Queefing in Heaven" says:

    The boy look like Leonard Cohen disguised as Shia LeBouf.

  17. Cullen Toner's IQ < 120 says:

    “So, for me, I think, in my own mind”

    He forgot to add “in my opinion”.

    Who gives a shit what Ihsahn says in 2017? Embrace the good, ignore the bull shit. I am gonna enjoy In the Nightside Eclipse today.

    1. Cullen Toner did not write this article.

  18. MSNBC says:

    Glasses with black frames is a trait of aposematism.

  19. Emil in Maple Mountains says:

    Ihsahn didn’t play/write at all on the Wrath of the Tyrant demo, and that release obviously already had the template of style and technique that would be perfected on Eclipse, as well as sharing a lot of actual material with it. What if Ihsahn was the Kirk Hammett of Emperor all along?

    Kirk Hammett is credited as song writer on much of Metallica’s early material, but mainly due to playing some cheesy blues solos that don’t add anything to the songs.

  20. Sword of a thousand truths says:

    If you have to say it’s black metal it most probably ain’t

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