Ihsahn has announced an all new album by the name of “Ámr” to follow up the glory of 2016’s “Arktis”. This will be launched on May 4th through Candlelight/Spinefarm. The artwork and tracklisting for this can be found down below. Expect pre-orders in the coming months.
For those who are unaware, Ihsahn is also the vocalist for the legendary Black Metal group Emperor. He’s proven to be quite the diverse and talented musician through multiple projects and his solo work is no exception to this.
He just released the first music video and single in support of the new LP. It goes by the name of “Arcana Imperii” and features no less than Opeth‘s Fredrik Åkesson! You can give this a go right here:
Ihsahn himself had the following to say of the single:
“As with previous albums, I’ve tried to maintain a certain diversity throughout ‘Àmr‘, with every track having a somewhat individual identity. So, as a first introduction, I felt ‘Arcana Imperii‘ contained several key elements from the whole album and was a logical choice as first single and video.”
Furthmore, Ihsahn had the following to say of the new album:
“Knowing that the form would be somewhat similar to what I did on the previous album, and given that I write stuff in a certain way, I wanted to change the wrapping this time. So instead of going with my go-tos of strings and orchestration, I focused on analog synths and more in-your-face sounds.
It goes back to the beginning of Emperor, when we brought in strings and horns inspired by orchestral movie scores by John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith, but at the same time we loved all those eerie synth soundtracks of, for example, John Carpenter‘s ‘Halloween‘.
I’ve also been listening to some contemporary R&B and hip-hop stuff with those deep, deep 808s. It’s just somehow darker than a lot of metal or black metal. It has a depth and an energy to it that I find captivating, so I wanted to explore those arrangement styles as well.”
Every album I intend to make the darkest album ever. I never set out to make anything more melodic or accessible. However, growing up on ’80s metal, plus having a rather wide range of musical influences, I often end up with quite contrasting elements. This is my seventh solo album, so in the end it really comes down to methods and perspectives that keep me exited and fired up about what I’m working on. If I’m not excited about it, I can’t expect anybody else to be!”
01 – “Lend Me The Eyes Of The Millenia”
02 – “Arcana Imperii” (feat. Fredrik Åkesson)
03 – “Sámr”
04 – “One Less Enemy”
05 – “Where You Are Lost And I Belong”
06 – “In Rites Of Passage”
07 – “Marble Soul”
08 – “Twin Black Angels”
09 – “Wake“
Links: Facebook // Official Website // Merch
