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Rating: IHSAHN - The Adversary
"I will ascend above the heights of the clouds
I will be like the most High"
IS 14: 14
Feel the darkness.
To perceive in the depths of the soul the torment of an ungrateful existence, the agony of the flesh that transfigures into the anguish of a chained thought, crushed by the will of the powerful, annihilated by its own diversity, its felt "adversity." Ihsahn, singer, guitarist, keyboardist, and main composer of the late Emperor (now disbanded), takes us on an intense journey through the darkest paths of the soul, in search of that individualism and inner determination that can allow man to overcome the crude limits of the banal common sense, and he does so with a beautiful album, a perfect continuation of that autarchic and grand philosophy that had characterized the entire history of the Emperor. Lucifer ("Anthems To The Welkin' At Dusk"), Icarus ("IX Equilibrium"), Prometheus ("Prometheus: The Discipline Of Fire And Demise"): dazzling symbols of human self-determination, emblematic metaphors of revenge, passionate redemption from all those "hands" that, in the absurdity of pre-established law and morality, violently manipulate our destiny, our ideas, our lives.
In each of them the musical embodiment of the "black sentiment," the deepest word of what many define as "Black Metal," or the artistic sublimation of that elitist and intellectual vision that only a few brilliant and restless spirits have been able to grasp.
But "unlike" the multitude, the ingenious Ihsahn has been able to impregnate the "black metal" that permeated his historic group, with an aesthetic, lyrical, and musical sophistication, absolutely extraordinary, perfecting step by step, album after album, an increasingly intelligent and visionary conception of the "black sentiment." Over time, many followers of this very particular group have viscerally tied themselves to the first (very important) album, "In The Nightside Eclipse," stupidly and cowardly ignoring however the subsequent works (cited above), in which the extreme musical experience of Ihsahn and Samoth (second guitarist and composer) matured in full and concrete form. A path of violent and fierce sounds, but also poetic and epic, imbued with intense spirituality and shattering humanity, where a complex Black Metal perfectly blended with the grandeur of symphonic music, but also with the visceral nature of Death and the melancholy of Dark.
Parallel to the infernal dimension of Emperor, our Ihsahn had set up another carousel of creative madness, an immense stage for the boldest sound and ideological experiments: the project "Peccatum" (accompanied by his wife Ihriel), in which all his boundless musical talent converged, and above all, the innate desire to delve into and explore the entire lyrical-musical universe of Dark to the fullest. From the body of Emperor and the soul of "Peccatum" comes this first solo work of his, where all instruments (vocals included, except for drums) are skilfully molded by the extraordinary hands of the genius, in a blend of ideas and indescribable emotions. Chilling screaming voices, soaked with pain and anger (in classic Black style), confront clean and passionate voices, in a moving love interweaving, where guitars, piano, and strings carve out spaces of vital harmony, a brilliant framework of feelings. Meanwhile, an absolutely perfect rhythmic substrate materializes, in the destroying chaos typical of Black, rock incursions and "classically" metal cadenced rhythms. All wrapped in a path of sounds and lyrics that is undoubtedly extreme, but at the same time varied and rich with nuances, full of great sensitivity and poetry.
It is impossible to dwell on the individual songs, all equally splendid, complex, and multifaceted. Indeed, it seems even more banal to spend useless words to describe the multitude of musical forms, expressed in the magnificent visionary setting of the Norwegian genius, where Rock, Dark, Gothic, Classic, Death, Black, Symphonic, Hard, Doom, Thrash, Progressive, and much more harmoniously and intelligently fuse together.
Feel the darkness.
To perceive in the depths of the soul the torment of an ungrateful existence, the agony of the flesh that transfigures into the anguish of a chained thought, crushed by the will of the powerful, annihilated by its own diversity, its felt "adversity." Not everyone can approach this music. Even fewer would come to understand and love it. But for those few lucky ones, it remains a sublime and profound, sensitive and cultured, immense and sincere experience.
PS: Take that, to those who think Black Metal is just screams, curses, inverted crosses, and music played with feet!
Tracklist :
1. Invocation
2. Called by the Fire
3. Citizen
4. Homecoming
5. Astera ton Proinon
6. Panem et Circenses
7. And He Shall Walk in Empty Places
8. Will You Love Me Now?
9. The Pain Is Still Mine
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Called by the Fire (04:56)
The sky is clouded and grey like a mirror
Dreams of celestial bliss buried deep
An invisible web of whispers
Spread out over dead-end streets
Silently blessing the virtue of sleep.
I'm still
Called by the fire
My spirit
Called by the fire
Yes, I'm still
Called by the fire
Called by the fire
Eternally
The flickering light
The heat of the flame creates and devours
In my soul there is night
Every day I grow more immune to social sedatives
Every day the web is more transparent
United in fear and the comfort of reason
Illusions that we are all peers
Walking the stairs I am ever more awake
I'm still
Called by the fire
My spirit
Called by the fire
Yes, I'm still
Called by the fire
Called by the fire
The black cloud is beneath me
And I laugh
03 Citizen (05:21)
Citizen!
Whence came your voice
Your right to speak?
Is there a purpose to your tongue
And gnawing teeth?
I ask thee;
How deep and hollow
Is your mouth?
What lie is too decayed
For you to stomach?
With humility and obedience
You pride yourself
Evasive and lukewarm
Until the end
Citizen!
The interdependent morality
Of your collective
Made too soft the bed
In which you lie.
I ask thee;
Do you acknowledge
Your own fragility
When you sleep
To server the "Great Good"?
United in fear
Lives "hard to bear"
Illusions that "we are all peers"
I preach not for understanding
In you I have no faith
I spit at you my truth;
That you are the burden of my heritage.
For herein lies the irony
There is neither room
Nor air
For the wakeful fire
In your precious world
Of equality
Citizen!
You are truly faithful
To tradition
When you crucify
Those whose voices burn
Alas
A hundred years from now
You recite and corrupt
Their epitaphs
To crucify another.
05 Astera ton Proinon (05:09)
Were you not humble
Not submissive?
Would you not bend your knee?
Did you question or object
To the world of the many?
Had you a vision of your own?
Saint of the damned
Icon of the rejected
Primerval insurgent
Ascend O' Morning Star
Ascend
[Is.14.12-14]
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O'day-star,
Son of the morning!
How art thou cut down to the ground,
That didst cast lots over the nations!
For thou hast said in thine heart,
I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.
I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation,
In the sides of the north.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the most High."
Man has been reared by the four errors
And never saw himself other than imperfectly.
Such is then the pleasure of the common herd
To quench their envious thirst in misery.
06 Panem et Circenses (04:54)
Awake, O' serpent of my heart
It is time
The sun stands high
And unfaithful crowds await Thee
Redemption in their eyes
And stone at hand
The arena hungers for your venom
Let the games begin.
Bring in the lions
Bring in the beasts
It is time
To confront the masses
With their fears,
A sober moment
A shred of truth
To gaze into an honest mirror
A disturbance of their sleep.
Violent teeth and claws
Untamed and fierce
Reaches far and cut deep
Into the empty eye.
It is time
To let the bitter venom flow
Trough this embodiment
Of emptiness.
And the blood shall run free
Like words
And the bones shall form stairs
To the future
Now, unfaithful spectator
Are you satisfied?
Did you come close enough
To feel the lion's breath?
On day soon
Your shall be the sacrifice
A nameless grave
Of the past.
Protagonist
Your time is now.
07 And He Shall Walk in Empty Places (04:51)
Of all rejected creatures unloved
Of all who defy the predestination
That divides mankind
Into the saved and damned
He was the first.
The lurking punishment
With blood he did reveal
Death
And trough the ages run
A river deep and red
The ever present heirs
For whom there is no rest.
And he shall walk in empty places
With a claim on destiny and self at hand
An endless journey towards the rising sun.
Towards the rising sun.
"Remember this, you others;
The fire and the fury,
The strength and defiance,
This you admire, this you desire,
I had to win them for myself".
In remembrance of the adversary
I conjure up the lion will:
Hungered Violent Solitary Godless.
08 Will You Love Me Now? (05:03)
One great man was silent
Of his superiority.
He was openly flattered
And hated silently.
Another spoke of his will to aspire
To create beyond himself
And the self-inflicted impotent man
Felt spat at by all ambition.
The solitary pierced the skin of denial
And the blood would colour the sky.
A futile display to those whose heads
Are always turned towards the ground.
Staring
Into the mud
Into the heart of emptiness
Where they squirm
Desperately
Like wing-clipped flies.
And the whining parasite man
To whom pity and gloating are the same.
This spineless parody of man
Will devour even himself in secrecy.
In secrecy.
Will you love me now
-you, whose feeling of dignity
Is a matter of subtraction?
Will you love me
-now that I have revealed your un-nakedness?
Will you love me now
-you whose perception of justice
Equals your will to corrupt?
Will you love me
-when I cut trough all the layers of your vanity?
Will you love me now
-you, who cling to a heart so fragile
Even your gods must suffer for you?
Could you love truth?
Could you love truth
Even in secrecy?
And they gathered
In their halls of justice
Halls of mirrors
Halls of echoes.
And they gathered
In their houses of worship
Within the walls of the unspoken
Sheltere from the rain.
09 The Pain Is Still Mine (10:19)
The word is easy
Dripping sweet and cocky from the tongue
Vaguely describing the taste of blood.
A distant cry arise
From the fathomless well
That is my soul.
I can not hear the words
So I throw my heart in
Like a coin
And wish that it would sink forever.
A purpose, a sacrifice
Or merely temptation?
Is my solitude anything but a perversion
Of my vanity?
I never cared for this weak inclination
This paranoid tendency
To flock.
And in between all the noise
All the guilt
A silence would carry my spirit away
From diminishing obsessions.
Away from fools and poisonous flies.
The birth of a dreamer.
Behold, an angel of vengeance
A lion
A sword of fire
Alas, the burden of my heart
Is violence undone
Pain unfulfilled
Silence.
When I finally cut deep
Into the flesh of guilt
The un-naked body of shame
And the veins of repentance
Open wide
Sending rivers of blood
Into my mouth
The pain is still mine.
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