Ihsahn (no, I don’t know how you’re supposed to pronounce it either) are the band I discovered too late in the year for their excellent album “After” to make my Best of 2010 list. You’d never have thought adding jazz sax to metal would work, but it does. Some definite hints of “Red”-era King Crimson in the mix somewhere, I think. Too many people (not necessarily RR-ets) love to sneer at metal as dumb music for Beavis and Butthead types, but I feel music like this is a lot more creative and challenging than many other more fashionable genres.
And I downloaded the album (legally!) from mFlow for £1.60! – costs a bit more now since mFlow’s sale has ended.
Nice one Tim, that was great!
I like Emperor and I’d read about Ihsahn’s solo stuff, but not got around to listening to any, but will definitely investigate further now, cheers!
Wonder if they’re Stooges fans?
It does have some Crim elements there. hardly surprising really, KC have been a major influence on a lot of metal, the not poodle-perm kind of thing, I mean.
Shame the sound quality is so poor though.
I like the saxophone bits, especially as the vocalist shuts up when it is being played. Reminds me of Tool, which is good, interesting, thanks for posting it.