Along with a planned review for the upcoming week, Ihsahn has made it back onto my list of “musicians who clearly exist” with the upcoming release of Arktis. It is set for a March 4th release and will be Ihsahn’s 6th full studio length. If previous press releases and media praiseworshipspeak is to be believed (I’m looking at Blabbermouth here), Arktis will somehow be both more traditionally structured than Ihsahn’s previous solo albums, which tend to already employ a lot of pop song structures, and also somehow pushing “…boundaries and preconceived sounds typically assigned to heavy music”. That’s either a tall order or a marketing department ignoring what the artist says to revel in their own promotional efforts.
Tags: 2016, arktis, Black Metal, emperor, ihsahn, norwegian grammy metal, pseudo-progressive
Holy shit this is awful.
This comment made me laugh out loud. I wasn’t going to listen to the music, but now out of curiosity, I will.
Why is this tagged “Black Metal” and “Emperor”?
Is a member of Emperor in this band? Does Ihsahn usually play Black Metal?
I am confounded and want an explanation, because this sounds like Power Metal.
(I apologize if I have offended Power Metal fanatics with ignorance – I have not deeply explored your genre yet)
Musicians need to have a retirement plan. It usually translates to: make some variety of whatever is currently selling, and use that to generate ongoing interest in your back catalog, which will pay you residuals for the rest of your life.
Music shouldn’t be approached as a job, anyway. But of course, people want money, and they will do what they’re good at to get it.
Inspiration shouldn’t (or maybe CANNOT) be treated as a job, but being a musician certainly must! You need to put hours and hours of practice into the craft in order to have a rich soil for inspiration to plant its seed.
I think I know what you are saying though. Most older musicians are like jaded cops waiting for their pension to kick in. Yet most younger musicians/bands don’t put in the quality time and work (like an actual job) and think they can get by with passion alone. I think they would fare better with the hours, organization, and focus that a “boring” job requires.
This seems to be why most decent bands only have stretches of brilliance lasting 2-4 years. That balance of undiluted passion and strict work ethic is a hard thing to sustain.
It certainly is difficult, if not impossible, to define the transcendental quality that makes great art timeless…BUT, treating something as “job” doesn’t always have to be a negative idea.
When I want to get good at some thing, I spend hours practicing it. I force myself to do it even if I’m not feeling well.
When I want to get paid, I show up and I do the bare minimum that I have to do.
So to me, what you described is not treating it like a job. It’s treating it like a passion.
To be honest, this isn’t that terrible. If I was in a bar and this came on, I’d consider myself lucky – it could have been pop or rap.
Of course it wouldn’t affect me like, for example, Burzum, but it wouldn’t get on my nerves.
I too found this relatively inoffensive, but in light of it failing to even approach Ihsahn’s musical peaks, its existence is pointless outside the financial angle.