SO HAVE YOU LISTENED TO IHSAHN’S NEW ALBUM YET???

If not, you’re seriously missing out.

After is easily my favorite thing released so far in 2010, up there with Shining’s Blackjazz… with whom Ihsahn shares a saxaphone player, interestingly enough. Those expecting black metal akin to Ihsahn’s Emperor alma mater should look elsewhere, because you definitely won’t find that here. I find the music on After to be uncategorizeable other than just “metal” and [perhaps] distinctly Scandinavian. It’s avant garde, it’s experimental, it’s deep and it’s complex yet catchy and accessible, but it doesn’t come close to fitting into any pre-defined niche. It’s just really, really fucking good music, the kind you just know is the result of intense scrutiny of every single sound and note.

Check Sammy O’ Hagar’s glowing review of After as well as his fascinating interview with the man himself.

Ihsahn’s only got one song from the new album up on his MySpace page (“The Barren Lands,” all the way at the bottom of the player), but even this one song gives a good taste of what After is about (though by no means summarizes it).

-VN