EP REVIEW: Telemark – Ihsahn

Telemark is a county of great cultural importance in Norway. Tarjei Vesaas – perhaps the country’s greatest writer – took much inspiration from his surroundings there, and mountain pioneers of old have left an enduring mark on the sporting world with the invention of the Telemark Ski style. Little wonder, then, that the boundary-pushing black metal frontiersman, Ihsahn – founding member of EMPEROR – has invested his immense creative energies into a reflective celebration of his bleak and magical homeland.

Using Norwegian lyrics for the first time, Ihsahn says of the forthcoming Telemark EP, “I wanted to distil the basic, bare bones black metal influences of my musical roots, given the overall concept, writing something for and from Telemark.”

This EP is true to Ihsahn’s maverick form in almost every sense – even the Lenny Kravitz and IRON MAIDEN covers. The otherworldly vocal delivery, the rapturous brass sections, the shining and expansive soundscapes; it is the inevitable progression of a musician whose course has always been unpredictable and enthralling to chart. The title track is a wild journey of skittering, prog-inspired passages cut seamlessly against rabid sprays of true heaviness. It is playful and melancholic, invoking Red-era KING CRIMSON, Blackstar-era David Bowie, and unadulterated black metal aesthetics in the same cold shriek. It is a sonic journey over the undulations of Telemark; the confused flight of a nightjar under the morbid December moon. We can only imagine the kinds of færy spirits Ihsahn summons in the song’s fifth minute before it collapses in on its own intricate design.

From brilliant production, to orchestral swells and Gilmour-esque guitar solos, this release is primed for explosive, arena-sized performances, whilst simultaneously delivering round after round of atavistic rhythmic passages to keep those synapses firing. This juxtaposition of styles is expertly demonstrated on Ihsahn’s cover of a Lenny Kravitz classic, Rock and Roll is Dead. This totally absurd but perfect tribute has lost none of the gritty, balls-to-the-wall guitar-rock vibe of the original, all the while staying true to the extreme coordinates of Ihsahn’s musical compass. As if that was not enough, Ihsahn then tests the limits of our tolerance with a bombastic cover of IRON MAIDEN’s Wrathchild to round out the EP.

Unlike the scuzzy, drowned out yelps in the soundscape of early EMPEROR recordings, the vocal delivery on this track, as with the rest, is dynamic and multi-layered, oddly reminiscent of latter-day FULL OF HELL. This harvesting and repurposing of oblique musical tropes is a signature strength of Ihsahn, who seems to have burrowed deep into Norway’s fertile prog-jazz rabbit hole, only to be spewed out in the dark forests of Notodden from whence he delivered his first demonic verses all those years ago. A meditative but riotous record, Telemark is definitely worth your attention.

Rating: 8/10

Telemark is set for release on February 14th via Candlelight Records.

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