In the heyday of the first wave of Norwegian black metal, I couldn’t really have cared much less about it; I was going through my somewhat elitist vintage-prog phase, and those penguin bands sounded far too simple and raw for the 20-something music snob, me. In retrospect, it’s hard to say which black-metal band was the very first to open my mind, but somewhere along the mid-to-late 2000s, Ihsahn‘s solo albums were among those first few that simply sounded so good that they managed to do the impossible; they converted an uptight, die-hard prog aficionado into appreciating the finer nuances of the black-metal aesthetic. (Well, technically, this album was probably too weird and avant-garde to count as a tr00-kvlt black metal effort, but that’s another story entirely) About 5 years after Ihsahn left behind one of the most influential black-metal bands of the 1990s, EMPEROR, he released his first solo endeavor, “The Adversary,” on April 10th, 2006, through Candlelight. I’ve since noticed that the last EMPEROR album, “Prometheus: the Discipline of Fire & Demise” (2001), featured progressive elements to such a resonant degree that some fans have claimed it sounded more like Ihsahn‘s solo affair rather than EMPEROR. Well, that’s for you to decide, but one thing is clear – “The Adversary” certainly picked up where “Prometheus” left off and brought all these delicious progressive and blackened heavy-metal elements to the forefront. The album was also the first in a conceptual trilogy – “The Adversary” (2006), “AngL” (2008), and “After” (2010). That reeks of progressive rock, alright! I guess Ihsahn was one of the first artists who had the audacity to mix progressive rock and symphonic black metal, resulting in a beautiful avant-garde hybrid boasting the best of both worlds. His later albums would take this formula even further.
The album opens with “Invocation,” which may have lured the casual fans into thinking, “Hey, this is the new solo stuff from that dude in EMPEROR.” The song resonates with quite a strong “Prometheus”-esque aura, but if you thought at the time that the album was going to be all about reminiscing in the past, you were dead wrong. Diversity is the keyword here with the album branching out from the black-metal sandbox toward old-school heavy metal, symphonic prog, and even classical music. Then, there are occasional jazz flourishes and PINK FLOYD musings, which probably alienated some longtime black-metal fans right off the bat. Judging by the Metal Archives, people either love or hate this album with a passion – there’s no in-between whatsoever as the ratings are split between 0% and 100% in somewhat equal measure. Maybe the world of prog nerds would see things differently, then? Well, the production is quite raw, and the album does feature ample amounts of those standard black-metal antics: tremolo picking, blast beats, and Ihsahn‘s ever-distinct vocal snarls. I’m pretty confident that your garden-variety GENESIS fan would spill his afternoon tea upon listening to this beast. I know for sure that, 30 years ago, I would have, if a band pulled something like this off.
Except for the drums, which Asgeir Mickelson of BORKNAGAR played, all instruments were tackled by Ihsahn himself. In addition to his signature highly melodic guitarwork, the vocal department is where he comes off as exceptionally impressive; his harsh vocals sound deliciously raw as usual, but this debut was also the first time people were introduced to his haunting clean vocals. Additional vocal power is on offer by Garm of ULVER amidst the said PINK FLOYD musings of “Homecoming,” and Ihsahn‘s choice for a guest vocalist is pretty spot-on here. The song captures some of the psychedelic experimentalism of those Cambridge proggers’ Syd Barrett-era, and, peculiarly enough, both ULVER and EMPEROR have been dubbed as the PINK FLOYD of black metal by the online BM aficionados.
That said, at the other end of the sonic spectrum, you cannot avoid those sly KING DIAMOND / MERCUFYL FATE homages, in songs such as “Called by the Fire” and ”Panem et Circenses.” In a way, the neo-classical flourishes in “Astera Ton Proinon” draw from the same source, albeit with a less dramatic flair, and the album closer, “The Pain Is Still Mine,” is basically a 10-minute miniature prog opera, following more or less in the sonic footsteps of guess who? The more I come to think about it, the more I reckon that “The Adversary” was Ihsahn‘s heartfelt tribute to KING DIAMOND, although a pretty damn unique one at it. Ihsahn‘s black-metal legacy shines through across the album, but it is not overbearing, which obviously further helped in converting me to appreciate the harsh aesthetics of the genre. This album isn’t perhaps as progressive as some of those later Ihsahn albums, but it is a must-have in the music collection of any serious prog-metal fan – an album classic with an edge.
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Tracklist
- Invocation
- Called by the Fire
- Citizen
- Homecoming
- Astera Ton Proinon
- Panem et Circenses
- And He Shall Walk in Empty Places
- Will You Love Me Now?
- The Pain Is Still Mine
Lineup
Ihsahn – vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass
Asgeir Mickelson – drums
Label
Candlelight Records
