Red Vinyl! Ihsahn will release his seventh solo album, ?mr! True living legends are few and far between, but Ihsahn has long since earned the right to be regarded as one of metal's all-time greats. As frontman and chief songwriter with legendary Norwegian black metal pioneers EMPEROR, he swiftly cemented a formidable reputation as one of the underground's most idiosyncratic creative forces. Classic albums like 1995's "In The Nightside Eclipse" and 1997's epoch-shattering "Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk" ensured that the young band were among the most respected the most popular of Norway's many black-hearted exports. Their imperious rise to prominence came to an unexpected end after the release of 2001's wildly intricate and grandiose "Prometheus: The Discipline Of Fire & Demise", but it was an album that suggested that Ihsahn's compositional journey was far from over. Reincarnated as a solo artist for 2006's "The Adversary", Ihsahn has spent the last 12 years forging a second path through artistry's darkest shadows; one that is making more and deeper connections than any of his past endeavours. With a sound that still retains strong links to his black metal roots while embracing everything from skewed art rock and avant-garde jazz to experimental electronica and dark ambient, each successive album has presented a brand new manifestation of the Norwegian's unique craft: from the muscular and haughty riff sculptures of "Angl" and "After"'s haunting, saxophone-driven mirage to the tech-metal explorations of "Eremita" and on to the wild, avant-metal splurge of "Das Seelenbrechen", Ihsahn's catalogue speaks of a restless creative spirit with ideas to burn. In keeping with that spirit, 2018 brings the arrival of Ihsahn's seventh solo album, "?mr". Another immersive and frequently disorientating eruption of refined and absorbing progressive extreme metal, it echoes the meticulous precision and structural simplicity of 2016's widely acclaimed "Arktis". Album while taking Ihsahn's music somewhere entirely new, where the hiss and throb of old school analogue synths dominate and the atmosphere is airless and oppressive. Once again percussively propelled by longtime drummer Tobias ?rnes Andersen and with a blistering guest solo from OPETH's Fredrik ?kesson on "Arcana Imperii", "?mr" is another evolutionary leap from one of metal's most remorselessly forward-thinking protagonists.
