Band:	Ihsahn
Album:	Das Seelenbrechen
Style:	Avantgarde metal, Extreme progressive metal
Release date:	October 2013

01. Hiber
02. Regen
03. NaCl
04. Pulse
05. Tacit II
06. Tacit I
07. Rec
08. M
09. Sub Äter
10. See
11. Entropie [limited edition bonus]
12. Hel [limited edition bonus]

Das Seelenbrechen marks the 5th release of Norwegian musician Ihsahn. Vegard "Ihsahn" Tveitan is a musician who has been around ever since the early 1990's releasing material under different monikers. We have his work in Emperor which is highly regarded and after Emperor disbanded, he continued his musical path with the band his wife founded, Peccatum. In both bands, Ihsahn managed to release memorable material and it was only after both projects were dropped that he began focusing on his solo career.

For this album, Ihsahn chose to avoid the traditional two year gap between full-lengths. While this might raise some questions about the fact that this album might've been rushed; his reunion with Emperor to celebrate 20 years since the debut was released, and his collaboration with other musicians in a new project entitled God Of Atheists might've weighted heavily on his decision to release this album earlier.

What does this new album offer? Well, for starters, it's the logic transition from the progressive black metal adopted in the previous works to avant-garde metal. Eremita already had several hints of progression in this direction, but this new opus manages to complete the transition. For such a move though, one might think that more time will be needed to think precisely about the quality of musicianship on this record, as avant-garde music tends to go beyond the standards of a fixed musical genre, but fortunately Ihsahn manages to deliver his vision pretty well.

One might say that Das Seelenbrechen is the most serene album Ihsahn ever recorded and it doesn't feature guest appearances from well known names inside the metal scene. The song-writing process revolved around Ihsahn, Tobias Ørnes Andersen, Leprous' drummer and Jørgen Munkeby from Shining (NOR). The tracks shine through the expressiveness of the instrumentals and the calm yet gloomy vocal deliveries done by Ihsahn. Take for example the track "Hiber" or "See" as being the ones that best describe the feelings mentioned while contrary, tracks like "Rec" reduces the gloominess through the clean vocals, combined with the great usage of keyboards. Saxophone plays an important role on tracks like "Regen" as well.

All in all, Ihsahn managed to make the transition successful, but it was done in a rush in the end. While technically the tracks are done in a great manner, it lacks in terms of being memorable. Except for the saxophone parts which are ingeniously placed and can even sound catchy at some points, the rest of the album is pretty much technical and that's it. This album might be a hit and miss for many, especially for those that do not tolerate avant-garde works, but for those that do appreciate bands like Arcturus or Leprous, it will surely come in handy!