Album Comparison Between Ihsahn’s Eremita and After

Ihsahn has developed as a solo artist nicely and this is shown by the transition between the album After and his recent masterwork Eremita.  He always adds nice progressive and jazzy touches to his work, but there are some notable differences between these two albums, which I will discuss.

The album After showed a more jazzy side than their newest album with a greater use of saxophone and some more extended ballads.  This was my first exposure to Ihsahn’s solo material and it’s widely regarded as the album that really put the artist’s solo career into drive.  The atmosphere on here is splendid and overall it was one of the best albums of 2010.

The new work by Ihsahn Eremita shows a more progressive and aggressive approach.  This leads to a more consistent approach overall.  The beginning portions make the greatest impact, but the entire album is quite noteworthy.  Ihsahn song-writing skills are further refined and he is helped by some guest musicians more greatly on Eremita, which I’m sure will be one of the top album’s of this year. 

Both of these albums are must have purchases for fans of Ihsahn’s previous work with Emperor and previous solo work.  They show that the artist still has many great years of music ahead of him and that he didn’t fade away along with the passing of Emperor.  Eremita and After are gems that all music listeners must explore.