You're not getting a new Ihsahn album in 2020. You're getting two EPs. Ihsahn tells Prog the first one is titled Telemark, which will feature Norwegian-only lyrics and showcases his "bare bones black metal influences."
“The title of the EP is Telemark – it’s the county I grew up in and still live in, so the whole thing is situated there and very much inspired by that. So you could say it’s a roots-orientated album. I decided early on that I wanted this to be very purely related to black metal aesthetics.
"I wanted to distill the basic, bare bones black metal influences of my musical roots, given the overall concept, writing something for and from Telemark. I decided to do Norwegian lyrics for the first time, too. It feels very much closer to home in many ways.”
While there's been no formal announcement for Telemark, Ihsahn tells Prog it's due out February 14. There's also a second, more progressive EP coming later in 2020 that we currently don't know the name of.
"The plan is to then follow up this EP with its aesthetic and musical counterpart, wherein I can distill all those more progressive, experimental and mellow elements of my music. Ultimately, it’s all a means for me to get some of those ideas out of my system, giving myself space before I delve into the next album!”
Both EP releases will be five tracks. Ihsahn adds that his decision to do two EPs instead of an album is a combination of just wanting to switch things up, as well as mirroring the way his live shows go. Or in Ihsahn's words, "Having released full-length records nearly every second year since I was 16, I felt it might be time to try something else."
