“My headless six-string is the color of Hannibal Lecter’s couch.” Ihsahn said this to Guitar World in 2024. The guitar: an Aristides headless instrument, in an oxblood red color associated with a specific scene from the Thomas Harris adaptation where Hopkins first encounters Jodie Foster. “And I have an Oxblood Red model inspired by his office!” The guitars come in cinematic evil. The music comes in the same direction — but more precisely. The man who co-founded Emperor in Notodden, Norway (population: 2,000), in the early 1990s and recorded In The Nightside Eclipse (1994) — an album widely considered ground zero for symphonic black metal — has a relationship to his instruments that is simultaneously more pragmatic and more philosophical than most guitarists’. “I am not a very technical guitar player,” he told Guitar World. “Progressive is more a mentality.” He means this as self-deprecation, but it is accurate and important: his contribution to black metal, to symphonic black metal, and to progressive metal is not a technical guitar contribution but a compositional and conceptual one. The guitar serves the composition. The composition serves the music. The music serves the concept. The concept is, apparently, the color of Hannibal Lecter’s couch. It works.
Vegard Sverre Tveitan — known as Ihsahn — was born on October 16, 1975, in Notodden, Telemark County, Norway. He co-founded Emperor with guitarist Samoth (Tomas Haugen), drummer Trym Torson, and bassist Mortiis (Varg Vikernes later joined, briefly, but the stable lineup is the one that recorded In The Nightside Eclipse). Emperor’s role in Norwegian black metal history is foundational: in a scene characterized by genuine violence (church burnings, murders, and the specific circumstances that make early Norwegian black metal history unlike any other music scene’s history), Emperor represented the symphonic, classically-influenced wing — the musicians who absorbed the brutal noise of bands like Darkthrone and Mayhem but combined it with orchestral arrangements, keyboard atmospheres, and the specific compositional ambition of progressive rock. In The Nightside Eclipse (1994) is the specific album that defined this approach. He has since released eight solo albums under his own name, exploring progressive metal, experimental music, jazz-influenced arrangements (with saxophonist Jorgen Munkeby on several records), and the “regular songs” approach of Arktis (2016). He composes, he records, he performs, he produces. He lives in Notodden. He has guitars the color of Hannibal Lecter’s couch.
Background: Notodden, Emperor’s Founding, In The Nightside Eclipse, Norwegian Black Metal Context
The Norwegian black metal scene of the early 1990s is one of the most documented and most misunderstood music scenes in rock history — a community of musicians in their late teens whose combination of genuine musical innovation (the specific distorted-guitar-and-blast-beat vocabulary of second-wave black metal, developed by Darkthrone, Mayhem, Immortal, and others) and genuine criminality (church burnings, murders, and the prison sentences of several prominent scene members) produced a music that was simultaneously artistically significant and contextually disturbing. Ihsahn and Emperor operated within this context while consistently representing its most musically sophisticated wing: where some black metal bands pursued primitivism (the deliberately lo-fi, deliberately anti-musical approach of kvlt black metal), Emperor pursued complexity, orchestration, and the integration of classical and progressive rock influences into the black metal framework.
In The Nightside Eclipse (1994) is the specific result: an album that combines blast-beat drumming, heavily distorted tremolo-picked guitar, and shrieked black metal vocals with full keyboard orchestration, sophisticated harmonic language, and arrangements that reference both Johann Sebastian Bach and King Crimson within the same album. It is simultaneously one of the most extreme and one of the most orchestrally sophisticated albums in metal history, and this combination — the orchestral sophistication of symphonic black metal — created the specific template that Dimmu Borgir, Children of Bodom, and dozens of other bands subsequently developed from.
His transition from Emperor’s collaborative context to a solo career (beginning with The Adversary in 2006, after Emperor’s formal dissolution in 2001 and the band’s later reunion performances) was motivated by the same impulse as Mikael Åkerfeldt’s post-death-metal evolution: the desire to pursue musical directions that the band context couldn’t accommodate. “Where his 2006 solo effort, The Adversary, was the sound of an excited musician exploring many ideas that wouldn’t fit into the parameters of Emperor” — the solo career is the space in which Ihsahn can be as compositionally adventurous as he wishes, without the constraints of the Emperor aesthetic that his collaborators and audience expect.
His self-deprecating Guitar World statement — “I am not a very technical guitar player — progressive is more a mentality” — is the most honest and most accurate self-assessment in this section of the guide. His guitar playing is not his primary artistic offering: his composition is. The guitar is a tool that serves the composition, and his specific instrument and amplifier choices reflect this hierarchy — the right tools for the specific compositional requirements of each album, not prestige instruments for their own sake.
The Rig: Ihsahn’s Guitars, Amps, and Effects
Guitars
Aristides Headless 6-String (“The Color of Hannibal Lecter’s Couch”) and Oxblood Red (Current Primary): Ihsahn’s current primary guitars are Aristides instruments — the Dutch manufacturer of headless guitars made from a proprietary composite material called “arium” (a glass-fiber composite with specific acoustic properties designed to produce a consistent, resonant tone without the variability of wood). The 2024 Guitar World interview confirms: “My headless six-string is the color of Hannibal Lecter’s couch… and I have an Oxblood Red model inspired by his office!” The MusicRadar 2017 interview provides additional context: “he’s leaving all the old Ibanez and Jackson models at home in favour of something almost as controversial as the scene he helped spawn” — the “controversial” aspect being the choice of headless composite guitars over the traditional wood-body instruments associated with metal.
Aristides instruments are endorsed by Ihsahn and appeared on his Arktis touring cycle and subsequent solo work. The Aristides 070 (a 7-string headless model) appears in Equipboard documentation: “In the Aristides Guitars YouTube video titled ‘Ihsahn – Until I Too Dissolve (Aristides 070 Guitar Playthrough),’ Ihsahn is seen using the Blackstar Series One 100.” The Aristides material’s specific tonal character — extremely consistent from instrument to instrument, with a particular brightness and sustain that differs from wood-body guitars — suited Ihsahn’s move away from the traditional black metal guitar approach toward a more modern, sculpted sound for his solo work.
Ibanez RGD 7-String (Custom and Factory, Drop-A Tuning, Eremita Period): The Guitar World 2012 “Dear Guitar Hero” interview provides the clearest documentation of his primary six- and seven-string guitars of the Eremita period: “mostly I’m using two Ibanez RGD seven-strings: a custom and factory model. They are longer scale and built for lower tunings. A lot of the material was written in drop-A tuning.” The Ibanez RGD series — RGD being Ibanez’s range of extended-scale instruments designed specifically for lower tuning stability — provides the longer scale length (26.5-inch) that maintains adequate string tension at drop-A tuning (where the lowest string is dropped from low A to the E below standard). Drop-A gives the seven-string a specific extremely heavy, sub-bass guitar character for the bottom of the range while maintaining the full range of the seven-string upper strings.
Eight-String Guitars (Documented, Higher-Register Material): Alongside the seven-strings, Ihsahn uses eight-string guitars for specific material: “I’m using a six-string in drop-D and eight-strings” (Guitar World 2012). His eight-strings are not as extensively documented as his seven-strings, but their presence reflects the extended range that his compositions explore — from the highest reaches of the six-string to the lowest reaches of the eight-string, covering the full sonic range of contemporary metal guitar.
Earlier Ibanez and Jackson Models (Emperor Period and Early Solo): Equipboard and the MusicRadar interview confirm that Ihsahn’s earlier instruments (Emperor period and early solo work) were Ibanez and Jackson models — the standard tools of the extreme metal guitarist in the 1990s and 2000s. The specific models are not as extensively documented as his later Aristides and Ibanez RGD instruments, but their general character (high-output humbuckers, Floyd Rose or fixed bridges, extended scale lengths for low tuning) is consistent with the established extreme metal guitar approach.
DigiTech 2120 (Emperor “Prometheus” Rhythm Guitar Recording): The Equipboard documentation notes: “Apparently Ihsahn used DigiTech 2120 to record rhythm guitars on Emperor’s 2001 ‘Prometheus’ record.” The DigiTech 2120 is a rack-mount multi-effects processor that was widely used for direct-to-console recording in the late 1990s and early 2000s — not a prestigious vintage device but a practical, high-quality processing tool for getting consistent guitar tones into a recording system without the complexity of a full amplifier miking setup.
Amps
Blackstar Series One 200 and Artisan 100W (Primary Endorsed Amps, Solo Career): The Guitar World 2012 interview confirms: “my main sound is from my Blackstar heads. I have the Series One 200, and I have the 100-watt Artisan head, which sounds like a vintage Plexi.” Ihsahn has been an endorsee of Blackstar Amplification for approximately a decade (from circa 2010 through the Arktis period). The Blackstar Series One 200 — a 200-watt all-tube head with a sophisticated EQ section and Infinite Shape Feature (ISF) that allows continuous variation between American-voiced and British-voiced tonal character — provided the high-wattage, powerful amplification needed for Ihsahn’s live performances. The Artisan 100W — Blackstar’s boutique hand-wired head that “sounds like a vintage Plexi” — provided the warm, responsive vintage tube character for the cleaner, more progressive sections of his solo work.
Blackstar Series One 100 (Live, Aristides Playthrough): The Equipboard documentation confirms the Blackstar Series One 100 (the 100-watt version of the Series One range) in the Aristides guitar playthrough video — the smaller-wattage version of the same amplifier family for studio and smaller-venue performance contexts.
Hughes & Kettner Switchblade 100 Head (Early Solo Period): The Equipboard documentation confirms a Hughes & Kettner Switchblade 100 head used “during a guitar session with Samoth” — the guitarist and Emperor co-founder. The Switchblade is a British-voiced 100-watt amp with solid-state switching and tube power stage, providing the warm, British-voiced character of traditional tube amplification with the switching reliability of solid-state technology.
Neural DSP (Current Primary Recording Tool): The 2024 hyperlocrian.com in-depth interview confirms Neural DSP as his current primary recording tool: “For many years, I’ve been recording D.I. [direct input].” Neural DSP — the Finnish software company whose guitar amplifier modeling plugins (Quad Cortex hardware unit and various amp/guitar software plugins) have become industry standards for modern guitar recording — provides Ihsahn with the flexibility to access any amp character during recording without the complexity of physical amplifier setup. For a musician who records in his own home studio in Notodden and who describes making “fast decisions” as a core part of his studio philosophy, the immediate access and flexibility of Neural DSP is a practical advantage.
Line 6 POD (Historical, Live and Studio): Equipboard documents a Line 6 POD in Ihsahn’s rack from an early period — the Line 6 POD was the first practical direct guitar recording solution and was widely used by metal musicians in the early 2000s for both live performance and recording.
Marshall 1960B 4×12 Cabinet (Live with Emperor): The Equipboard documentation confirms a Marshall 1960B 4×12 cabinet for live performances with Emperor. The Marshall 1960B — the 4×12 slant cabinet loaded with Celestion G12T-75 speakers — is the standard large-format speaker cabinet for high-gain metal in European touring contexts.
Effects
Minimal Effects Philosophy (Fitting the Mix Space): Ihsahn’s Guitar World interview provides the most direct account of his effects philosophy and why it differs from some of his contemporaries: “I admire all these players who can integrate certain effects and old-school fuzz boxes, phasers, and creating a sound with big reverbs and delay combinations. It sounds beautiful. But in some respects, Ihsahn is in a similar position. With Emperor, and similarly with his solo work, he has less space in the mix for time-based effects such as delay or echo, or to bring in modulation.” The specific reason: Emperor’s music — with its full keyboard orchestration, its layered guitar tracks, its dense symphonic arrangements — leaves little sonic space for additional time-based processing. Adding delay or reverb to a guitar that is already surrounded by keyboards providing atmospheric depth would produce sonic confusion rather than enhancement.
Neural DSP Software Plugins (Current Recording Effects): Neural DSP’s amp modeling plugins provide not just amplifier simulation but effects simulation — comprehensive signal chains in software format. For Ihsahn’s current direct-input recording approach, the Neural DSP plugin system provides the complete guitar signal chain without physical hardware.
Keyboards and Orchestration as Primary “Effects” (Emperor and Solo): The most important “effects” in Ihsahn’s musical approach are not guitar pedals but keyboard instruments and orchestral arrangements — the full symphony orchestra simulation that appears on In The Nightside Eclipse, the piano and synthesizer arrangements of his solo work, the saxophone that Jorgen Munkeby contributes to several albums. These are the sonic layers that create the atmospheric depth that, on other musicians’ records, delay and reverb would create. He achieves atmospheric depth through arrangement complexity rather than through effects processing.
Playing Style & Tone Philosophy
Ihsahn’s playing style is the most compositionally oriented in the metal tradition — the approach of a musician who thinks primarily as a composer and uses the guitar as the primary compositional tool and the primary performance vehicle, rather than as an instrument to be played for its own technical sake. “I am not a very technical guitar player — progressive is more a mentality” accurately captures his self-understanding: he is a composer who plays guitar, not a guitarist who composes. The guitar’s role in his music is to provide the primary melodic and harmonic content of the metal sections of his compositions; the keyboards and orchestration provide the atmospheric context.
His tone philosophy reflects the compositional hierarchy: the right guitar sound for the specific section of the composition, achieved through the right amplifier or modeling system for the specific tonal context. The Blackstar Series One 200 for high-gain black metal passages, the Artisan 100W for the more progressive sections; the Neural DSP for flexible studio recording without physical amplifier setup. The guitar’s tone serves the composition’s needs; the composition is the primary artistic statement.
His approach to extended-range guitars — the seven-string in drop-A, the eight-string for specific material — reflects the compositional logic of exploring the full frequency range available to the guitar family. Drop-A tuning on a seven-string gives the guitar access to pitches below the standard bass guitar range; the combination of this extreme low extension with conventional higher-register guitar work creates the specific sonic density of his heavier compositions.
How to Sound Like Ihsahn
Guitar: For the current sound: an Aristides headless composite guitar or any quality extended-range headless instrument with high-output humbuckers. For the Emperor/classic period sound: an Ibanez RGD seven-string (or any extended-scale seven-string) in drop-A tuning with fixed bridge.
Amp: Neural DSP for flexible recording (Quad Cortex or software plugin). Live: Blackstar Series One 200 or comparable high-wattage British-voiced tube head. The ISF control on Blackstar amps allows continuous tonal adjustment between American and British voicing — useful for the range between black metal brutality and progressive rock warmth.
Amp Settings (Blackstar Series One / High-Gain British-Voiced Tube Head):
| Control | Setting (0–10) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Gain | 7–9 | High — symphonic black metal requires extreme gain |
| Bass | 5–6 | Present — the low-tuned guitar needs bass authority |
| Mid | 5 | Natural — not scooped; the orchestration fills the mid frequency space |
| Treble | 6–7 | Bright — tremolo-picked black metal guitar needs treble definition |
| ISF | 3–5 | Towards British character — warmer, more midrange-forward |
Effects: Minimal in the guitar signal chain — let the arrangement (keyboards, orchestration, other instruments) provide the atmospheric depth. Neural DSP for amp and effects simulation in recording. If playing live without orchestration, add moderate reverb to create the ambient depth that the keyboard layers would normally provide.
Influence & Legacy
Ihsahn’s influence on symphonic black metal and progressive metal is foundational — he co-created the genre that Dimmu Borgir, Children of Bodom, Wintersun, and dozens of other bands subsequently developed. In The Nightside Eclipse (1994) is the specific foundational document, and its specific approach — the combination of brutal black metal with full orchestral arrangement and progressive harmonic language — has been the most replicated approach in extreme metal of the past thirty years.
His connection to Mikael Åkerfeldt (Series 2 #168) as a parallel figure in Scandinavian progressive metal — both musicians who developed their compositional ambitions within an extreme metal context and then pushed beyond the genre’s conventional limits — reflects the specific character of Nordic metal at its most artistically ambitious. His connection to Jari Mäenpää (Series 2 #179) of Wintersun — whose symphonic approach builds directly on the Emperor template — documents the specific lineage he established. His connection to Euronymous (Series 2 #170) of Mayhem — the musician whose specific black metal aesthetic and whose personal story (his murder in 1993) shaped the entire Norwegian black metal scene’s historical context — reflects the specific biographical and musical environment within which Emperor and Ihsahn developed.
Internal Links:
- Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth, a parallel figure in Scandinavian progressive metal at #168
- Euronymous of Mayhem, whose black metal aesthetic shaped the scene within which Emperor and Ihsahn developed at #170
- Jari Mäenpää of Wintersun, whose symphonic approach builds directly on the Emperor template at #179
- Alexi Laiho of Children of Bodom, one of the primary inheritors of Emperor’s symphonic black metal approach at #176
Frequently Asked Questions: Ihsahn Emperor Guitars & Gear
What guitar does Ihsahn play?
Ihsahn’s current primary guitars are Aristides headless instruments made from arium composite material — his six-string is described as “the color of Hannibal Lecter’s couch” and his oxblood red model is “inspired by his office.” Earlier primary guitars include Ibanez RGD seven-strings (a custom and factory model) in drop-A tuning, used extensively during the Eremita period and other early solo albums. He also uses eight-string guitars for specific extended-range material and used various Ibanez and Jackson models during the Emperor period.
What amplifier does Ihsahn use?
For approximately a decade, Ihsahn endorsed Blackstar Amplification — primarily the Blackstar Series One 200 (200-watt all-tube head) and the Artisan 100W (hand-wired, “sounds like a vintage Plexi”). The Blackstar Series One 100 also appears in his documented live rig. Currently, his primary recording tool is Neural DSP — for direct-input guitar recording without physical amplifier setup. Earlier studio and live amps include a Hughes & Kettner Switchblade 100, Line 6 POD (historical), and Marshall 1960B 4×12 cabinets for Emperor live performances.
Is Ihsahn a technically skilled guitarist?
Ihsahn’s own assessment: “I am not a very technical guitar player — progressive is more a mentality.” He views his primary contribution as compositional rather than technical — a composer who uses the guitar as his primary instrument rather than a guitarist who composes. His guitar playing serves the compositional needs of his music: the tremolo-picked black metal riffs, the progressive rock chord sequences, the melodic lead lines of his solo albums. Technical display for its own sake is not his priority. Guitar World confirmed this in their interview: “GW: Have you been working on strengthening your soloing chops? IHSAHN: Nah, not really.”
What is Emperor’s role in black metal history?
Emperor is widely considered the founding band of symphonic black metal — the approach to black metal that integrates full keyboard orchestration, classical harmonic language, and progressive rock compositional sophistication with the blast-beat drumming, tremolo-picked distorted guitar, and shrieked vocals of second-wave black metal. In The Nightside Eclipse (1994) is the foundational document, considered “ground zero for symphonic black metal” by Guitar World. Emperor’s approach influenced Dimmu Borgir, Children of Bodom, Wintersun, Nightwish (indirectly), and virtually every band in the symphonic extreme metal tradition.
What are Aristides guitars?
Aristides is a Dutch guitar manufacturer that makes headless guitars from a proprietary composite material called “arium” — a glass-fiber composite designed to produce consistent acoustic properties without the variability of wood. The instruments are known for their extremely consistent tone from unit to unit, their headless design (which reduces weight and improves balance), and their modern aesthetic. Ihsahn adopted Aristides instruments around 2016-2017, replacing his Ibanez models for both live and recording use. The instruments appear in his Arktis promotional materials and subsequent touring and recording.
What extended-range guitar tunings does Ihsahn use?
Ihsahn uses multiple tuning configurations across his solo work: drop-D on a six-string, drop-A on a seven-string (lowering the lowest string from A to the sub-bass A below it), and extended eight-string configurations. Drop-A on a seven-string requires the longer scale length of Ibanez RGD models (26.5-inch) to maintain adequate string tension. These extended low tunings allow the composition of bass-register guitar parts that extend below standard bass guitar range, providing the extreme sub-bass weight that his heavier compositions require.
What is Ihsahn’s solo career?
Ihsahn launched his solo career in 2006 with The Adversary, followed by angL (2008), After (2010), Eremita (2012, with guest appearances by Devin Townsend and Jeff Loomis), Das Seelenbrechen (2013), Arktis (2016), Àmr (2018), Telemark EP (2020), Pharos EP (2021), and the self-titled double album (2024). The solo career has explored progressive metal, experimental music, jazz-influenced arrangements (with saxophonist Jorgen Munkeby of Shining), ambient, and electronic elements — consistently pushing beyond the symphonic black metal parameters of Emperor into new compositional territory while maintaining the dark, orchestral character of his musical identity.
