Vegard Sverre Tveitan helped change the course of metal while he was still in his teens. The man better known to the wider world as Ihsahn was the vocalist, guitarist and keyboard player with black metal standard-bearers Emperor, whose landmark debut album, 1994’s In The Nightside Eclipse – released when Ihsahn was just 18 – brought a frosty grandiosity to this harshest of genres.
Derided in many quarters at the time, both Emperor and the scene to which they were central are viewed as hugely influential today. Unlike Emperor guitarist Samoth and drummer Faust, who were convicted of arson and murder respectively, Ihsahn steered clear of direct involvement in the criminality and violence that gave black metal its initial notoriety.
