Ihsahn
Norwegian singer, guitarist and composer
Vegard Sverre Tveitan (born 10 October 1975), better known by his stage name Ihsahn ( ee-SHAHN), is a Norwegian musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer who is best known for his work with the black metal band Emperor. Tveitan is also a founding member of Thou Shalt Suffer, where he played guitar and keyboard in addition to vocal duties, and Peccatum, a project in collaboration with his wife and fellow musician Heidi Solberg Tveitan, also known as Starofash. Since 2006, Tveitan has primarily devoted himself to solo albums and occasional guest appearances.
Beyond the characteristics typically associated with metal music, Tveitan's musical style also includes classical, industrial, and progressive elements. He is a progenitor of the symphonic black metal genre.
Biography
Tveitan was born in Notodden, Norway, where he grew up on a large farm. He began playing piano at age six and guitar at age 10.
Early years: Xerasia, Embryonic, and Thou Shalt Suffer
At the age of 13, Tveitan met Tomas Haugen (also known as Samoth), who would become his long time collaborator and the co-founder of Emperor. While at a music seminar, Tveitan gained Haugen's attention with his Iron Maiden patches.
In 1990 Tveitan joined Haugen's band Xerasia, a death metal band in which he played guitar and keyboards.
“Ihsahn” enters the record as norwegian singer, guitarist and composer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ihsahn, Norwegian and singer can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Ihsahn” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Ihsahn, Norwegian and singer provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q386992. VIAF identifies the subject as 170145970240032251867. The Library of Congress control number is no2008002944. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1975, 2006 and 1990.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “Ihsahn” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.