IG: @ihsmarum

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IHS is a black metal band founded in late 2016 by H. who is, and will remain, its sole member. 

    "At the end of 2017, prolonged  and repeated stress and anxiety brought me(H.) to the point of burnout. My life turned on its head and my existence fell into an unimaginary dark state where absolute mental and physical fatique and severe and crippling depression was everything I felt and knew. In that deathlike and lifeless state I found that creating and listening to music( especially soul wrenching dark stuff like Reverorum Ib Malacht and dsbm band Nortt) had a profound and cathartic effect on me, that - even though I had made music prior to this and knew it was a great outlet for emotions and stress - became my way of coping with my illness, and to somehow manage to remain an active part and agent in relation to the darkness, sorrow and void within me. And trust me, the dark hung over me like a freshly dug grave with its walls towering the horizon. And where there was not darkness there was only grey lifeless void. 

    Being raised in a religious family, and having studied Christian theology for many years at one of the universities in Sweden in the time leading up to my burnout, my mind was saturated with a  spiritual world-view inspired by theology and writings of Christian mysticism when I got thrown in to darkness in early 2017. As such, my existence very much became akin to concept of The Dark Night Of The Soul, where I percieved it as if God had  withdrawn or abandoned me. This spiritual crisis paired with depression and the frustration of suffering the handicap of constant fatigue as the suites of burnout, aswell as all the general horrible distress I experienced at that time, found great ventilation in the my music; which I decided to name IHS (in hoc signo: in this sign), where(in my take on it) this sign on one hand being God, and total darkness and suffering on the other, and the relation between the two in my life and spirituality.

    I've been involved in a handful black metal projects since I was fourteen(I'm 26 now); mainly as a drummer or vocalist. It was first around 2015 I started teaching myself guitar. Around that time I also got hold of a few mics and recording equipment. By 2017 I had only the most basic understanding of how to record and let alone play other instruments then drums and synth. Basically I didn't know what I was doing. Most tracks on "Plågoandar. The Long Night" and "Likt en skinande ängel. Lifvets Krona..."-releases was recorded during the first half of 2017, and the sound of those reflect the limited skill and knowledge I had back then.

   The focus and main goal(if there ever was any) when I write and create music is to conjure up a sonoric atmosphere that matches what I see and feel behind my eyes and experience in my soul. When I listen to the stuff I made in 2017/2018 I dare say it is an accurate reflection of a devastated and utterly lost and tormented mind trapped in chaotic darkness. As for the material I write now, there is more fury than sorrow, and a sense of direction and control in place of chaos; reflecting the strength I've gained since then, and the recovery I've made from what I've been through."