[4] Ihsahn described Das Seelenbrechen as a "deliberate sidestep" from his previous solo albums, which was designed "to avoid falling into any kind of formula".

[3] He suggested that the album was influenced by the musical experimentation of Diamanda Galas and Scott Walker, for whom he admitted "I've always admired musicians that dive into it like that and express something right there and then without filter, or polishing it too much".

So for this new album, I just wanted to sacrifice all of the control and the "filter" in the hope that a more open-ended approach would leave more room for possibilities of magical things to happen.

[8] In Exclaim!, Natalie Zina Walschots observed that the album "plunges into much deeper, stranger waters than the artist has explored previously".

[2] Claiming that Das Seelenbrechen serves as the aural equivalent of a Max Ernst piece, Ray van Horn Jr. suggested in his Blabbermouth.net review that the album "finds a lot more emphasis placed upon experimentalism and even softer techniques with drum machines, synths, coldwave, prog and jive, plus accessible harmonies and brief spoken word added to Ihsahn's staggering terror zones".

[11] However, other critics have seen this as a virtue, with Harjot Rahi of What Culture suggesting that the lack of cohesion, despite being "disruptive for the listener...actually helps to foster the overall uncomfortable atmosphere that Ihsahn had intended to create".