RFI: Emperor (Norway)

I like 'em fine but am more partial to death metal along the lines of Kataklysm and Morbid Angel (two admittedly quite different bands).

Emperor came out of the ashes of (rather mediocre) Death Metal band Thou Shalt Suffer (members Ihsahn, Mortiis, Samoth, Ildjarn).Ihsahn, Samoth (these two are the core of the band), Mortiis and Faust were Emperor on their 1991 "Wrath Of The Tyrant" demo, the 1992 "As The Shadows Rise" 7" and the 1992 "Emperor" EP (released as split CD with fellow Norwegians Enslaved). These three releases are quite similar, primitive, fuzz-drenched, chaotic and complex vile black metal with some (rather badly done) synth parts. This showed much promise though, and with these releases they became very much the hype of the metal underground, and everyone was expecting their debut. This was recorded in 1993 with Tchort as bassist after Mortiis left metal altogether. With all the media attention after the whole Vikernes/Euronymous murder case and the crackdown on everyone related to Euronymous' record store and label, and Samoth, Tchort and Faust finding themselves incarcerated for either minor (church burning) or major (stabbing a homosexual man) offences, the debut "In The Nightside Eclipse" was only released two years later in 1995 and even considering the huge expectations/hype, it really did hit the scene like a bomb. For me too - in my opinion this is still the best synth-based black metal album ever. It is huge, epic, immersive, complex, coherent, well-played, well-written, melodic and 'naturally evil' (no forced pseudo-evil satanic silliness - darkness just permeates everything in this recording). In the years that followed, literally hundreds of bands tried to get as close to this sound as possible (with usually dreadful results, sadly).

Anyway, this was all recorded in the pre-media hype days, when bands could quietly concentrate on the music. When Samoth was released from jail in 1997, he and Ihsahn recruited two new members and went on as if nothing happened. But somehow the magic was gone (not only for Emperor - none of the pivotal bands from the 1990-1995 era ever managed to regain their original power - Burzum, Enslaved, Mayhem, Darkthrone, nor Immortal), and the role of "flag bearer of the Norwegian BM scene" was somehow thrust upon them by the mainstream media that discovered the thriving black metal scene following the murder case. Emperor never lived up to it. The 1997 "Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk" used the same approach as the debut, but was weaker in all aspects. Probably remembering their Death Metal past, they ambitiously tried to fuse clean, technical DM riffing and classic heavy metal vocals with their BM sound and image on the terribly inconsistent 1999 "IX Equilibrium". Undeterred, they went on to do more of this with their final overblown technical wank-fest "Prometheus" (2001).

Emperor split up last year, which was met with cheers from the metal underground, and laments from the mainstream press. Ihsahn now has an Yngwie Malmsteen-esque opera/metal side project with his wife and brother in law called Peccatum, while Samoth is fronting the industrial/death/black metal band Zyklon (="Cyclone"). Neither are any good, in case you wondered.

So as a recommendation: get "In The Nightside Eclipse", it's a genre classic. It's their "Dark Side Of The Moon", their "Reign In Blood", their "Substrata", their "Never Mind The Bollocks". Everything before is really only interesting for nostalgic reasons, and everything afterwards is lacking in songwriting quality and focus. If you're looking for this kind of well-played technical death metal with some black metal elements, there are many better albums elsewhere.

The only bad thing about ITNE is the reissue that's currently the only version available - it has two added covers (Bathory's "A Fine Day To Die" and Merciful Fate's "Gypsy") from later recordings as bonustracks, both are terrible and make an annoying finish to a well-selected tracklist. So try to obtain the original pressing if you can.

This thread has got me listening to "Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk" again, though...Christ it's good. "Ye Entracemperium" is totally definitive.

Ihsahn seems to be trapped into overambition. He's a limited vocalist, a competent guitarist and reasonably good songwriter of epic metal. When he made the most of his limitations, his music worked. Now that he's working beyond his abilities the resulting music is somewhat annoying. From a musicians point of view, I can understand he's trying to expand his horizon. But the guy needs a critical editor...

Anyway so I'm not a huge Norwegian Black Metal fan, meaning I own some dozen albums--certainly not a big collection by any stretch of the imagination. From what I've read the general divide is that casual fans of metal/prog all find Anthems and Nightside pretty equally terrific, the even earlier stuff raw, sporadically inventive but rather dull and the later stuff a bit too bombastic (although I do know a few people that think the last record Prometheus one of their best). This is pretty much my opinion. On the other hand, huge NBM and "serious" metal fans hold that all us non-"serious" metal fans are fools and that even Nightside is a bit of a sell-out and that the EPs and stuff done before Mortiis left are the only things worth owning (and they say the same thing about Satyricon, Enslaved, Darkthrone, etc--don't buy past X date as these bands began to suck/sell-out/lose inspiration/etc syndrome). These are definitely generalizations, but I'm guessing that if you're not one of the latter types (and I'm assuming anyone asking this question wouldn't be--your a hanger on/trainspotter like most of us are) you'll probably find Anthems (and maybe even Prometheus with its heavy prog/classical motifs) a fascinating and exhilirating listen.

It would've been interesting how Emperor would've sounded if they had kept the lo-fi fuzzy sound and raw energy of the demo/EP days. Probably a lot like Belkètre or Graveland's "The Celtic Winter".

And by the way, for those who like In The Nightside Eclipse, the 1996 album Nord by swedish Setherial is very much recommended. It's a near carbon copy of ITNE, it really sounds like a lost Emperor recording with the added bonus that it's even more energetic.

http://www.geocities.com/nailburn/offy.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/nailburn/levisshop.jpg

Also, why is it called black metal? I dont see any black people doing it.

That's exactly what ended the creative peaks in black metal (first wave '84-'87, second wave '89-'93, third wave '94-'96) - the people involved grew up and started to think too much about what they were doing instead of just doing it. Idem with any genre, for that matter. Drum 'n Bass spiralled into mediocrity once the people in the scene 'grew up'. Punk was best in its most idiotic, naive, black/white sloganist anti-society phase. Such bands/artists were innovative and exciting just because they were idealists, extremists, purists, juvenile demolishers, idiots savant.

And Black Metal, as in dark, occult, negative.

OK. Lemme step back from that a bit.

1. I have yet to hear the new Today is the Day album that has yet to be released on Relapse.

2. The Mastadon album is giving the Immortal record a rather serious run for its money, as is Electric Wizard's "Let Us Prey," a meta album title so good it's flat out amazing it's taken humans until the 21ST CENTURY to name a metal album that. (Electric Wizard are really ,really good at this naming metal albums thing. "Come My Fanatics" and "Dopethrone" are also great, great album names.)

3. But I digress; nothing in points 1 or 2 has anything to do with black metal. Immortal is a well known black metal act. Their early records, such as "Battles in the North" and "Blizzard Beasts" are as genre-defining as Emperor, in my opinion. The new one "Sons..." is just fantastic. When it's one, you will feel like Hannibal leading elephants or something.

4. Emperor is indeed an excellent band. But the Nazi thing...one of the fellows in the now-defunt Emperor named his new band Zyklon, which is just fucking rude.

I don't think this is really accurate - as a metaphor for what? General misanthropy? The entire genre of NSBM certainly isn't metaphorical. Also, why pick the German word for "cyclone"? In order to reference Zyklon B, I think, pretty clearly.

i grew up just outside of tampa florida, and spent my formative years during the peak and wane of the death metal phenomenon. the brass mug, ace's records, the asylum in st pete ... all staples, all good times. then came black metal, which i love but don't have the exact same connection to due to mainly nostalgic reasons.

the first black metal record i heard was In the Nightside Eclipse, and i've never liked it. the thing is, i really, really like black metal, and i have for years. geez, i dunno. that was probably 1995 or something? so 13 years later i still like black metal, and i STILL don't like Emperor.

am i missing something?!

really digging the latest reissue/remaster of Nightside. much better than the one from 1999.

http://concert.arte.tv/fr/emperor-au-hellfest

I've now received that 20th Anniversary Edition thing, I should do a 4-way listening test between these two versions and my original and the 1999 remaster (I need to dig those up from the basement). But at first listen the Alternate Mix doesn't actually sound that different - not in the way that for example the remastered/remixed "Individual Thought Patterns" does.