RFI: Emperor (Norway)

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What abt Miles Davis?

― Andrew L, Wednesday, 5 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I don't know about revitalizing a "genre", but I would not be surprised if Portishead or Massive Attack (or Enslaved or whomever) continue record interesting music which transcends the strict confines of their genre (some people might argue that Massive Attack already has). Artists DO continue to record good albums even after having been around for 5 years and can, in that time, take fascinating musical pathways previously unimagined by their initially strict genre roadmap.

― Alex in SF, Wednesday, 5 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

one month passes...

I'm pretty well convinced that Immortal's "Sons of Northern Darkness" is the best metal album that will be released this year.

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.

― Joe Gross, Monday, 8 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

one of the fellows in the now-defunt Emperor named his new band Zyklon, which is just fucking rude.

Zyklon = Cyclone

There *was* a one-off project Zyklon B eight years ago which featured the two main Emperor members, but this was a concept album ("Blood Must Be Shed") about blatant glorification of war/mass destruction in general, which used a nuclear explosion on the cover and quotes of serial killers as lyrics. Apart from the project name it would be difficult to see anything specifically "Nazi" about it - which in general makes me wonder why Emperor are seen as a Nazi band. The two main members have quite clearly denied this, and nowhere on any Emperor album do nazi references pop up, let alone anything pro-Nazi. I mean, there are quite a few Nazi/extreme rightwing bands walking around (mainly in the German/Polish scene), but even most of them are using it mainly as metaphor rather than ideology. Is it merely a knee-jerk reaction ("hey, these guys have a battleship on the cover => nasty nazis!"), or is it just a generalization?

― Siegbran Hetteson, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

but even most of them are using it mainly as metaphor rather than ideology

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.

― John Darnielle, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

I don't think this is really accurate - as a metaphor for what? General misanthropy?

At least partially. As a metaphor for evil/death/destruction/hatred. None of these bands are *really* interested in the "positivist" side of Nazism (environmentalism, protestant family values, etc), they focus on *current* society's view of Nazism as The Ultimate Evil. It's not about the ideology itself but its symbolic value. Because at this stage, satanism as metaphor is no longer very effective due to its overuse (and of course, Marilyn Manson has made this *extremely* silly). There are few more effective ways to convey a message of misanthropy/hatred than throwing around symbolism of that darkest age in modern history...

Also, I noticed some people use it as some sort of a symbol of defiance against the big label/commercialization of the genre. No major/semi-major label will ever sign these bands, and that is a source of pride for some.

― Siegbran Hetteson, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-one years ago) link

six years pass...

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?!

― Cameron Octigan, Thursday, 29 January 2009 18:58 (fifteen years ago) link

five years pass...

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

― Neanderthal, Sunday, 6 July 2014 16:23 (nine years ago) link

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

― StanM, Sunday, 6 July 2014 21:30 (nine years ago) link

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.

― Siegbran, Monday, 7 July 2014 12:07 (nine years ago) link

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