Do you really wanna know about black metal? Take your time. Don't make a hasty decision, because it's not really one of those kinds of music where you can dip your toe in to decide if it's lukewarm enough. Norway's Emperor are where I started a couple of years ago, and thus far, where I'm stuck. It's not that their stuff isn't so unfuckingbelievably great that I can hardly keep from breaking your windows, but-- where to go after this? Every piece of music they played seemed like a final statement, something to bookend the miserable/triumphant human experience.
From 1991 until 2001, Emperor enjoyed top black billing and, although Mayhem predated them by several years, are often referred to as the kings of the genre. Because of their various legal troubles over the years (just the average church burning, homosexual partner slaying shenanigans most of us went through during our sensitive years-- oh, and some light Satanism), they've gotten some press that may have inadvertently hoisted them into a larger spotlight than they asked for. The morality police will have my head for this, but I think the writers who focus on that stuff are probably the same ones thinking Emperor would be a lot better if they didn't scream all the time.
The band formed in 1991 as a trio featuring guitarist/keyboardist/lead-singer Isaahn, drummer Samoth and voluntarily freaked elf-guy Mortiis on bass. They recorded an extra lo-fi, hi-black demo titled Wrath of the Tyrant, which got them signed to UK metalmongers Candlelight Records. After a split with fellow Norwegians Enslaved, adding drummer Bard Faust (watch the blade), and subtracting insane-clown-gnome Mortiis, Emperor produced their undisputedly classic full-length debut, In the Nightside Eclipse. This was an album that retained all the gothic, ragged edge of Wrath, but upped the compositional ante and musical diversity with operatic vocals in between the tried-and-true Isaahn growl/shriek, and their best-yet use of symphonic grandeur via synths and extended tunes.
When drummer Trym Torson (formerly of Enslaved) joined, the band altered their sound slightly, going with a more overtly technical style-- some people called it prog-metal, some extreme metal, others call it that noise Mike Patton was doing with Dillinger Escape Plan. In any case, 1997's Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk and 1999's IX Equilibrium did nothing but expand their worldwide profile, though especially after the latter, perhaps alienated a few fans thinking they'd gone all Dream Theater. Emperor's swan song, 2001's fairly amazing Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire and Demise, is arguably their most technically and compositionally complex album.
Scattered Ashes: A Decade of Emperial Wrath is the VH1-style special-length specimen those of you curious about Emperor should seek out: one disc of choice album cuts from throughout their career, another disc of rarities and covers. Everything great about the band is on display here, and if you're left wanting more, you can always head for the albums and EPs. IX Equilibrium's "Curse You All Men" opens the first disc, and if you didn't request a pummeling-- well, fuck it. DIGGADIGGADIGGADIGGA goes the double bass, as Isaahn's silo of riffs suck my head in. His humble musings on the nature of things ("My word is your defeat, and thou shalt not be able to hide anymore!") hardly take away from power of the song. Say what you want about Emperor's wanky later days, they knew how to produce an album. Even better is Prometheus' "The Tongue of Fire", which features one of the great, cyclical-depressive guitar riffs. It's as if Faith No More decided grew a pair (no, a real pair), hired a serious drummer and realized that, yes, you can fill up a metal song with synths and not get labeled alt-something.
Later, Nightside's "I Am the Black Wizards", probably their best-known song, makes its entrance. At this point, Emperor were still slightly "amateur" in their execution, but much closer to the darkness I would attribute to prototypical black metal. In truth, the feel of their early music isn't that far removed from straight thrash, but Isaahn's hawk-cry vocals and the band's ultra-compressed, top-heavy mix injected a claustrophobic, disturbing tenor to their stuff. To me, "Wizards" is black metal. "Inno a Santana" (also from Nightside) foreshadows their later work using the orchestral majesty of Isaahn's vocal harmonies and angelic keyboard lines, but still packs a wallop from via Faust's skull-pound thrash drumming and a swirling, echo chamber ambience.
As usual, the first disc is for the press, and the rest is for the fans. Their cover of influential "Viking metal" masters Bathory's "A Fine Day to Die" actually plays up Emperor's more traditionally, straight-up metal roots. It's not as fast as a typical Emperor track, but is almost as furious due to the blunt thud of drums and out-of-character acoustic guitar interludes. Thorns' "\xC6rie Descent" (from an Emperor/Thorns split) gets the extra-badass treatment, and is especially impressive when you consider that this kind of vaguely Sabbath-inspired haze-metal seemed well beyond Emperor's reach by 1998. Bonus points for the 19th century pump organ, though some detracted for the "Sworn" remix that might sound okay during the slower Matrix scenes, but not here.
I don't want to mislead you: Emperor are squarely metal, and if you have a problem with that, Scattered Ashes will probably be too much to take at once. But that's fine-- break her in, listen to her soft, peek at your CD player when you think it's not looking. At some point you're going to have to face them head on. Anyone already into the band will want this compilation for its second disc (and probably skipped this review entirely), so for the others, I'm reaching out. Sometimes you have to have a little faith, and if you can't trust the kings of black metal, then who?
