Emperor
As the Shadows Rise

Death metal is much better than black metal: much more varied and heterogeneous, devoted to auditory massacre yet always capable of being unpredictable, sometimes melancholic, with the right bands, much less elitist and open to contamination; black metal is not (at least the “true” black metal of the origins), closed in on itself, with few bands dictating the right path and then only insipid carbon copies. You either love it or hate it. It’s difficult to feel anything else. So I can confidently assert that death metal is superior.

But, but... Every now and then I'm not so sure, and Emperor stand there feeding the doubt.

Ah, Emperor... Just the name inspires reverential fear, an atypical band and yet strongly adhering to the Euronymous canon, with their sumptuous keyboards amidst icy riffs. Ihsahn and Samoth balancing harmony and fury to praise the darkness.

In 2014, they played at Wacken and around Europe for the twentieth anniversary of In the Nightside Eclipse, all the songs in the setlist in strict order, and even that jailbird Faust was behind the drums, pounding like a blacksmith; towards the end of the show they always performed a very old song that they had never presented live: The Ancient Queen. Recorded for the first time in the historic demo Wrath of the Tyrant and then again in the EP As the Shadows Rise. And while you're there watching the live show on YouTube, you wonder how such beauty can go hand in hand with the darkness evoked, with the terrible and icy melodies and Ihsahn's scream, herald of terror and torment. Can there be peace in the chill of the night? Maybe yes, perhaps the black flame has conquered you and burns inside you, or maybe it has always been there and only now shines. And it is thus that Emperor rise to pagan idols: Samoth with the look of ice and the beard of an ancient Viking, Faust bald and out of place but furious nonetheless, and Ihsahn with his new hipster look screaming mercilessly, there is no need for face paint and corpse paint, when he screams Inno a Satana he could even be wearing a Winnie the Pooh costume and it would still freeze the blood in your veins. And like idols, they play and offer you the truths of black metal, which frees your deep anguish and placates it. And when they want to judge and punish you, you will throw them down from their pagan throne, how dare they judge you? They are nothing but a band of murderers and desecrators and you will silence them with a snap of your fingers. There will be nothing left for them but to wander like wanderers in the most desolate recesses of your mind until the black flame calls them back to you again, until you call them back to you. And they will come again.

This is the way of black metal, a path not for everyone.
This is a strange review, because it is difficult to write something sensible that has not already been said.
This is a clever review, because there was already one for In the Nightside Eclipse.
This is a liberating review, because I have wanted to write it for years.