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Rating: I adore this group and forgive me, I cannot be brief and focus only on the single album. So, bypass this review if you don't like long introductions and prefer a write-up that concentrates exclusively on the album, not on the context or how it was born. But let's cut to the chase and start the review:
The Emperor represented (back in the day) a band that was not at all stereotypical, in a black metal landscape that often lives more off image and the criminal and "folkloric" antics of its members, paying little attention to substance, preferring to recycle ideas from Venom, Celtic Frost, Bathory, or the bands of the first Norwegian black metal wave. This group belongs precisely to the "prime movers" of the world black scene. Certainly, they came after various bands like Mayhem and Darkthrone, but they were surely among the inspirators of all symphonic black, which in this group expressed itself far from the grandiosity, excessive baroque, and horror-kitsch imagery of some following bands, choosing instead to focus on nihilistic and depressed atmospheres! "In The Nightside Eclipse" is the manifesto of these sounds, an album that, in my opinion, remains unmatched, elevating to become one of the best extreme metal albums of the '90s, and so the subsequent "Anthems To The Welkin At The Dusk" is another major piece: barbaric, chaotic, with a greater use of the symphonic component, as if Wagner had decided to play black metal.
With this initial introduction, to arrive at the description of "Prometheus..." and to understand why the Emperor so distanced themselves from the initial sounds, we need to open another parenthesis: what I like about the Norwegian black metal scene, and unfortunately few highlight this, is the willingness to evolve and say something new in metal or even completely distance themselves from it. If indeed the followers of this genre have often become obtuse and more fanatic than the most die-hard Manowar fans, abolishing any innovation, taking the satanic themes too seriously, or even falling into the ridiculous, when in sunny and Mediterranean Italy they try to create a "little Norway" at home and talk about ancient forests and snowstorms or Odin, things that have nothing to do with our culture and are far from our sensitivity, if indeed the followers have often become obtuse, repetitive, and ridiculous, the fathers of the genre moved forward, just think of Arcturus with their very particular avant-garde metal or Ulver (among the first to propose the folk black metal blend) who today are a group exploring the possibilities offered by sounds influenced by electronics, but one could also mention Manes, Satyricon, etc.
Emperor falls into this list. Indeed, Ihsahn himself, the mind and leader of the group, has declared that he no longer feels a connection to the intentions, sounds, and themes of "In The Nightside Eclipse". But the metamorphosis of the Emperor, compared to other bands, is slow but still perceptible, indeed in their third album following "anthems..." that is "IX Equilibrium", the black matrix remains, but filled with death riffs that blatantly hark back to "Domination" by Morbid Angel (just listen to believe) and so if we want to talk about labels, one could speak of black-death, which doesn’t forgo the symphonic component, indeed in this album Ihsahn makes extensive use of his clean vocals, which reach their peak here thanks also to being often used in a theatrical tone!
The small but significant changes that occurred in the two previous albums, however, had not adequately prepared us for the complete change of sound register that occurred with this "Prometheus...", where Ihsahn's screaming decreases even more and the clean voice is used even more massively, but above all, the black atmospheres that were more or less always present in previous albums almost completely disappear here, becoming a mere influence and not a predominant part, indeed blending into a well-present symphonic component that never takes on grandiose connotations, indeed becoming almost baroque in this case, but not in the showy sense of the term, but of compositional elegance, often reaching "educated" tones and receiving influences both from classic metal and prog as well as riffs often in contact with a certain modern thrash.
The result? Very good, certainly not a masterpiece, but it's an album that reaches moments of absolute beauty such as in the last track "Thorns Of My Grave", symphonic, with a great rhythm section (the drummer Trym really proves to be alien in this album, reaching an absolute mastery of the instrument, combining sonic cleanliness and power), or in "Empty" introduced by the indispensable disorienting and very original riffs of the last Emperor, with a use of violins in the background that seem to refer to the classical music of the 1700s, all seasoned with guitar plots that seem almost to recall Voivod (more so as a concept of guitar sound than as a true musical influence), although in my humble opinion the pinnacle of the album is "The Tongue Of Fire", where the perfect synthesis of Emperor's sound is reached, just see the black beginning followed by a beautiful symphonic part with sublime melody and the very successful clashes between Ihsahn's guitar and theatrical voice. A gem!
This album, while not being a masterpiece, contained notable insights within it and seemed to be a well-achieved experiment, a transitional album that was supposed to ferry us towards something greater and better defined. Unfortunately, Ihsahn declared the Emperor dissolved as soon as the album was released (also because lately, they had become his personal project, indeed almost all the instruments on this album, except the drums, are played by him). But hope is the last to die, in fact, the Emperor has reunited, and we hope that soon they will be able to resume their fresh and innovative musical proposal, which made many subjects bow before the emperor's presence, who now claims his empire, left prey to the barbarians!
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 The Eruption (06:28)
... and after years in dark tunnels
he came to silence
there was nothing...
he realised that the cheering cries of worship
were but echoes of his harsh outspoken word
reflecting back at him from cold and naked walls
in hollow circles fled illusions of wisdom he had heard
"From nothing came all I ever knew"
and he beheld the ruins
of an empire torn apart
yet, no grief nor rage did bind him
just silent and bewildered
by the emptiness
he stumbled off his throne
suddenly, the walls around him cracked wide open
and an endless void appeared in flickering, grey light
"What force, but silence, has deprived me of my coil?
No trail to guide me. No point of reference in sight."
"By nothing, resurrection will be pure."
and he beheld the ruins
of an empire torn apart
wiping dust off his shoulders
just silent now
in this emptiness
leaving all behind
step by step
past all past
slowly he approached the surface
nothing left
to sacrifice
the mirrors mocked him on the way
03 Empty (04:16)
he is an empty shell
- shell-shocked luciferian soul
he is an empty shell
- drained and sealed
he is an empty shell
- penetrating cold
he is an empty shell
- empty luciferian soul
how furiously and bombastic
he proclaimed his destruction
of a mortal coil
in the end it seemed
this was his only possession
long past were his "glorious" days
of filth and lies
and he has reached out to stop time
at its end
he is an empty shell
- shell-shocked luciferian heart
he is an empty shell
- drained and sealed
he is an empty shell
- penetrating cold
he is an empty shell
- empty luciferian soul
the constant struggle for a moment of quiet indulgence
eventually stirred and quaked the earth so hard
it swallowed him in a dark and heavy cloud
slowly and gently starving him into insanity
an inferno of ice
with an ever burning
bleeding
heart
04 The Prophet (05:41)
... and as if awaken from eternal sleep
he sought a mentor
for he no longer knew his position
"It is time after miracles
and I am its prophet
I have not come to cure
but to bear witness decease"
"It is the place where blood and soil
lie beyond the boundaries of the sun
and I am its prophet
I cast the shadow
I absorb the light"
"I am the prophet
I bear witness
I absorb
I cry"
"As I die
I shall burst wide open
As I die
I shall release the apocalypse
my prophecy
Thus, I hold on to faith
Thus, I keep the hope
That it will prosper
and devour"
"It is time after miracles
and I am its prophet
I have not come to cure
but to bear witness decease"
... and pain joined his urge to perceive
05 The Tongue of Fire (07:10)
teach me the tongue of fire
so that I may set the world ablaze
for it is cold
and this blindness can no longer give me shelter
teach me the tongue of fire
so that I may cry out loud my wrath
and my passion
or else my coil will blister and decay
the soul is never silent
but wordless
held imprisoned
in a cursed tomb
wherein reflections never fade
never die
slowly maddened
by the emptiness
left to perish in the ever-dark coil
yet, always alert it its slumber
scorn by the drops of light
piercing through the surface
and it screams
the soul is never silent
but wordless
teach me the tongue of fire
so that I may set the world ablaze
for it is cold
and this blindness can no longer give me shelter
teach me the tongue of fire
so that I may cry out loud my wrath
and my passion
or else my coil will blister and decay
06 In the Wordless Chamber (05:12)
in the wordless chamber
they feared death
desperately
thus they clustered to the fruits of the earth
craving dispersion
as if to avoid knowing why
in the wordless chamber
they feared life
desperately
thus they proclaimed any given truth
and swallowed
as if to justify their fear
he knew that there had been hordes of seers
before him
who set out to cure
though, the sick wished not to part with
their decease
as if it made them feel
alive
in the wordless chamber
he accepted desperation
and the unpredictable manifestations
of hope
07 Grey (05:05)
when all is dark
there are no points of reference
and we no longer navigate
by the stars
we just end up somewhere
...nowhere...
where lights are dim
and shades of black are grey
time appears like a golden calf
while the moments slip away
a search for the freedom in the future
when the hours fall behind
I can always die
another day
desperately I seize tomorrow
all out of my reach
that is what I learned
this is what I teach
corruption seems to flourish
while promises decay
where lights are dim
and shades of black are grey
where lights are dim
and shades of black are grey
from the moment of arrival
we are led astray
with nothing but a distant cry
from deep within a soul
a wordless voice
to guide us on the way
desperately we name the voice
and make the cries our own
as if to deny the fact
that we are all alone
in solitude we mingle
disillusioned we fall prey
where lights are dim
and shades of black are grey
I can always live
another day...
09 Thorns on My Grave (05:55)
"I hereby commit my body to the ground
sterilised and wrapped in plastic foil
being an object of this space and time
this body should remain concealed
for it holds every disease
ever exposed
it holds all pain and death
I could ever unleash
beneath deceiving, fragile skin
breathes the ever growing hate within
since the first glimpse of my existence
I have fed this greedy infection
an aimless search for potential persistence
found no escape from the fatal injection of life
for it holds every disease
ever exposed
it holds all pain and death
it could ever unleash
beneath deceiving, fragile skin
breathes the ever growing hate within
I am the father
I am the son
my refugee soul has escaped
this body depraved
of final wishes I ask none
but one
now that I am gone
lay thorns on my grave"
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