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I have to state again for the record
that I am not the biggest fan of
newer "Black Metal". Maybe I'm just not as angry, or into the extreme
as I used to be, but a lot of this stuff is just like elves on PCP pissed
off and dancing around Keebler Central. But, I try to be open minded, and
since I would like this page to be representative of all
metal, I feel obligated to try to tap into a piece of the genre
which is growing in leaps and bounds. I must say, after hearing both this
album and Old Man's Child,
I am actually quite impressed! While Old Man's Child (as well as
other bands such as Sacramentum
do incorporate more standard death metal, Emperor lives up to it's name and
produces a truly majestic dish of coherent white noise. Layers upon layers
of quality synth work swirls around just magnificent guitar lines. After
a truly stunning intro, Ye Entrancemperium kicks in, just blowing the
unsuspecting listener right out of his or her chair. Yeah, this shit is
just mind-numbingly fast (courtesy of super-human drumming by newcomer Trym
from Enslaved), but it also makes sense, and you can easily decipher notes
and themes. It helps that the production is really, really good, as this
album would have just suffered at the hands of a hack. It's hard to
pick out a specific performance, because the whole band just forms this
tight wall of sound, but again, for me, the drumming is nothing short of
amazing. Negatives I might find (due to not being a die-hard fan of the
genre) are that the songs start to run together a little towards the middle.
Although before interest is lost, Ihsahn and the boys will kick into this
totally cool orchestrated section which will blow me away. The switching
between tortured elf and majestic king vocals is also a welcome treat for me.
In conclusion, if you're a die hard fan, I'm sure that you have this, and if
you don't, get it, now. For the weekend black metal listener, this is far
and away some of the best that I've heard, and is an excellent starting
point for this genre within a genre. The added tracks (from the Reverence E.P.)
are a bit slower and doomier, but also
kick serious ass. Now if these guys could just keep out of trouble, a
really bright future is on the horizon.
9 out of 10
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