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Emperor
Reverence
(Candlelight - 1997)
The Loss and Curse of Reverence - my favorite track from the forthcoming Anthems LP. Maybe the most overpowering song I ever heard. In Longing Spirit - Remade version of this song from their demo. A really heavy and dark masterpiece with the usual strong keyboards. Opus a Satana - Orchestral version of Inno a Satana. A little bombastic but beautiful classical piece. I love it. The Loss and Curse of Reverence video - the biggest reason for getting this CD. A superbly evil and fascinating piece of film.
Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
(Candlelight - 1997)
Again, they have put out a CD that sounds great at first and just keeps growing on you every time you listen to it. I guess that's because there is so much power in their music you can't absorb it immediately. A couple of tracks have managed to surpass In the Nightside Eclipse in sheer black potency. This CD is guaranteed to knock your socks off and add a few more white hairs to your friendly neighbours. They have also kept their majestic/melodic sound making this much much more than just a brutal blazing album. Yet there is something different here I can't place my finger on. It may be a less-standard structure in their music that doesnt always flow as melodically as In the Nightside. The first couple of tracks after the intro are harsher than the rest. The songs vary much more on this album yet there are always the crushing riffs, dark thick keyboards and Ihsahn's black yet controlled vocals. A few scattered clean vocals are new to Emperor here though, and no, that doesnt mean they have gone softer. Production is much better, yet I actually prefered the bad production on In the Nightside - it lent the music a darker feel. Overall they seem to have progressed and left everyone else in the dust again with this truly overpowering evil and majestic album.
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