I’ve been eagerly anticipating this show since I bought my ticket last November. After all, we’re not just talking about just some metal band here; we’re talking about
Emperor, the godfathers of
symphonic black metal. A band that wrote the masterpiece that is
Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk and decided that it wasn’t quite masterpiece enough; a band that transcended the bounds of genre with
Prometheus: the Discipline of Fire and Demise and then broke up the same year at the top of their game.
Any metal fan that doesn’t like this band needs to spend a few hours listening to Anthems and examining the state of their metal soul, because this band is just that good. I had only one expectation from this show: Emperor had to completely rock out. And if I saw a kid in chain mail and corpse paint, that would be cool, too.
Emperor Brought the Rock
I definitely wasn’t disappointed on the first count. From the moment frontman Ihsahn, guitarist Einar, bassist Secthdamon and drummer Trym hit the stage, they had the sold-out crowd of 1,000 people in the palms of their demon-invoking hands, pulling us from the extremes of frenzy to solemn, fist pumping anthematic head-banging, every voice raised in song. Ihsahn, with his short, styled hair, kohl-rimmed eyes and neat black button-down shirt, looked like a modern-day
Anton LaVey or
Aleister Crowley, presiding over the pit with his guitar, his soul-wrenching screams and majestic vocals, radiating charisma and musical energy and looking almost elegantly evil. He kept his song introductions sweet and to the point, knowing exactly the right words to say to get a positive reaction to the song the band was about to play, to thank members of the audience for showing up to a signing at a Borders Books in Manhattan earlier that day and to explain that founding member Samoth wasn’t at the show that night because of complications with US border security. He even harmonized with the singing crowd during the bridge of "Thus Spake the Nightspirit." It was a masterful performance.
A Very Energetic Crowd
Spurred on by the outpouring of energy from the stage, the audience exploded. I’ve never seen such a ferocious pit: screaming lyrics, arms thrust in the air imploring the black forces, slamming into each other with a barely controlled fury that was somehow entirely self-directed – there were almost no malicious moshers, which was very cool. Check out these two videos taken by a fan at the show (
clip 1,
clip 2); they give a small idea of the intensity of the crowd.
We All Could Use a Little More
The worst part of the show? It was too short. Yes, even after a 12 song set list made longer by a medley, Emperor could have come out for another encore or two and easily kept the crowd’s attention. If you’re were fortunate enough to have attended the show in New York on the thirteenth or the two shows in LA on the sixteenth and seventeenth, I have no doubt you were rocked just as hard; if you missed Emperor this time around,
contact Candlelight Records and tell them you want the band to come back!
