Emperor - Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk (1997, Candlelight/Century Black)
Norway. The early 90's. Chances are if you're reading this the first two things mentioned brought visions of black metal, burnt churches, murders, and the Olympics dancing into your head. You've heard all the "Lords of Choas" babble before, ad nauseum I'm sure. This will not be about all that bullshit, this is a Varg-free write up, (oops, spoke too soon I guess) but this record is difficult to document without the touching on aforementioned hijinks. The madness of the early 90's Norweigan Black Metal scene had resulted in casualties, both artisically and humanly (?), but also laid the foundation for this mid-late 90's masterwork. Ladies (j/k, no chicks are reading this), gents, and ladygents, this is "Anthems to The Welkin At Dusk".
After the 1994 imprisonment of drummer Faust (murder), guitarist Samoth (arson), and bassist Tchort (assault), left lead vocalist/guitarist/brainchild Ihsahn essentially without a band, Emperor was put on hiatus. At the time, the band was riding high on waves of both positive (for prior album "In The Nightside Eclipse") and negative (for the trifecta of murder/arson/assault imprisoning 3/4 of the band) press and this was a band that was going places and simultaneously going nowhere fast. Ultimately Samoth and Tchort were released from prison after a couple of years, with only Samoth returning to the band (Tchort was replaced by Alver). With Faust looking at a considerbly longer sentence, a new permanent drummer was needed. Enter Trym Torson. Formerly of Enslaved, this was the defibrillation the band needed. Sporting a much more technically proficient, aggressive and faster style than that of his predecessor, Torson had ensured that Emperor now had the fuel and ability to push their sound, and ultimately black metal, into its next generation. Faust may have done humanity a disservice, but he also did Emperor a huge solid by getting his ass locked up. Sorry kvltards, Trym > Faust, come at me bro.
Once these songs were done being meticulously crafted between 94-96 (largely by an early 20's Ihsahn) the band followed in suit of their debut and again recorded at the infamous Grieghallen Studios. Completely swallowing anything in your ear canal and psyche with a ton of reverb soaked atmosphere, its "hall-esque" sound makes it seem like a metal band is playing full blown symphonies for the monacled, and undead, masses (if you can't feel this by 3:15of "Thus Spake The Nightspirit" just turn it off, seriously). Faster tracks like "Ye Entrancemperium" , " Ensorcelled By Khaos", and "The Loss and Curse of Reverence" are complete bowel emptiers. Swirling synth and riff interplay work especially well on the speedier songs with this production and it feels like you're spiraling down from somewhere high at a million miles per hour (namely at 4:25 of "Reverence"). Also, in part due to the production, the synths don't sound that synthetic. With the reverb completely robbing them of any sort of attack, it just sounds as if a string/horn section is going blow for blow with a black metal band. While the synths do lead to some gorgeous soundscapes, don't let how epic, beautiful, and grandiose this album is at ALL times confuse you. Majestic intros and outros be damned, this is still quite a brutal record, and this is Emperor at their most aggressive and energetic in my opinion.
Unlike my last review for Dark Angel's "Time Does Not Heal", I really can't justify a full breakdown of individual perfomance for this album. It'd be like arguing what's more important about a car, the steering wheel, or the engine? Anything going on at any particlar moment is seemingly a perfect, direct, and concise response to everything else that is going on at that particular moment, total synchronicity. That being said, kudos are definitely due to the exhausting drum work of Trym, killer counterpoint riffing and complete mastery of songmanship by Ihsahn and Samoth, and the placing of the vocals so low in the mix that they in a weird way become another instrument fighting for room in totally claustrophobic living conditions.
It's been said that the key to communication in a lot of instances is brevity. There's not really a whole lot of words that can do this album justice. I got into black metal at around 20 years old and this record, (along with other classics by Darkthrone, Satyricon, Mayhem, and Immortal) is what it's all about. This is where Emperor starts for me as the initial E.P.'s and first L.P. leave much to be desired in my opinion and are merely the salad and appetizer for the main course that is their recorded output from 97-01. Brutality, beauty, atmosphere, catchiness, it's all here in spades on "Anthems". As "grim" as you'd like it, as "kvlt" as you need it, as "cold" as you'll get it. Dig this album, or dig your fucking grave.
No comments:
Post a Comment