However closely associated one is to the infamous Norwegian black metal scene, the name of pioneering band Emperor is one that looms large. Maybe you saw the Lords of Chaos fictionalized horror-crime movie that centered on fellow black metal band Mayhem and the surrounding murders and church burnings. Or maybe you've marveled at former Emperor man and self-proclaimed goblin Mortiis. Either way, it's long been hard to ignore Emperor, even if you tried.
Emperor formed in 1991, and frontman Ihsahn has been there from the start. Guitarist Samoth joined shortly afterwards in '92, with drummer Trym Torson joining the Satanic ranks in '96. Thirty years later, the trio is joined by a few live musicians to fill out the sound.
We saw Mayhem live in L.A. a couple of years ago, and it wasn't good. Turgid and wooden, it felt like they were going through the motions. Meh, maybe it was a bad night. However, Emperor were superb at the Wiltern.
Long gone are the days of corpse makeup and weaponry. That said, they don't need it. There might be more years on the clock, but Emperor 2026 is as imposing, heavy and evil (musically) as they've ever been.
Early tracks "Wrath of the Tyrant" from the 1992 debut EP of the same name) and "I Am the Black Wizards" (from 1994's In the Nighttime Eclipse debut full-lengther) sounded raw and just plain nasty.
The most recent Emperor album is 2001's Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise, and we got a brutal "In the Wordless Chamber" from that. Killers from the sophomore Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk included "The Loss and Curse of Reverence" and "With Strength I Burn."
But it was those wide-eyed, gnarly songs from the first album that were the highlights for us. "Inno a Satana" was particularly moody and gloriously grim.
The legend of black metal has calmed down a bit. Everybody got old, and church-burning isn't on the agenda when you've got kids to pick up from school. That said, there's still a huge market for the scene. The line for the merch went on forever.
You can't keep a good devil-worshipper down!
