However, one thing about Emperor that's never been in question is that they rock. Unsurprisingly, metalheads came from all over the country (and maybe further) to pay their respects. After all, a metal band's legacy is like the baseball diamond in Field of Dreams--if you build it, they will come.
Entering the venue to the crowd's deafening chants of "EMPEROR, EMPEROR," I instantly pitied whatever opener I was about to see get slaughtered by the gung-ho Emperor fans. But the opening acts must've been dealt a premature death by the aggressive fans, because Emperor took the stage much earlier than anticipated, wasting no time in getting down to business. Emperor opened with 'Into the Infinity of Thoughts' and thereby banished any question of their greatness with an assault of shrieked vocals and heavy guitars mixed with just the right amount of symphonic keyboards (read: not enough to sound like Children of Bodom). From the start, it was clear that Emperor would grace us with the black metal sound that they made their own. It was almost as if they were only coming back to say, "Keep trying, everyone else--we did it best."
Singer/guitarist Ihsahn said very little the whole night, barely raising his voice when not singing and not once turning into the showman he sounded like on Emperor's live album. Nowadays, Emperor as gimmick-free as any black metal band you'll ever see--no more corpsepaint, stage props, or costumes for these guys, and they certainly need none of that to enhance their show. The minimal stage set and lack of audience interaction would seem like an apathetic move by most metal bands playing a set of older songs, but such additions to Emperor's show would've been completely unnecessary. The music did the talking, and the audience showed their thanks by shouting along to every word of 'Thus Spake the Nightspirit,' 'Inno a Satana,' and every other Emperor song which would take about 5,000 listens to understand what Isahn is actually saying.
With a few exceptions, such as the melodic 'Elegy of Icarus,' Emperor's set was comprised almost entirely of tracks from their first two albums, the classic Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk and their debut Into the Nightside Eclipse. Their decision to focus on their earliest songs will give little hope to anyone craving new material from these guys, but like many great bands, Emperor could play songs from their first few albums for the rest of their lives and still draw crowds.
Emperor capped the evening with the genre-defining 'I am the Black Wizards' and the lightning-paced 'Ye Entrancemperium,' two of their earliest songs as well as two of their best. If they never reach those heights again, it's hard to imagine a black metal band that could. And when their live performances are so awesome, who cares?
Piercingmetal.com posted some pretty sweet pictures from the show...
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