Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk

I have to state again for the record that I am not the biggest fan of newer "Black Metal". Maybe I'm just not as angry, or into the extreme as I used to be, but a lot of this stuff is just like elves on PCP pissed off and dancing around Keebler Central. But, I try to be open minded, and since I would like this page to be representative of all metal, I feel obligated to try to tap into a piece of the genre which is growing in leaps and bounds. I must say, after hearing both this album and Old Man's Child, I am actually quite impressed! While Old Man's Child (as well as other bands such as Sacramentum do incorporate more standard death metal, Emperor lives up to it's name and produces a truly majestic dish of coherent white noise. Layers upon layers of quality synth work swirls around just magnificent guitar lines. After a truly stunning intro, Ye Entrancemperium kicks in, just blowing the unsuspecting listener right out of his or her chair. Yeah, this shit is just mind-numbingly fast (courtesy of super-human drumming by newcomer Trym from Enslaved), but it also makes sense, and you can easily decipher notes and themes. It helps that the production is really, really good, as this album would have just suffered at the hands of a hack. It's hard to pick out a specific performance, because the whole band just forms this tight wall of sound, but again, for me, the drumming is nothing short of amazing. Negatives I might find (due to not being a die-hard fan of the genre) are that the songs start to run together a little towards the middle. Although before interest is lost, Ihsahn and the boys will kick into this totally cool orchestrated section which will blow me away. The switching between tortured elf and majestic king vocals is also a welcome treat for me. In conclusion, if you're a die hard fan, I'm sure that you have this, and if you don't, get it, now. For the weekend black metal listener, this is far and away some of the best that I've heard, and is an excellent starting point for this genre within a genre. The added tracks (from the Reverence E.P.) are a bit slower and doomier, but also kick serious ass. Now if these guys could just keep out of trouble, a really bright future is on the horizon.