Their second best album (after Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk) IMO. Crazy to think Ihsahn was just 18 when they wrote and recorded this.

9.1/10 for me - 'Into the Infinity of Thoughts' and 'I Am the Black Wizards' are the standout tracks. 'Cosmic Keys to My Creations & Times' is also fantastic.

I don't know how to feel about the fact that my favorite song in there is the Bathory cover, great album nonetheless

If you are a fan of extreme metal but find most black metal too samey and boring, give this one a listen, I promise it will hold your attention!

A magnificent album, with such a majestic, and wonderful atmosphere, yet so sinister, and dark, it's an unworldly experience. The whole album is mesmerising to listen to from start to finish, not one moment I find dull, and not one part I find worth skipping. Anthens To The Welkin At Dusk was fantastic, but this is something else, a huge improvement on the production imo, the instruments and symphonies are much crisper, and I found the vocals much clearer too, and the cover art is awesome! Imo this is the absolute pinnacle of symphonic black metal.

Written by AndyMetalFreak on 10.04.2022 at 19:15

A magnificent album, with such a majestic, and wonderful atmosphere, yet so sinister, and dark, it's an unworldly experience. The whole album is mesmerising to listen to from start to finish, not one moment I find dull, and not one part I find worth skipping. Anthens To The Welkin At Dusk was fantastic, but this is something else, a huge improvement on the production imo, the instruments and symphonies are much crisper, and I found the vocals much clearer too, and the cover art is awesome! Imo this is the absolute pinnacle of symphonic black metal.

I'm not sure why, but I find Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk ridiculously superior to this one. I've tried listening to Nightside recently again, and I admit there were some good parts (mainly in the second half of the album). But, while this album has some good moments, Anthems is full of masterpiece songs.

Overall, I don't like the nasally vocals here and the instrumentation blurs together so much, that it sounds like not much interesting is going on. In contrast, on Anthems, there is a great variety in the vocals and the production allows all the instruments to be a lot more discernible.

I don't know. I'll keep trying to get into Nightside, but it's been a lot easier to like Anthems.

Does anyone know what happened to the band in between 1994 and 1997 that made such a difference in their musical approach?

Written by F3ynman on 07.07.2022 at 08:08

I'm not sure why, but I find Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk ridiculously superior to this one. I've tried listening to Nightside recently again, and I admit there were some good parts (mainly in the second half of the album). But, while this album has some good moments, Anthems is full of masterpiece songs.

Overall, I don't like the nasally vocals here and the instrumentation blurs together so much, that it sounds like not much interesting is going on. In contrast, on Anthems, there is a great variety in the vocals and the production allows all the instruments to be a lot more discernible.

I think it helps that this was one of the first black metal albums I discovered, it blew me away when I first heard it. I've found that most people prefer Anthems To this one, I must admit the opening to that album is amazing, but I've always preferred the overall sound on this one, maybe I should listen to Anthems more

I like Anthems a lot better, while this one has some very cool moments, the overall sound of the next album is more enjoyable and unique.

Production on Anthems is such a drawback. I could listen to this album forever. I Am The Black Wizards opening riff…

Anthems is 100% the superior album, but the cold frosty atmosphere on this one is so good.

Very good nice classical black metal album that I have never listened before now

Image thinking this is better than Anthems.

Kinda cringe.