Band:	Emperor
Album:	Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk
Style:	Symphonic black metal
Release date:	July 08, 1997
Guest review by:	Maasai Mara

01. Alsvartr (The Oath)
02. Ye Entrancemperium
03. Thus Spake The Nightspirit
04. Ensorcelled By Khaos
05. The Loss And Curse Of Reverence
06. The Acclamation Of Bonds
07. With Strength I Burn
08. The Wanderer
09. In Longing Spirit [reissue bonus]
10. Opus A Satana [reissue bonus]
11. The Loss And Curse Of Reverence [live] [reissue bonus]

In our lives, sometimes we are unlucky enough to meet bastards who make us feel that, for certain, hell must be real and such characters are subject to eternal damnation. Think of all liars, charlatans and philanderers that you have met, who swindled money out of you, stole shit from you or subjected you to all sorts of lies and betrayal. Now, with the feeling of rage bringing your blood to the boil, think that there can be a bunch of worse people and there, my friend, you meet Emperor and their sophomore album.

The initial minute of "Alsvartr (The Oath)" is the only thing worth wasting your time listening to. A deceptively sweet atmospheric introductory part that deceives you into eating the shit and fraud that is to follow. Everyone who rants and raves about how good this album is, is a lying piece of shit who has never listened to this garbage beyond the first minute of the introductory song. If you love yourself and are a normal lad, quit listening to this album after the first minute of "Alsvartr (The Oath)" and end all relations with people who claim that this album is worth a rating of anything more than 1/10.

This album is the very definition of over-hyped and an album that people only like because it is cool to do so. As a metal newbie years ago, I can't believe I used to pretend to love this album just to appear kvlt and necro. This is the very definition of what non-metalheads mean when they say that heavy metal is nothing but noise. The sound mixing in this album is very poor and not in the cool atmospheric way that Transilvanian Hunger is. Every instrument on this album is played at maximum volume and each and every one of them is competing for your attention. If you have sixteen ears then you can find this piece of album tolerable, but for normal folks with two ears, the blazing synths, up-tempo guitars and relentless drumming all screaming for your attention are simply unbearable and headache-inducing. Minute 04:30 of "The Loss And Curse Of Reverence" demonstrates an example of the headache-inducing wall of noise that this album is full of and I don't hate myself enough to dig up for more examples.

Symphonic metal as a genre is something I have never been able to come to terms with as a member of the heavy metal umbrella. The most annoying bands play this type of genre (Dimmu Borgir, Carach Angren) and to think that a band that is hailed as a black metal legend could desecrate the very soul of black metal and wank around with synths, keyboards and choir effects is preposterous.

The cacophony of noise does tend to reduce on some songs like towards the end of "Thus Spake The Nightspirit" only to reveal basic black metal shrieks and pretty predictable goth-like clean passages. This album is devoid of interesting riffs, barely creates an interesting atmosphere and only excels in the overuse of synths and in giving you migraines.

If you have never listened to this album, I truly envy the peace of mind that you possess.