Review: Emperor @ The Metro Theatre
Review by Natasha Christian & photos by James Gough.
The band who have long been the centre of Norwegian black metal lore and controversy arrived in Australia earlier this week to tour the album that started it all.
On Thursday it was Sydney’s turn to see just how dark and beautiful an album written by teenagers could be.
Australia’s ugliest well-dressed band, extreme metallers The Amenta got things started with their first Sydney show in a decade. I was lucky enough to catch them at Dark Mofo a few years back before covid cancelled their much-anticipated Revelator tour.
The Amenta arrived on stage as four guys in American Psycho-esque corporate wear and vocalist Cain Cressall looking very Brandon Lee / Eric Draven with his long hair and leather trenchcoat.
All took the stage with their signature silicon death masks, but by the end of the first song Cressall had ditched his and draped it over his mic stand - somehow this looked even creepier.
“Thanks for leaving the porch light on,” Cressall told a packed crowd who were finally able to hear those new songs live, enveloped by a pretty epic red, black and white light show.
We also got to hear some earlier stuff from Flesh Is Heir and NON with some great guitar work from Erik Miehs and drumming from Dave Haley. Highlights were the two intro tracks from Revelator - Sere Money and An Epoch Ellipsis.
Those who missed The Amenta were likely standing anxiously in the ridiculously long merch line, hoping their time would come before the intro to Into The Infinity Of Thoughts cloaked the theatre. If you were one of these unfortunate souls, hopefully you don’t have to wait another 10 years to see them.
Minutes before 9 o’clock, the synth of Into The Infinity … starts and the crowd rush to get a good view of Emperor’s grand entrance.
In contrast to The Amenta, the band have no masks, makeup, trenchcoats or costumes. They’re more dad than doom.
But that’s the thing about bands like Emperor, if the music speaks for itself there’s no tricks or theatrics required.
Founding members Ihsahn (Vegard Sverre Tveitan) and Samoth (Tomas Haugen) are still here along with drummer Trym Torson who joined the band in 1996 (Nightside is the only album he didn’t drum on). For this tour - the band’s second time in Australia - they're joined by long-term bassist Tony ‘Secthdamon’ Ingebrigtsen and keyboardist Jørgen Munkeby.
Ihsahn and Samoth have been playing in bands together since they were 13 and they’re now a few years shy of 50. This is despite their insane younger days, where some past and present members were involved in crimes that have haunted the band’s reputation ever since.
While Ihsahn and Trym’s past is fairly clean, Samoth was convicted of arson when he was a teenager after being involved in church burnings in the early 90s. Former bassist Tchort also spent two years in prison for assault.
Named after a Celtic Frost song, Emperor was only together a few years before In The Nightside Eclipse was released in 1994.
Before its release, original Nightside drummer Faust was jailed for a far more serious crime. In 1992, at 18, he murdered Magne Andreassen. He was released in the early 2000s. As Faust is no longer touring with Emperor I won’t dive into his history, but when asked about the very real darkness that has shrouded the band, Ihsahn told Louder Sound in 2016 - “Who wants to be confronted with all the stupid shit they did back when they were teenagers?”
He elaborated more in this 2018 interview with Metal Sucks: “We can all have individual souls and ideas about what is the right penance for a crime. Some think the death penalty is okay, some think it should be milder, but in Europe, we don’t have the death penalty. We have a justice system that says for this crime, you serve that amount of time. Once you’ve done your time, you can start over. You can have your individual perceptions of whether that is fair or not, but if it’s morally okay for the bureaucratic legal system, and it’s still not morally right enough for you, or politically correct enough for you, maybe black metal isn’t for you.”
During the Louder Sound interview, Ihsahn expressed annoyance that the crimes of his bandmates took the focus away from his work as a professional musician. So on that note, I’ll get on with the review.
The band powered through Nightside classics with The Burning Shadows of Silence and Cosmic Keys To My Creations And Times up next. Ihsahn’s mix of coarse and clean vocals was on point - he is an incredible vocalist and musician to watch live and one of the best in this genre.
You also can’t have symphonic black metal without keys. A standout was watching Jørgen Munkeby playing some magical keys and backing vocals. You’d think the guy has the most fun job in the world by the way he was dancing and smiling the whole set while standing next to his polar opposite Samoth. He was also the only member to wear a black hood during the set.
Towards The Pantheon was up next, where Munkeby really got to shine. I wish I could say the same about Trym’s drums on the night, I’m not sure if it was a bit of jetlag but they weren’t as hard-hitting as I’d hoped for an Emperor show. It was also difficult to hear the bass in the mix of everything else going on (I tried watching the show front row and way up back and it was still the same).
The band wrapped up Nightside with their iconic riff from I Am The Black Wizards and a version of crowd chanter Inno A Satana that sounded better than the recording. It was kinda funny seeing Samoth’s long grey hair blowing in the wind throughout the show looking very wizardly.
For the encore, we got a crushing version of Curse You All Men from IX Equilibrium as well as Thus Spake The Nightspirit and Loss and Curse of Reverence from Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk. Those wanting a bit of Prometheus weren’t left disappointed either with In The Wordless Chamber.
Ihsahn sends us home with some of his lullaby vocals at the end of Ye Entrancemperium and the band farewelled us with a quick group selfie and The Wanderer.
Emperor are touring Australia and New Zealand in May.