Artist: Emperor
Label: Candlelight Records
Release Date: 10/9/01
Average Rating: 2.66
Go to Judgment Committee Reviews of this Album
|
|
Title: Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise Artist: Emperor Label: Candlelight Records Release Date: 10/9/01 |
There are currently 3 Reader Reviews of this album.
Average Rating: 2.66 Go to Judgment Committee Reviews of this Album |
|
|
||
Submitted by Fabien Lépine (7/24/02):
This album definitely means the end of Emperor! I would have expected something else from such a good band. The whole music is just a mess. Some people call this genius. I would say lack of harmony and imagination. It's like they had a couple of remaining riffs on previous tapes and they put everything on 1 album, the so-called Prometheus. A very disappointing effort indeed.
Submitted by Andrew Deikun (2/2/02):
Similar Artists: PeccatumThis is the band's "swansong" recording. Finally after about 10 years or so, Emperor has decided to hang it up. It is a shame as I think Emperor continues to put out outstanding music and are probably at the pinnacle of their popularity commercially. In my opinion, the last three releases taken together are as good as any three consecutively released recordings ever (including Iron Maiden in the mid 80s). From what I can gather from the liner notes, all of the music, lyrics and arrangements on this recording are credited to Ihsahn. He performs all vocals, the lead and main guitars, bass, keyboards and programming. Samoth is credited for "additional guitar" and Trym for drums and percussion.
Prometheus was recorded at Symphonique studio in the winter of 2000 through the spring of 2001. The production is credited to Ihsahn. I really like the production on this album and think it's the best of any Emperor recording to date. This album is very complex and the fullness of the production allows the listener to pick out all of the individual instruments. I really think this style lends itself to what Ihsahn is trying to do here; the "wall of sound" production style used on Anthems and previously would not work as well with this style of music.
This is some of the best material Emperor has recorded to date. I guess it's no surprise that the music is similar in some ways to last years incredibly underrated Peccatum album, Amor Fati. It has the same avant-garde feeling. What I really like about this recording is that Emperor has expanded their sound symphonically while still maintaining the aggression that you would expect from Nordic Black Metal. The guitars are the most prominent instrument, but the interplay between the guitar and the keyboards are really something that makes this material stand out. The one thing that I really enjoy about black metal is that so many different styles make up the genre. I think this is one recording that pushes the genre forward in a symphonic direction. The vocals are a good mix of black metal screams and clean vocals ala King Diamond and not too dissimilar to the last album IX Equilibrium. Warning: The layering of the music allows the album to get better the more you listen to it. I really did not fully appreciate this recording until I listened to it at least ten times. I think if you enjoy well-played symphonic black metal you should really look into acquiring this cd. Emperor proves themselves once again with a masterpiece of modern black metal. These black metal legends will be sorely missed.
Submitted by slayernutz (1/27/02):
Ahhh, what?? This album makes no sense to me... Everybody and their mother seems to think this album is fuckin' genius, but to me, it's just a bunch of nonsense. Some of these songs sound like a mad circus, not "evil" black metal. I dont know, I'm definitely in the minority as far as my opinion of this album goes, but unless you love Emperor, I think buying this disc would be a waste of money.
[- Metal Judgment Home -] [- Email Metal Judgment -]
©1999 Metal Judgment. All rights reserved.