Black Metal History Month - Emperor : "IX Equilibrium"

As promised I am digging into Emperor's catalog. The fact their 1997 album starts off with a King Diamond like falsetto mixed into the harsher screams tells you how this album is going to be different right in the first few sections. Each album they progress as musicians making the arrangements more progressive in the grandiose arrangements. There is a great deal of technical fury that possesses songs like "Decrystallizing Reason". This is tempered with memorable guitar and synth melodies, that make the songs stand the test of time. Clean vocals play a larger role on this album, this can be heard on " An Elegy of Icaros". His sung vocals are dramatic and more present in the mix than the previous album. 

"the Source of Icon E" if measure against their best work, is a little more dialed in. It thrashes by with enough conviction , but even when it comes to "Sworn" there is more of an almost Dissection like feel to the guitars that thrives more off hyper aggression than what made their previous album work so well. "Nonus Aequilibrum" is just a catchier song than the previous two, the sung vocals only factor in to an extent. The more deliberate riffing of "the Warriors of Modern Death" calls back to the days of classic metal. The end the some with some of the most ripping shredding, and people into ripping shredding need to give these guys more credit for it. 

The last song "Of Blindness and Subsequent Seers" is darker and more melodic with the big epic feel we have come to expect from the more symphonic strains of black metal. Aside from the more gothy quirkiness that can be found in their songs, this encompasses everything else you might want from this band, this album gets a 9.5, which puts it behind the previous, allowing it to still hold claim to being the best album by these guys ... for now.