Emperor - IX Equilibrium (2004 Reissue) (CD)
Enhanced CD includes bonus videos: Live at No Mercy Festival III (06.04.99 Marktiialle, Hamburg, Germany), Kings of Terror US headline tour 1999, including footage of what was the last EMPEROR show.
Details
- Artist: Emperor
- Country: Norway
- Genre: Black Metal
- Year: 1999
- Label: Candlelight Records
- Format: CD
- Catalogue no: CANDLE105CD
- More info: External
Track listing
- Curse You All Men!
- Decrystallizing Reason
- An Elegy of Icaros
- The Source of Icon E
- Sworn
- Nonus Aequilibrium
- The Warriors of Modern Death
- Of Blindness & Subsequent Seers
- Outro
- Curse You All Men! (Live)
- Sworn (Ulver Remix)
Review
Ultimately, while it's a more functional and formidable follow-up to Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk, the album still lacks a lot of that punch which cast the debut instantly into legend. It may just be the more polished production standards, which leech away some of the malevolence and mystique of the genre, but thematically the songwriting here is more about dextrous wizardry than creating some pervasive, haunted atmosphere. I was personally the most impressed with this band when I could listen to their music on some cold or raining (or both) night and have the skin scared off me by their sonic despotism and desperate, narcissistic hostility. An album like IX Equilibrium is more something I put in the stereo to show friends just how dizzying this trio of Ihsahn, Samoth and Trym had become upon their individual instruments. Talented, technical and complex, I enjoyed the album more than Anthems... - From the Dust Returned 4/5