Emperor: the Emperial Wrath Tour

Eventually there comes a time when the hype about a band becomes superfluous and their status alone speaks volumes. Such is the case with Emperor, the black metal gods hailing from Telemark, Norway. Emperor has become known as one of the originators of symphonic black metal, the very sound that helped define Norway’s international legacy. Their cult album In the Nightside Eclipse has been ranked alongside Slayer’s Reign in Blood and Venom’s Black Metal as a definitive masterpiece of our time.

Beginning life as a trio in the spring of 1991 with Samoth (drums), Ihsahn (guitar/vocals), and Mortiis (bass), the band quickly recorded and circulated the now legendary Wrath of the Tyrant demo. This recording brought them to the attention of the then-fledgling Candlelight Records. After signing, Samoth moved to guitar and Bard “Faust” Eithun was recruited to fill the vacant drum position. By the end of 1992, the band had recorded their half of the Emperor / Enslaved split CD, which surfaced in early 1993. Mortiis subsequently departed and was replaced by Tchort.

The press response was overwhelmingly positive, and by the summer of 1993 Emperor were recording once more—this time working on their debut full-length, In the Nightside Eclipse. Upon its release in 1994, the album established Emperor as one of the most important bands in the genre, earning worldwide critical acclaim and a rapidly growing fan base.

In autumn 1993, a series of infamous events shook the Norwegian black metal scene, causing turbulence and instability in Emperor’s lineup. Despite this, the band emerged stronger. A new permanent lineup was announced: Alver replaced Tchort on bass, and Trym (ex-Enslaved) replaced Faust on drums. During this period, the foundations of their most epic material began taking shape.

By the end of 1996, fully prepared and rehearsed, the band returned to the studio. First came the Reverence EP, followed in early 1997 by the monumental Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk—an album of epic savagery, both beautiful and bestial in scope. The press agreed wholeheartedly: Anthems… appeared in countless “Album of the Year” polls and won top honors in Terrorizer (UK) and Metal Maniacs (USA).

Following the success of Anthems…, Emperor remained active. After several tours in 1997 and appearances at Dynamo Open Air and Milwaukee Metalfest in 1998, the band announced Alver’s departure. Ihsahn handled all bass duties on the forthcoming album, IX Equilibrium.

IX Equilibrium became their most breathtaking and diverse vision yet—combining classical metal roots, operatic vocals, and their trademark symphonic sound. With its release, Emperor embarked on extensive touring: supporting Morbid Angel in Europe, headlining the U.S. on their 1999 “Kings of Terror” tour, and performing at major festivals worldwide. During this period, they recorded the live album and DVD Emperial Live Ceremony, a definitive testament to the band’s formidable stage presence.

In 2001, Emperor released their swansong, Prometheus – The Discipline of Fire & Demise, an epic and progressive masterpiece that solidified their status as one of the most innovative and gifted black metal bands of all time. Upon its release, the band announced their departure as an active entity: “The Emperor is dead, long live the Emperor.” Yet the band’s legacy only grew stronger. In 2003, the double “best-of” album Scattered Ashes – A Decade of Emperial Wrath was released, celebrating the band’s finest moments.

In 2005, Emperor shocked the metal world with a surprise appearance in Oslo, announcing a series of select reunion shows in Europe and the United States. Throughout 2006 and 2007, they performed choice festivals and headlining dates in the U.S., Norway, France, the UK, Germany, and Finland. These performances were captured and released in 2009 as Live Inferno (live album and DVD).

In 2014, Emperor celebrated the 20th anniversary of In the Nightside Eclipse with exclusive performances in Sweden, France, Finland, Japan, Germany, and the UK. They headlined major festivals including Wacken Open Air and Hellfest.

In 2016, Finnish label Blood Music released the massive Emperor: The Complete Works box set—a comprehensive collection of everything the band ever recorded. Priced at 700€, released in three colors, and limited in quantity, all copies sold out immediately.

From 2017–2019, the band continued to perform select headline shows and festival appearances, including Graspop Metal Meeting (Belgium), Tons of Rock (Norway), Rock Fest Barcelona (Spain), Loudpark (Japan), Metal Mania Festival (Poland), Heavy MTL (Canada), and Summer Breeze Open Air (Germany). They also headlined Hellfest and Wacken again and completed tours in Australia and Japan.

In 2020, Emperor appeared at the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Cozumel.

For 2022, the band confirmed several European festivals and completed a long-awaited Latin American tour of Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and Chile. Their Santiago performance sold out within hours and was upgraded to a larger venue. They also played Psycho Las Vegas in the U.S.

2023 saw Emperor return to Japan, Australia, and New Zealand for sold-out shows, along with festival appearances in Norway, Romania, and Finland. A five-date U.S. tour marked their first North American run in 17 years.

In 2024, the band performed in Scotland, Ireland, Greece, and completed another Latin American tour, in addition to summer festivals across Europe.

In 2025, Emperor headlined the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise once again, completed another U.S. tour, and confirmed festival appearances in Norway, Romania, the United Kingdom, and Belgium.

Beyond that, the future—as always—remains a mystery waiting to be unraveled.

Emperor is a phenomenon. Nearly two decades after their final studio album, demand for the band is higher than ever, and their music continues to inspire new generations of fans and musicians.

INDUCTION. PAUL RIEDL ON ABSOLUTE ELSEWHERE: “Our most potent audial extract/musical trip yet; like the soundtrack to a Herzog-style Sci-Fi epic about the history of/battle for human consciousness itself, via a 70s Prog album played by a 90s Death Metal band from the future.” Blood Incantation’s Absolute Elsewhere is unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. Yes, that’s an audacious, possibly hyperbolic claim, but few can claim a sonic watershed as readily as this Denver, Colorado quartet. Hovering at nearly 45 minutes, their longest recording thus far, the two sprawling-yetexacting compositions that make up this album are as confounding as they are engaging. It’s an architecture of music at odds with itself: an acceleration through a Kubrickian stargate into a realm of aural ideas in harmonious opposition, uniting unlikely binaries of aural heavens and hells. For inspiration, the group looked to the mid-70’s progressive rock collective, Absolute Elsewhere (best known as a celestial stopover for King Crimson drummer, Bill Bruford) as the album’s namesake. For the uninitiated, Absolute Elsewhere’s landmark 1976 album, In Search of Ancient Gods, was constructed as a musical accompaniment to the works of Chariots of the Gods author, Erich Von Daniken, and his theories of non-terrestrial humanoid prompts towards mankind’s evolution. The subject matter of which should serve as no surprise to anyone familiar with Blood Incantation’s prior LPs and cosmically philosophical leanings. But make no mistake, the four musicians working under the BI banner for the past decade – guitarist and vocalist Paul Riedl, drummer Isaac Faulk, guitarist Morris Kolontyrsky and bassist Jeff Barrett – have successfully left the microgravity of genre behind and are re-writing the Rosetta Stone of extreme music with a new language entirely. EVOLUTION. THE DAWN OF A NEW GENUS. The analogue-tape-induced star maps that have archived Blood Incantation’s journey thus far are ones of future and past histories in collision: Anno 2011, dog-eared Science Fiction paperbacks, psychedelic future shocks, and theoretical cosmic postulation melded together with a love for the extremes atmospheres and possibilities of outsider Death Metal. Sumerian creation myths interspersed with the spirit of 70’s Progressive Rock to yield creative ignition made manifest in the form of 2015’s Interdimensional Extinction demo EP, itself recorded in 2013. From there, Blood Incantation unleashed the scene-shattering Starspawn (2016) before traversing folds of musical space on a three-year touring mission across the globe, finally arriving at the landmark of Hidden History of the Human Race (2019)… Wherein four monumental, tome-like exaltations of aural intellect crystalized their course and provided hieroglyphic-hewn star maps pointing towards new destinations, revealing a distinctive strain of Death Metal at its most progressive, philosophical, and transcendental. BEYOND THE RED EVENT HORIZON. Ever pushing forward, Blood Incantation expanded the scene’s collective consciousness with their love for the 1973-1993 continuum: tunneling deeper into the realms of Prog and Krautrock with the wordless, cinematic & pulsating Timewave Zero EP (2022). An exploration further illuminating the shared musical space between progenitors like Popol Vuh and where Tangerine Dream’s Conrad Schnitzler intersected with Euronymous on the intro to Mayhem’s “Deathcrush”. An unexpected, though mercilessly canon tribute to Kosmische Musik/Ambient/Krautrock via the ominous & atmospheric BI lens, Timewave Zero not only bestowed license upon Blood Incantation to perpetually explore deeper horizons, but also proved why they were far more than merely adroit death-dealers on a Decibel Tour with Cannibal Corpse. Demonstrations like BI’s February 26th, 2022, Denver, CO all-synth show or 2024’s Roadburn Festival appearance where they played back-to-back death metal and ambient explorations made it clear: Blood Incantation have honed their abilities to go boldly where few bands have gone before, and reveal no signs of slowing down. ACCELERATION. Decamping to the celebrated Hansa Studios in Berlin, Germany in Summer 2023 with wünderkid producer Arthur Rizk (Power Trip, Spectral Voice, Kreator, Wayfarer, Sumerlands, etc) wasn’t merely a choice for Blood Incantation but an absolute necessity. For the band to capture the many writhing twists & turns, celestial psychedelia and utter extremity of Absolute Elsewhere, Blood Incantation turned to the legendary pre-Weimar-built recording complex where many of their most progressive influences - including Tangerine Dream, Eloy and Brian Eno - converged to create classic albums. Unmistakably, Hansa and Berlin became part of the underlying atmospheric character of the album. The city’s rich history as an epicenter of countercultural spirit permeated the sessions and yielded the unyielding eclecticism which rests resolutely at the core of Absolute Elsewhere. Sessions found the band locked in so creatively with one another to the point of playing through the entirety of the monumental B-Side suite, “The Message”, from start to finish. The album itself, wrapped in artwork by the iconic Sci-Fi/fantasy painter, Steve R. Dodd, illuminates their innate message and spirit more clearly than ever before: Contemplating the mystery of flesh, the human spirit and the hidden history of Nature and universal creation. For simply, we, as a species, are the Blood Incantation. THE MUSIC. COMMUNICATION FROM THE STARGATE RESEARCH SOCIETY. PAUL RIEDL: “It’s about consciousness. The album plays like a soundtrack to a movie about the battle of consciousness and the war against human consciousness and love, acceptance and peace and all these things that blossom out of heightened states of awareness and our consciousness expanding. It’s an inherently psychedelic record but it’s also mystical; it’s progressive, abstract and beautiful, but it’s also quite aggressive; it has a human playfulness living in it. It’s a very personal record, being so transparent in our ambitions. You can hear all of our individual personalities coming out of it more than ever before. Ultimately, it is a very positive record.” SIDE ONE. “THE STARGATE” (20.20): Composed by Faulk with contributions from Riedl, Kolontyrsky and Barrett. Arranged & performed by Blood Incantation. A violent storm invokes the familiar before a grand cosmic key turn for a hint of sweeping scope to come with spiritual acknowledgement and accompaniment by Tangerine Dream’s Thorsten Quaeschning on synths on the song’s second tablet. Musically as violent as it is mediative, with subtle spoken passages flitting between Nicklas Malmqvist’s (Hällas) busy synthesizer keys and Mellotron strings invoking both the modern and ancient, and it is all given sharp focus by Artur Rizk’s powerfully dynamic and enveloping mix. Blood Incantation depart Extreme Metal’s traditionally antiquated waystation, warping their way towards “Genre of One'' stature, as “The Stargate” intones the disembodiment of consciousness itself, careening through the stargate towards Samsara-like reincarnation, punctuated by the occasional growl from Sijjin/ex-Necros Christos mainman, Mors Dalos Ra (Malte Gericke). SIDE TWO. “The Message” (23:23) Composed by Riedl and Kolontyrsky, with contributions from Faulk, and Barrett. Arranged & performed by Blood Incantation. A step through doorways of unearthly beauty, playfulness, quirk and horror. David Gilmour jams beside Chick Corea and Trey Azagthoth melting together through psychedelic hyperspace, eliciting mystical vibes and a tangible metaphysical transcendence. Dalos briefly reengages with this track in his native language, alongside star-riding Nicklas Malmqvist, whose iconic synth/keys work throughout the album adds to the unearthly atmospherics that with Absolute Elsewhere defines a new musical epoch for Blood Incantation, as much as 21st century Metal itself. Truly, Absolute Elsewhere is the sound of the star born.