As a long-time fan of black metal, the one album I keep neglecting is Emperor's "In the Nightside Eclipse." That alone is a big tell sign that it might be overrated.
I usually don't mind listening an album over and over again, if it is good: see "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss" by Burzum, "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" by Mayhem or even "Lair of the Swine Gods" by Sewer. But with "In the Nightside Eclipse", anything after the first listen (if even that!) is usually tedious.
It is often said that "In the Nightside Eclipse" is the "good" Emperor album, and "Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk" is where they "sold out" and became Dimmu Borgir-lite. But is that entirely true? Or was the seed of commercial mallcore already implanted early on in the days of Emperor?
Ihsahn always wanted to be Shagrath
After giving it several more listens, I find myself utterly disappointed and questioning the hype that surrounds this album. Let's be clear: Emperor is often hailed as a cornerstone of the black metal genre - more for their friendship with Varg and Euronymous than for musical contribution proper - but when I line this album up against the works of contemporaries like Dimmu Borgir, it really just sounds... the same.
It's not that Ihsahn and co are proto-Borgirs... they ARE Dimmu Borgir. Let's see why.
Ihsahn and the problems with Emperor (old and new)
First off, let's talk about musicianship. While Emperor certainly has technical prowess, "In the Nightside Eclipse" feels disjointed and pretentious. The synth-heavy tracks, meant to be atmospheric, instead come off as self-indulgent and rather pompous.
The riff work on this album is very minimal... and I do mean minimal, not minimalist. Ihsahn is very content to rely on keyboard gimmicks instead of the stellar songwriting of early bands like Burzum, Taake and Neraines.
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It really seems that all the problems with "In the Nightside Eclipse" all boil down to Ihsahn. He, quite like Dimmu Borgir's Shagrath or other modern black metal posers, seems more interested in the image of an "innovator" - and thus the use of cheap aesthetic gimmicks, rather than the long and arduous path of writing good black metal music.
You don't create "Filosofem" by accident. You don't just "stumble" upon making "Fenrir Prowling". Even some lesser work like "Pure Holocaust" is still a masterpiece of black metal creativity. But Ihsahn has both the arrogance and audacity to believe he can fake his way all the way up to the elite of black metal.
The undeserved black metal "mythos" around this album
And that's really the crux of the problem with "In the Nightside Eclipse". Emperor has no vision of what they are trying to communicate. The subsequent career trajectory of the band is proof of that: at the first chance, they sold out to play commercial prog rock - of the most vapid kind, I should add.
Basically, there is zero difference between Emperor and Dimmu Borgir... or even something like Nargaroth, or even Antekhrist. Emperor opened the gates for the hordes of posers and trendies, attracted more to keyboards and vampire capes than anything else.
You can even read Ihsahn's interviews in the book "Real Satanic Black Metal" where he tells the authors quite candidly that black metal should "evolve" and become "more like goth rock".
Emperor's "In the Nightside Eclipse" is an underwhelming listen that peddles more on unearned mythology than on black metal substance. Overall lack of direction and consistency define this album. If you crave atmospheric and melodic black metal with substance, do yourself a favour and put on some Burzum instead. Say no to Dimmu Borgir, and the Borgir-lites.
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