Emperor (2) – Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk

With Anthems To the Welkin at Dusk Nordic black metal troopers Emperor cleverly conjured up a bewildering banquet of a heavy rock album. The icy Norwegian landscapes and its dooming desolation, languorous loneliness, deepest despair and ghastly gloom have been aptly translated by musical mastermind Ihsahn and his fellow Scandinavian warriors into loudly thundering riffs that storm past the heavens, beautifully bombastic and touchingly transcendent Wagnerian keyboard melodies that uplift listeners and lightning-fast battery by session drummer Trym (Enslaved) that always provide a soul-crushing sensation of staggering speed and awe-inspiring aggression inherent to the controversial music genre that is black metal.
After a headily heroic and strikingly solemn introduction, Emperor’s second full-length outing bursts loose into a monolithic monster of a riff craftily created by Mayhem’s Euronymous –the long-deceased cult figure of the black metal underground. The opening track Ye Entrancemperium poses as one of the fastest and most furious tracks on this disc yet never fails to deliver the soaring and majestic magnitude typically associated with the highly acclaimed Emperor-sound – thus perennially suring the trademark primitive rawness of black metal with a luscious layer of simmering synths – in the case of Emperor never uniquely serving as a pause or interlude in the extreme metal onslaught but adding an apocalyptic edge to the furious riffing and fast-paced drumming.
Thus Spake The Nightspirit takes a step back from the breakneck speeds, opting instead for a more romantic approach with doom-laden guitar melodies and touching clean vocals.
The two ensuing tracks Ensorcelled by Khaos and teaser single The Loss and Curse of Reverence are lengthier enabling both the churning impact of the pummelling speed and the gorgeous melody of the symphonic interludes.
The following duo of The Acclamation of Bonds and With Strength I Burn provide the poetic zenith of the album, emphasizing a fabulous feeling of grand glory that engenders images of valiant Norsemen from a mythical past and taking musicianship to the next level.
The Wanderer serves as an apt instrumental finishing touch to the best heavy rock album ever.

A decent record, although definitely not in the same league as the quintessential debut "In The Nightside Eclipse" or the demo and Emperor/Enslaved split. Although the album is virtually identical stylewise from the previous album, it's the lesser one in all aspects. The sound suffers from a very odd mix job (surprising considering Pyttens reputation), the vocals are considerably less intense, the drumming, although competent, lacks the variety that worked so well on the debut, songwriting is a bit disted, and even the lyrics took a turn for the worse, replacing the metaphysical and poetic subjects with rather cliched swords & sorcery themes.

But whatever its faults, the album still has the classic Emperor sound that made them famous all over it and sales were beyond all expectations, not in the least due to the big "comeback" hype.