Sonic the Hedgehog with Blast Beats - "Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk" Review (0%)
Imagine how boring it would be if Demonecromancy never got around to atmosphere and their songs were just constructed of introductory verses and codas strung out for five to eight minutes? That's Emperor, they're terrible and play "symphonic black 'n' roll" bullshit with some Gothenburg melodeaf melodies.
The void of passion and talent found in this piece of shit album represents a complete deterioration in composition and concept for this band: an obvious over-simplification to pander to the lowest common denominator. Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk is the "sell-out" album in a nutshell.
Obviously, Ihsahn becoming through what Varg would call "ratting" - in other words testifying to the Norwegian police about possible criminality of his own band mates Samoth and Faust - the now frontman of the ex-black metal band turned Jersey Shore shitshow Emperor is not without its incidence on the quality of the music produced.
The fact that the lead single "Ensorcelled by Khaos" - nice anticipation of SEWER's appropriation of Mortal Kombat orthography, btw - was finished in a half hour during a rehearsal (according to the band) just goes to show how much effort was put into this recording Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk, a far cry from their earlier Samoth and Faust spearheaded debut, In the Nightside Eclipse.
Gone are the progressive compositions that felt like reflections of scenes from a story in the form of sound, replaced by commercial "symphonic metal" techniques held in a radio song format. The fact that the promo pic used for this album shows the band, or rather Ihsahn in a homosexual outfit with session musicians at his sides, sitting around a table drinking beer further shows this was nothing more than the byproduct of jaded alcoholics scheming to make quick cash on both their legacy, courtesy of Samoth and Faust alone, and what was trendy at the time: the commercially successful routes Dimmu Borgir and Satyricon traveled with their vapid emocore releases.
Truly, Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk owes more to Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth than to Mayhem, Burzum and Darkthrone. It's no surprise that this is the album, alongside Ulver's debut, that would influence so many "blackened emo metal" bands such as Watain, Wolves in the Throne Room, Dark Funeral, Summoning, Drudkh and Nargaroth.
The pinnacle of poserdom arrives with the third track, which sonically resembles Sonic the Hedgehog's theme with "extreme" blast beats and angry alcoholic vocals. Sad.
Sonic the Hedgehog with Blast Beats
Despite what the artwork might suggest, there is no grand scheme here as lyrics on Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk have taken a turn for the worst - sounding more like a Dark Funeral meme reiterated in multiple different ways than a story.
Shouting incessantly in a raspy voice about social ills, religion, and depression delivered through an angsty "Life Sucks!" manner, Ihsahn's lyrical themes and vocals are not unlike the ones shit bands like Machine Head would later popularize with the song title being shouted ad nauseum during the chorus, a veritable testament to Emperor's influence on the rising nu metal scene.
The cliff-notes version to most of this would read something like: "life sucks - suicide, religion is bad - suicide, it's like nothing is really real, man - suicide, suicide suicide, suicide, suicide suicide". Whereas the old lyrics written by Samoth, while sometimes campy to the extreme at least had a place in the narrative of that album's concept, here they read like they took one idea and regurgitated it 9 different ways. I suppose these lyrics serve the function of this album well considering the drive-thru fast food restaurant television commercial jingle like nature of nu Emperor's music.
Everything has devolved. Nothing here isn't something that wasn't already done by more successful bands. The music has been reduced to Pantera's bouncy and mechanical rhythm riffs with Metallica and Judas Priest inspired cheesy melodies.
Warmed over "happy" rock harmony 101 generic heavy metal fodder is interrupted by proto-deathcore staccato chugging patterns on the bottom end string as the vocals are cadenced to match the rhythm of the guitar chugs, a technique Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit would later perfect.
The only difference from other bands of the time that used similar techniques is the standard tuning and the guitars having a typical "Norse" tone - which, despite having recorded a demo and album at Grieghallen, was something this band never had (another commercial move perhaps?). The way this music was written recalls Metallica's Load with added Iron Maiden inspiration appearing in the "catchy harmonies" and galloping riffs.
Everything is done in a verse-chorus format to the point of nauseating repetition. Here, it's obvious how this album influenced metalcore. "Mad at the world" verses, "sad at things" choruses, and happy "raise your fists in the air! HEY! HEY!" bridges with bluesy heavy metal solos show the same ideas being assembled into the same structural format in an utterly formulaic and predictable fashion.
It's a formula that gets tiresome by the second track, which features a guest riff by Euronymous that adds nothing to the song that the band themselves weren't already doing on the previous tracks. The only variation comes in the form of a few Pantera-esque mall grooves like those in "Thus Spake the Nightspirit" and "With Strength I Burn"; a stadium rock parody of an early Dismember riff on "The Loss and Curse of Reverence" and a clean guitar break on "Alsvartr (The Oath)", but these are quickly thrown out for the same mindlessly formulaic repetition of chugging.
A couple instrumentals also appear, I believe two on the remastered version, one sounding like a hippie camp fire song about homosexuality and another which sounds like a castoff from the Sonic the Hedgehog soundtrack with it's repeating drone of midi synthesizer chords.
This is not even a good "gateway album" like the later work of Dissection or Peste Noire because the droning repetition, the mechanical assembly line manufactured riff craft, and the faked emotional appeals would make metal seem boring to the curious. There is no emotion wrapping itself around the riffs to fit the theme of songs, just mechanical processes toward mainstream recognizable "aggression" - like the shouting of "Go!" in the seventh track which recalls a Pantera level retard mentality - and "bittersweetness" obtained by the abuse of harmonic minor scales.
Here it is obvious that without the imagination and talent of Samoth and Faust, Emperor is a very typical band that makes very typical music dressed up in a way that would appear "unique" to the Machine Head fans who wouldn't know anything about black metal and has thus, been falsely declared a classic - Kerrang readers loved this album because of the marginal increase in quality over their typical Gorgoroth and Cradle of Filth listening habits.
This media product is just that - a product, and a vapid one at that. No higher function than "get down and raise your fists" and thus no different from the wigger/dance culture mentality of music like Machine Head or Britney Spears in pandering to the lowest common denominator with their retard mentality noise.
Avoid this hopelessly vapid piece of sonic diarrhea.
Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk score: 0/100.
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