EMPEROR Live Inferno 2CD/DVD (2009)

There are very few black metal bands for whom the word "symphonic" doesn't feel like a compromise. Emperor are one of them. When Ihsahn and company reunite to play In the Nightside Eclipse front to back, it doesn't feel like nostalgia, it feels like a court convening.

This 2CD/DVD set captures two separate 2006 performances: the Inferno Festival in Norway and Wacken Open Air in Germany, which means you're getting Emperor on home soil and Emperor in front of 70,000 festival-goers who collectively lost their minds. The DVD footage holds up. The orchestral black metal grandeur, the sheer architectural scale of songs like "I Am the Black Wizards" and "Inno a Satana" in a live context, this is the kind of release that reminds you why Emperor exist at a different altitude to almost everything that followed them.

2CD plus DVD live set. Recorded at Inferno Festival Norway and Wacken Open Air Germany, both 2006. Released 2009. Country of origin: Norway. Genre: Symphonic Black Metal.

Fans of: Satyricon, Enslaved, Dimmu Borgir, Mayhem.