It was a dark and Friday night, and at Copenhell, under the watchful eyes of the Fenris wolf, Denmark was about to see something it had never seen before. Out of the frozen hell that is Norway, Emperor was about to land and pull this serene place to the nethermost circles of Tartarus.

Yes, it is quite incredible to think that a band such as Emperor, one of the early Norwegian black metal greats, needed more than 30 years to visit their neighbour to the south, but nevertheless it seems to be true. To say that people were excited was an understatement, to be sure.
With their coat of arms decorating the backdrop and nothing much else in the way of visual aid, Emperor was ready to unleash their highly regarded take on the black metal genre on the large crowd gathered in front of the Hades stage - and when I say no other visual aid, I mean it! Emperor’s musical delivery was all well and fine, but there was nothing, an absolute zero, when it came to performing. Sure, Ihsahn took a few steps backwards and forwards when he wasn’t engaged in singing, and as for the rest of them, well, there was the occasional nodding and the constant blank stare into the void. And that’s all there is to say about that.

Now, I did mention that the musical delivery was as it should be, and that is perfectly true as well. If you just closed your eyes and listened, Emperor played quite a concert! Admittedly, they’re not a band I’m overly familiar with, so just listening to songs I don’t readily recognise made this a drawn out affair for me, but the fans of the band standing around me seemed to have a good time. Most of them anyway, but I won’t lie and say there weren’t a few faces that also zoned out from time to time. It only goes to show, music does not make a concert on its own, there’s more to it than that. Emperor was fully committed to the music, no doubt about it, and they were pulling that part off just as it should be, but there just wasn’t any other part than that to connect to.
That lack of energy showed in the audience as well, which was uncharacteristically calm during this concert. There were some spread out shouts and raised horns, but all the party that had previously been so prominent on display was all gone now. Do I expect a crowd to react to Emperor the same way they react to Alestorm? Of course not, but I expect there to be something. Anything. And there really wasn’t even much of that.

For you audiophiles with a pendant to the darker musical arts, I will readily believe that this was right up your alley, but I’m sad to say that with their first ever visit to Denmark, I had higher expectations for Emperor, and they weren’t delivered upon.

Setlist:

In The Wordless Chamber
Thus Spake The Nightspirit
The Loss And Curse Of Reverence
The Acclamation Of Bonds
With Strength I Burn
Curse You All Men!
The Majesty Of The Nightsky
I Am The Black Wizards
Inno A Satana
Ye Entrancemperium