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I was as dismayed as most were when Emperor hung it up after their ambitious Prometheus album a little over two decades ago. It might have been the correct thing to do: that album was basically blackened prog metal that left many old-school fans feeling a bit detached, Emperor's previous prog credentials notwithstanding. I rejoiced when they began making the occasional festival appearance, but didn't think they'd ever make it back to Texas, where I'd missed them during the IX Equilibrium tour. Summer 2023 proved me wrong.

The South Side Ballroom, located in Dallas's Cedars district, is a pretty lavish space that contains all the trappings of an expertly restored and repurposed industrial site. Exposed brick and ductwork, slab floors, the whole drill. It's an easy aesthetic to do wrong, and whoever was in charge of bringing this place (and the nearby Canvas hotel, where the band stayed) back to life did a bang-up job. With a capacity of about four thousand, it also seemed like a pretty ambitious place for a band who played at freaking Wacky's Deli during their last trek through Texas. You could conceivably fit four Wacky's Delis into just the floor of the South Side Ballroom and still have enough room for parking. This was a massive upgrade. 

Unfortunately, we missed the local openers on what had to have been one of the most prestigious gigs under their belt, but we were also more than a little glad to have at least partly caught the cloaked and corpsepainted necrocrust goodness of Philly demons Devil Master, whose dedication to lo-fi theatrics and good ol' rock n' roll effortlessly drew shit-eating grins from the crowd.  Devil Master drummer Festering Terror in Deepest Catacomb surely had a badass time up there playing for such a sizable hometown crowd; the Dallas native had previously performed under the alias Chris Ulsch for local thrash heroes Power Trip. With both a logo and an image that recall “Manos: The Hands of Fate,” Devil Master was a bizarrely felicitous choice of a support act: squarely and solidly black metal, but in a much more direct and campy manner that in no way detracts from or competes with the majesty of the night sky. Tons of fun.

Then Ihsahn and the Boy Band he had in back in the ‘90s at last took the stage. For a guy with a good 20 releases under his belt, Mr Tveitan still loves to do what he does, and still elicits unparalleled infectious excitement with the wrath that escapes his cursed lips and fingertips. Fellow six-stringer Samoth stoically gazes upon his audience with all the resolve of an ancient necromancer who conjures the highest evil in the form of malevolent riffery, while Trym Torson flawlessly and studiously summons hellish vortices.  Not to be outdone, bassist Secthdamon so effortlessly weaves Torson's rage into Ihsahn and Samoth's tightly textured fury that his hair-flipping and headbanging had at least a few audience members mistaking him for Shadows Fall bassist Paul Romanko. Longtime Ihsahn collaborator Jørgen Munkeby (you've heard him wailing on the sax on “After,” “Arktis,” and “Eremita”) emerged shrouded in black leather and pain itself, fully engrossed in the glorious hellscape. Together, the augmented triad rained a tempestuous torrent of both terror and divinity. Black metal has morphed into many forms since it began taking shape in the 80s, and it is Emperor who has most expertly assimilated its often-disparate offshoots into a single, cohesive, and often terrifying whole. At once regal and ruinous, Emperor embodies the very essence of black metal for both purists and for prog nerds like me. The density of their music is sufficient to crush life itself. Fuck me running, what a crushing performance this was. 

Music of this scope benefits very little from elaborate sets or stadium-rock lighting; the stage was mostly dimly illuminated with the blue and green lights that are the stuff of concert photography nightmares, but the sparse green backlights during “With Strength I Burn” expertly mimicked the aurora of the northern skies. If the idea is to use light as Hemingway used words, then mission fucking accomplished. Majesty of the night sky indeed.

The song selection focused on Emperor's most acclaimed offering, 1997's Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk, and as tempted as I was to thrash with the abandon I'd had as a youth, I simply had no choice but to relive the very first time my ears heard that monolithic record. This is how music is meant to be experienced: in communion with an audience who are only captive by the hypnosis of the music itself. 

More, please!

Setlist: 

“In The Wordless Chamber”
“Thus Spake The Nightspirit”
“Ensorcelled By Khaos”
“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”
“Into The Infinity Of Thoughts”
“Ye Entrancemperium”