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Enslaved / Emperor - Emperor / Hordanes Land review




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Reviewer:
9.3

98 users:
8.44
Band: Enslaved / Emperor
Album: Emperor / Hordanes Land
Release date: October 1993


Emperor
01. I Am The Black Wizards
02. Wrath Of The Tyrant
03. Night Of The Graveless Souls
04. Cosmic Keys To My Creations And Times

Enslaved
05. Slaget I Skogen Bortenfor / Prologr / Slaget
06. Allfadr Odinn
07. Balför / Andi Fara / Epilog

Along with Burzum, Mayhem and Darkthrone, there are two another bands that were very important in the history of the black metal. Their names are Emperor and Enslaved. They have been formed later than those another "true" bands so it was pretty hard for them to be successful so instead of being alone they have decided to start together with this awesome split.

This LP consists of four Emperor and three Enslaved tracks showing how young people can write good music. Both bands have recorded some of their best songs on this album. It starts with Emperor, standard dark and raw black metal with some symphonies that usually kick ass hard near the end of the song showing the professionality of the Emperor guys. My favourite song is the third track, "Night Of The Graveless Souls" (with an amazing symphony part near the end) but every song is pretty much great and very enjoyable. I would even say that their songs on this split are better than those from "In The Nightside Eclipse".

But now the real thing comes, Enslaved. They also use keyboards here and it is their main instrument in leading the melody. Their first track, "Slaget I Skogen Bortenfor" is the best track on the album by far, not only by Enslaved, but it owns everything by Emperor here too. 13 minutes of the great and fast melody that never gets boring and are a pleasure to your (and my) ears. The other two songs are great but they can not match "Slaget...". Enslaved does not play "dark" black metal, they play the black metal with Viking atmosphere what makes their music really enjoyable. However, all other black metal elements are here: rawness, blastbeats, screamer.

This album is for everyone who likes Emperor and/or Enslaved, their best songs are on this split. Also, if you need an introduction to Emperor and Enslaved, or Black metal in general, this might be the best album to buy from all those Black metal things because the songs are pretty catchy even for the Black metal newbies. You also get two bands for the cost of one. Do not call yourself a metalhead if you do not have this.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 9
Songwriting: 10
Originality: 10
Production: 7

Written by Metalhead2 | 14.06.2008




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.

Staff review by
KwonVerge
Rating:
8.0
What can one say about Them. Definitely They are one of the best black metal bands ever. They started as a cult name in the black metal (after their death metal past) scene and so they remained as the years started to pass by and the one great album was coming after the other. They had no weak moments and the treasure they left behind is immense. This band had something unique, something special that no-one ever had the chance to understand. Sharp guitar riffs with this unique Norwegian feeling, majestic atmosphere, Ihsahn's exceptional eerie voice, really fast but also high quality drumming formed what we call Emperor's unique feeling, a feeling that no-one ever had the chance to catch (not for a single second), though many tried? And though Emperor had changes in their line-up (Faust going in prison, Samoth too for a period of time etc), they never lost this unique feeling.

Read more ››
published 23.08.2004 | Comments (1)


Comments

Comments: 2   Visited by: 39 users
07.07.2009 - 07:45
Uirapuru
Liver Failure
One of the best Split album ever released!
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member of the true crusade against old school heavy metal, early 80s thrash, NWOBHM, traditional doom, first and second wave black metal, old school death metal, US power metal, 70s prog rock and atmospheric doomsludgestoner. o/
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07.07.2009 - 08:02
BitterCOld
The Ancient One
Allfadr odinn sounds so much better when they play it live than on the split. was the highpoint of their set the first time i saw them.
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get the fuck off my lawn.

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