Wrath of the Tyrant
| Wrath of the Tyrant | ||||
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| Demo album by Emperor | ||||
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Publication |
1992 |
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Format (s) |
MC |
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Title (number) |
9 |
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running time |
32:12 |
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| occupation |
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Eirik "Pytten" Hundvin and Emperor |
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Wrath of the Tyrant ( Engl ., Wrath of the tyrant ') is the only official demo recording of the Norwegian black metal band Emperor .
History of origin
The band was formed in 1991, the music and lyrics for the demo from 1991 to 1992. In May 1992, Emperor recorded the demo with a 4-track recorder.
Track list
Music by Samot and Ygg , lyrics by Mortiis .
- Intro - 2:20
- Ancient Queen - 3:17
- My Empire's Doom - 4:34
- Forgotten Centuries - 2:51
- Night of the Graveless Souls - 2:56
- Moon over Kara-Shehr - 4:25
- Witche's Sabbath [sic!] - 5:41
- Lord of the Storms - 2:10
- Wrath of the Tyrant / Outro - 3:58
Music genre
The demo is very different from later recordings by the band. In contrast to these, the sound of the instruments is deeper, the bass more clearly audible and the music largely without keyboard entries ( there is a synthesizer in the intro and the song Witche's Sabbath ). In addition, Ygg does not take up any progressive elements here, as they appear in later Emperor recordings. The music is simpler, the sound mushy and "at best to be described as 'very poor' and 'raw'" and the vocals have a lot of reverberation . With Witche's Sabbath and Wrath of the Tyrant , “Ugh!” Calls occur, which are characteristic of Celtic Frost , and Ygg occasionally uses growls . What is striking about playing the drums is the constant use of the cymbals , which can be clearly heard in the mix, while the bass drum is rather weak in the mix. With the exception of Forgotten Centuries , all songs were re-recorded on later sound carriers, with My Empire's Doom in 1994 in a newly recorded and heavily modified version with a new text by Samot (who was called Samoth at the time) under the title Beyond the Great Vast Forest appeared on the debut album In the Nightside Eclipse . Moon over Kara-Shehr no longer appeared on any of Emperor's own recordings, but in an alternative version with keyboards on Nordic Metal - A Tribute to Euronymous .
Texts
Ancient Queen is about an old queen who lives in the shadows and who did not die there.
My Empire's Doom is about the return of Satan and the conquest that will bring the reign of the dead and desecrate the "cowardly race" of Christians:
"Servants of God, we will desecrate your coward race
with darkness."
"Servants of God, we will profane your race of cowards through the darkness ."
Night of the Graveless Souls is about lost souls, haunted at night. In Moon over Kara-Shehr ('Moon over Kara-Shehr'; the name Kara-Shehr comes from the Cthulhu myth and denotes the black city, city of devils or city of evil), Satan is invoked, his servant through the night sky fly the storm to take vengeance in heaven on God who drove him from there.
In Witche's Sabbath ( 'Witches ' Sabbath '), the protagonist is accompanied by changing shadows on his way into autumn, this alliance is supposed to bring with it the eternal night. A fortress is destroyed, the inhabitants of which are to beware of the wrath of Satan. Villages burn and the gods arise.
Lord of the Storms describes natural phenomena such as earthquakes, storms, the waning of the moon and the blackening of the earth, which are associated with an evil spell. A dark cloud awaits the protagonist to complete the circle of death.
Wrath of the Tyrant (' Wrath of the Tyrant ') is a revelation of the hopelessness of the wrath of the tyrant known as the master of fear, who wanders the earth at night and carries lost souls with him.
“Carrying the deaths of his fallen warriors
deep inside of him, in his eyes.
Walk upon this Earth tonight,
carrying the staff of cold souls.
[...]
Open your eyes again now, he's here.
He is the master of fear.
[...]
Nobody will escape the wrath of the Tyrant.
Forever the Beast shall wander the Earth. "
“He carries the deaths of his fallen warriors
deep inside him, in his eyes.
Traverse this earth tonight
, carrying lost souls with you.
[...]
Open your eyes again, he's here.
He is the master of fear.
[...]
Nobody will escape the wrath of the tyrant.
The beast is to wander on earth forever. "
reception
The band made "an excellent name in the underground" with the demo and the subsequent EP Emperor . Due to its popularity, it has been re-released several times:
- 1994 by Wild Rags Records on MC, together with new intro and outro as well as the tracks from the EP As the Shadows Rise
- 1995 by Head Not Found on LP
- 1997 by Damnation Distribution on Picture Disc
- 1997 by East Clan / Pagan Folk on MC
- 1998 by Candlelight Records , remastered and on CD together with the EP Emperor
For Christian Myschor from metal.de "[the demo] revealed the quality of the band"; What he sees as "[d] urcharrangeten, technically flawless and above all imaginative BM songs", AMP of Global Domination puts the term "songwriting" in quotation marks in his review, since it is just a collection of riffs that are put together and then had been forgotten; the demo is sloppy and not well thought out, but still a respectable work. Steve Huey from allmusic describes the re-release together with the EP as a fascinating opportunity to understand the development of one of the most influential underground metal bands of the 1990s.
Individual evidence
- ↑ THE UNDERGROUND EMPiRE METAL MEGAZiNE - ISSUE XIII (04/19/99). April 19, 1999, accessed February 17, 2010 .
- ↑ a b c Christian Myschor: Emperor - Wrath of the Tyrant - CD review at metal.de. January 28, 1997, accessed February 17, 2010 .
- ↑ Rock Hard Online rocks the web. 1994, accessed February 17, 2010 .
- ↑ AMP: Emperor: Emperor / Wrath of the tyrant. March 28, 2008, archived from the original on August 17, 2010 ; accessed on February 17, 2010 (English).
- ^ Steve Huey: allmusic (((Wrath of the Tyrant (Century Media)> Overview))). Retrieved March 2, 2010 (English).