I want you to go right now and put 'In the Worldless Chamber' on, pump it up and tell me it's not black metal!!
I don't know man, some of it is kinda Bm-ish. As I said, I feel the drumming gives it the feel, but the riffs are so well composed and different from what black metal is "supposedly" about. THat song does have a lot of the feel of BM, but I still the the black elemnts of the album are the exception, and far from the rule. Anyone looking for a black metal masterpiece would not get a recommendation from me....But if they were looking for a progressive, extreme album with extremely tasteful Bm elemts, hell yeah! Get it!
Honestly, I place Prometheus on par with Opeth.
Right you are, if not beyond Opeth. BUt only as a band. As for the songwriters (Isahn vs Akerfeldt) I think Isahn easily takes the cake in terms of technicality, and strange yet amazing riffs. The only thing Emperor lack is some of the immediateness of impact that a lot of Opeth's emotional riffs had. BUt that is not a bad thing at all as far as I'm concerned...