i'm finally going to get an emperor cd...now if only i knew which one to get...

Nutshell response: Don't get one, get the three best: In the Nightside Eclipse, Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk, and Prometheus.

Nightside is the most raw of these, very serpent-like shrieking vocals. Prometheus is their most recent, good production and a landmark masterpiece of metal. Don't listen to what anyone will say negative about Prometheus; even though Nightside is my favorite; Prometheus IS a masterpiece.

-iz
 
Fuck Prometheus. That shouldn't even have been marketed as an Emperor album--considering Samoth has zero presence on the album. It should have been Ihsahn's solo album or something, and Emperor should have called it quits after IX Equilibrium. Ihsahn's songwriting is nothing without Samoth, and you don't need to hear Prometheus to solidify that.

Get Anthems or IX E...preferrably IX E if you're a complete stranger to black metal.
 
Prometheus is my favorite, though it is very hard to absorb. I'd recommend you start with Anthems, which is probably their most accessible (along with IX Equilibrium, though Anthems is better).
 
No no no, get their ultra super underground first demo they recorded. You know what, fuck that, just get the demo of the underground demo that Ihsahn released before he even started Emperor. You know what, no, fuck that too, get the recordings that Ihsahn made with a fisher price tape recorder when he got his first keyboard for his 10th birthday.

Elitism. :rolleyes:
 
Originally posted by Yeah
No no no, get their ultra super underground first demo they recorded. You know what, fuck that, just get the demo of the underground demo that Ihsahn released before he even started Emperor. You know what, no, fuck that too, get the recordings that Ihsahn made with a fisher price tape recorder when he got his first keyboard for his 10th birthday.

Elitism. :rolleyes:

:lol: Everybody hate Emperor before this overopionated whiner shits his pants.
 
I personally like all of their releases. I feel as though you can't go wrong by picking up any one. My personal favorite, however, would orobably be Anthems, because it has With Strength I Burn.
 
Anthems seems to be a popular choice, that I often go with. Emperor, being my favorite band along wiht Opeth, I have a hard time choosing a favorite album. The Emperor/Enslaved split shows their incredible and epic songwriting ability while still attaining a fair amount of rawness. Wrath of the Tyrants is really for the most part pretty bad, unless you are looking for some very true black metal stuff, which can be pleasing at times.
Nightside improves on the production from the split with Enslaved and the music is taken many levels higher in terms of atmosphere and emotion.
Anthems really shows their technical proficiency and progressive nature. The music is much more folk based in some cases and relies more on typical classical composition.
I am one of the rare few that quite often argues that IX Equilibrium is possibly my favorite. Though it lacks the coherancy as a whole you can basically imagine it as a mix between Anthems and Prometheus, with the atmosphere and more black metal nature of Anthems and the progressive nature of Prometheus. The songs display vast and chaotic compositions that hit you like a massive wall of sound.
Prometheus is the most progressive, and rightfully so, Ihsahn wrote it with the fact that he wouldn't have to play it live. Often 3+ guitars going on at once with bass and multilayered keyboard parts. Composition is a bit lacking in that the songs are often basically split in half, each half identical to the other almost.
You really can't go wrong with Anthems or IX in the beginning...
 
Originally posted by Morningrise
I am one of the rare few that quite often argues that IX Equilibrium is possibly my favorite.

I think Curse You All Men! is the greatest opening cut I've ever heard. Also, you can't go wrong An Elegy of Icaros-- amazing.
 
An Elegy of Icaros is my favorite Emperor song. That is the problem with IX Equilibrium. As individual songs, they are spectacular, but the album just dosn't flow too well...