El Regreso Del Emperador

Parece que lo del regreso de Emperor va en serio. Los amantes del metal negro probablemente ya sepan que el pasado 30 de Septiembre la celebrada (y tristemente disuelta) agrupación noruega se reunió de forma sorpresiva para tocar tres temas en el marco del 15 aniversario del festival Scream en Oslo, Noruega.

Ahora ya se rumorea la grabación de un nuevo álbum de estudio, y mientras tanto varias fechas en festivales internacionales fueron anunciadas. Recientemente incluso se anunciaron varios shows en Estados Unidos, y tal parece que las entradas se están vendiendo como pan caliente, como puede leerse hoy en Blabbermouth.net:

With the group's July 14, 2006 gig at New York City's B.B. King's club over half way sold out at press time, Norwegian black metal legends EMPEROR will be adding a second New York City show on July 13 at the same venue. According to the group's booking agent, over 500 tickets have been sold for the July 14 date less than a week after the show was announced, with tickets selling consistently at a rate of about 50 per day. Tickets for the July 13 concert are expected to go on sale in the next couple of days. EMPEROR are also scheduled to play The Key Club in Hollywood, California on July 16, 2006.

In a recent interview with Terrorizer magazine, EMPEROR guitarist Samoth had the following to say about the upcoming shows: "We will play something from all the EMPEROR albums, and that means that we'll also play some songs from the 'Prometheus' album. But the show will be somewhat traditional. We have a good feeling on what the fans want to hear, so there are songs that we just have to play. We have more than enough material to pick from, so that won't be a problem at all." Added frontman Ihsahn: "Even though we'll have to leave some songs out, we hope we can get the fans to feel that they didn't miss anything when they see us now. I don't think we'll go out as a parody of ourselves."

Upcoming EMPEROR shows:

Apr. 13-15 - Oslo, NOR @ Inferno Festival
Jul. 13 - New York, NY @ B.B. King's (to be confirmed)
Jul. 14 - New York, NY B.B. King's
Jul. 16 - Los Angeles, CA @ Key Club
Aug. 3-5 - Wacken, GER @ Wacken Open Air

En una de esas no estaría mal pegarme una vuelta por Nueva York para ver ese show. Emperor es una de esas pocas bandas por las cuales pagaría un pasaje de avión. Y lo de visitar NY a modo de yapa no me molestaría en lo absoluto, tampoco. Veremos qué se puede hacer... aunque para cuando tome una decisión, las entradas estén probablemente agotadas en todas partes.

Más sobre el supuesto regreso del grupo y los shows en vivo:

Black metal legends EMPEROR reunited after four years to play a surprise three-song set for Norwegian metal magazine Scream's 15-year anniversary which took place at Oslo's Rockefeller Friday night (Sept. 30). Norwegian metal radio show "Tinitus" was at the venue to witness the historical moment. In exclusive interview conducted in English with the radio show producer Patrizia Mazzuoccolo prior to the gig, original members Ihshan and Samoth, alongside drummer Trym, discussed the reason behind the event. "We are not playing a full show tonight," Samoth explained. "This is a short teaser that we are using to announce full headline shows we are doing next year. This is a cooler way of announcing them instead of telling people through our web site." It was announced last night after the band's set that EMPEROR will headline the Inferno festival (April 13-15, 2006) in Oslo, Norway and Wacken Open Air (August 3-5, 2006) in Wacken, Germany next year.

The illustrious black metal band, whose split in 2001 took the scene by surprise, performed three tracks — "The Loss And Curse Of Reverence", "I Am The Black Wizards", "Inno A Satana" — and received a rapturous welcome by an ecstatic crowd. Announced as a "big surprise band," the whole arrangement was so secret that neither organizers of the magazine's anniversary party nor the band itself told their closest friends and associates until yesterday — amongst others, original EMPEROR drummer Faust, a member of SCUM alongside guitarist Samoth, was not present. "It's been a pain in the ass to keep it from friends actually," offers Samoth, "but we had to do it properly or not do it at all so we decided to keep it as secret as we could. Faust is doing a show in Notodden with BLOOD TSUNAMI tonight so he couldn't have made it anyway…"

With Samoth and Trym recording a third ZYKLON album in November and Ihshan releasing a solo album in March next year, what are the probabilities of a new EMPEROR release?