Throwback: “Cosmic Keys To My Creations And Times” by Emperor!

Arguably a contender for the “The Best Black Metal Album of All Time” accolade, 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of “In The Nightside Eclipse” by Norwegian Black Metal masters Emperor. A debut album that transcended the notion that the purists have of everything having to be recorded with raw, lo-fi aesthetics it instead combined the usual harsh banshee wails, blast beats and fast tremolo-picked guitars with symphonic keyboard passages. That conjured atmospheres of epic grandeur with depth and texture, creating an enchanting melancholic air and in doing so inadvertently coined a new sub-genre. The key to the Kingdom of success was and always has been in finding balance in the force between elements. For all the symphonic touches, let us not forget that there is a brutal Black Metal album underneath, something which maybe credited to co-producer Eirik “Pytten” Hundvin.

Choosing a cut from it for this feature is one of those challenges that seems damn near impossible and a lot of people would probably have chosen “I Am The Black Wizards“. But we’re not a lot of people, so here’s “Cosmic Keys To My Creations And Times” which probably has the finest intro riff on the record. Question is, was it one of the vocal takes that saw Ihsahn spitting blood while recording the vocals?