EMPEROR To Headline Next Year's BLOODSTOCK OPEN AIR Festival

August 10, 2013

Norwegian black metallers EMPEROR will celebrate the 20th anniversary of their "In The Nightside Eclipse" album by making a number of festival appearances next year. In addition to performing at Germany's Wacken Open Air, the band will headline the 2014 edition of the the Bloodstock Open Air festival, set to take place next August at Catton Hall, Walton-On-Trent, West Midlands, United Kingdom. EMPEROR members Ihsahn (real name: Vegard Sverre Tveitan) and Samoth (real name: Tomas Haugen) will be joined by Bård Guldvik "Faust" Eithun on drums, and they will perform the CD in its entirety. There will be no new studio album or a worldwide tour — only a few exclusive festival appearances next year to mark the celebration of this landmark release.

The news of EMPEROR's appearance at Wacken Open Air was announced on August 2 at this year's edition of the festival at a press conference which was attended by Ihsahn and Samoth.

EMPEROR released its swansong, "Prometheus - The Discipline Of Fire And Demise", in September 2001. It was an epic and progressive metal album that once and for all marked EMPEROR as one of the most adventurous and gifted black metal bands of all times. In September 2005, EMPEROR surprised all with an unannounced appearance in Oslo. Following the three-song performance, the band announced additional concerts that would include a visit to America; marking the second trip to the States in the band's legendary career. Fans flocked to New York City and Los Angeles to witness the sold-out performances. In 2007, additional shows would see the band return to the U.S. for a repeat performance in New York City, a stop in Chicago, and what would be their final American performance in Los Angeles.

In a May 2012 interview with Gun Shy Assassin, Ihsahn stated about the possibility of more EMPEROR live performances in the future: "After 2007, that was really a final chapter for all of us. But there's always some underlying pressure to do something. Usually, I just say plain 'No.' I can understand the nostalgia and all that. If I wanted to be as nostalgic as everyone else, it wouldn't make any sense for me to actually make any new music [with my solo project] ."

He added: "People who are old-time EMPEROR fans still think I'm 17.

"I am in contact with the guys, and we talk almost weekly; they're good friends. What can I say? Never say never. For the moment, I am so occupied with my own project — that's my main priority."

Ihsahn said he left EMPEROR because he wanted different things.

"I ended up doing most of that last EMPEROR record on my own. If we still did EMPEROR, and if it were up to me, what I do now… that's what we would sound like."

But there will be no new music from EMPEROR, Ihsahn said.

"Part of the reason why our albums keep on selling is probably because we were always an uncompromising band, and that is a tradition I would like to uphold. If we did a new EMPEROR album, what kind of EMPEROR album would people like? I say listen to the stuff I do, and the stuff that Samoth does, and you can more or less figure out what a new EMPEROR record would sound like, and that sounds nothing like old EMPEROR. Trying to duplicate something from the past would just turn everything into a parody.

"Would anyone want a black metal album made just for the sake of making a lot of money?" Ihsahn asked. "I get all of these requests to get back with EMPEROR. In the spirit of black metal, I do whatever the hell I want. That's the whole point of black metal. If I even consider letting anyone else try to tell me what I should do with my music, that, by definition, would make it non-black metal… as I have learned it."

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).