From Blabbermouth:

"Norwegian black metal legends EMPEROR will release "Live Inferno", a special live series features various releases recorded/filmed during the band's sold-out 2005-2007 reunion performances, on April 16 (in Europe) via Candlelight Records. Several formats will be available, including a two-CD/slipcase with a 16-page booklet, a limited-edition box featuring two CDs and DVD with an enhanced 24-page booklet, a single DVD, and two limited-edition double-vinyl gatefold sets. The audio portion of the "Live Inferno" series features exclusive recordings from the band's headlining performances at Norway's Inferno festival and Germany's Wacken Open Air festival. Each recording will be pressed as individual double-vinyl sets; the first pressing limited to 1,000 copies on black vinyl with any additional pressings in varied colors selected by the band. A special gold-vinyl seven-inch limited to 2,000 copies titled "Thus Spake the Nightspirit" (featuring a live rendition of the band's famed song from the album "Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk" with a live recording of "Inno A Satana" from the band's popular "In the Nightside Eclipse" album on the b-side) will be pressed and released via the label's official webstore beginning February 16."

As the world's biggest Emperor fan I will definitely pick up the Thus Spake the Nightspirit 7", the double vinyl sets and the CD+DVD package.

Wonder what the DVD will contain? I'd assume the shows from Wacken and Inferno as well as possibly one of the BB Kings/LA shows.

Having that many versions of a album is just crazy. But I do plan on picking this up.

Special edition Gold vinyl? Excellent!

It's too bad that I don't have a record player...

I will most definitely be picking up some version of this. I hope the 07 BB Kings show is on the dvd, cause I was there and it ruled.

I want that 2CD/DVD box

I was at the '06 and '07 shows there, and yes it was awesome. The latter was probably better since they had Samoth and Averse Sefira was one of the openers, but you cant really beat the excitement of your first black metal show, Emperor nonetheless! I do think I'll pick this up since I love Emperor, at least their early material.

Having seen Emperor in New York in '99, '06, and '07, I can attest to the awesomeness of their live show. This release should be killer, unless they use any of the recordings from North America '06 and there are two reasons for this:

1-No Samoth, hence no contrapuntal guitars.
2.Trym fucked up the ending of "Cosmic Keys" on 7/14/06 in NYC really bad!

Otherwise, I'm sure any recordings from Europe '06 and all of '07 should prove to be an excellent document of this band's solid live performances. Looking forward to this.

Hmm, it sounds kinda cool but it makes me think that someone isn't satisfied with the pay scale at his teaching job too much nowadays. i'm interested in hearing what a new album would sound like though I do like the Ihsahn solo stuff. I wish theyd tour more, I mised them in 97 at metalfest because of some anxiety bullshit even though I was there..

Could you please elaborate?

Definitely looking forward to getting the cd/dvd box.

Sure. During the outro to "Cosmic Keys", the slow part, Trym came in early by a beat and was ahead of the band until he corrected himeslf. Ihsahn, Einar, and Secthdaemon were perefctly in synch, Trym was just off by a beat. Where there shoud've been kicks, there were snare hits and vice versa. He eventually turned it around with a overextended fill, and it was overall a blip on the radar of an otherwise excellent show. It was funny watching Ihsahn instantly react and turn anound to look at Trym and try to help him get back on track.

Hope this helps.

I'll probably pick up the vinyl of this - was at the Halloween London show and it was brilliant, so will get it for the nostalgia, as it's not like I need any of these songs again after all the albums and the greatest hits.

The video portion, titled Live at Wacken Open Air 2006 - A Night of Emperial Wrath, has a running time of 70-minutes and includes footage professionally filmed at the Wacken Open Air Festival with additional on-stage and exclusive backstage footage filmed and compiled by the band.

“It looks like these releases will be the final nail in the coffin for Emperor,” says guitarist Samoth. “They are a testimony of the live reunion that took Emperor to even new heights; unique events like Wacken where Emperor headlined in front of 60 000 people. We had a great run of shows and feel lucky that we were able to come back even bigger and perform songs from our complete catalogue for a lot of dedicated fans old and new. There will be several cool formats and limited editions coming that should be a nice treat for the fans and a worthy representation of the Emperor legacy. Emperor is dead, long live the Emperor!”

Confirmed track listings include: Disc 1/Inferno: Infinity Burning (medley), Cosmic Keys to My Creations & Times, Thus Spake the Nightspirit, An Elegy of Icaros, Curse you all Men!, Wrath of the Tyrant, With Strength I Burn, Towards the Pantheon, The Majesty of the Nightsky, The Loss and Curse of Reverence, In the Wordless Chamber, Inno a Satana, I am the Black Wizards, Ye Entrancemperium, Opus a Satana. Disc 2/Wacken: Infinity Burning (medley), Cosmic Keys to My Creations & Times, Thus Spake the Nightspirit, An Elegy of Icaros, Curse you all Men!, With Strength I Burn, Towards the Pantheon, The Majesty of the Nightsky, The Loss and Curse of Reverence, In the Wordless Chamber, I am the Black Wizards, Inno a Satana.

Somewhat off-topic but I find this sort of thing really interesting. Not necessarily as a main feature on a DVD but I'd like to see it. In my opinion seeing how a band handles fuck-ups shows a lot about their chemistry. The average local band would probably freeze up in that kind of case.

Anecdote: When I saw Chthonic their drummer knocked over his snare during the opening of their final song. Their vocalist, who only knew a small amount of English managed to work a West Virginian crowd while things got back on track. Could've been extremely anti-climatic but they didn't let the momentum stop.

Anyway, I'm really interested in this DVD. I'd like to see more Prometheus songs considering their other DVD contains the older songs. I'm probably alone in that though, haha.

Oh man, and I thought Trym was infallible.

I was there to see them in NYC. Live they were good, but to see them twice live they didn't sound too different, nor did they have a super enthralling stage presence. They said they wouldn't cash in on crap like this, but they are. A shame.

Just heard the news of MetalKult...not Blabbermouth, and I must say, this is very pleasing to hear!

Yeah, actually this is somewhat true. Both times I saw them in NYC, both in '06 and '07, they played the EXACT same set list, in the EXACT order. You would figure they'd mix it up some, being a year apart and all. Somewhat disappointing.



Yeah, even more "professional" bands struggle with being able to cover after fucking up. Somewhere around 2000/2001 I saw the very mediocre band Vehemence open for Decapitated/Impaled/Incantation. They were fucking up some song of theirs, and rather than try to cover and keep the momentum going, they stopped, argued, and restarted it 3 or 4 times. Total amateur move from a supposed "professional" band, and on Metal Blade no less!

There's nothing worse than having the band alienate the audience by restarting a song. Its just so off-putting.