Emperor will hit the road this June for a handful of dates celebrating their 1997 album Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk. The band will be joined by currently-unknown "special guests" on the tour, which runs as follows:
6/23 Chicago, IL Aragon Ballroom
6/25 Brooklyn, NY Kings Theatre
6/28 Dallas, TX South Side Ballroom
6/30 Los Angeles, CA YouTube Theater
7/1 Anaheim, CA House Of Blues
Tickets go on sale February 17 at Viva Psycho's website.
Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk was recorded at the famous Grieg Hall throughout the fall of 1996 by famed black metal producer Eirik "Pytten" Hundvin. Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk was Emperor's second album and features a writing credit to Mayhem guitarist Euronymous on the track "Ye Entrancemperium." The track's opening riff was written by Euronymous for a Mayhem song that was never released, but featured on the Mayhem bootleg live album Ha Elm Zalag.
As far the potential for new Emperor, don't hold your breath. Emperor frontman Ihsahn said in a 2020 interview with Ultimate Guitar that it's not happening.
"This is something that I've been giving a lot of thought, not necessarily because I want to but because I basically get asked that every interview I do… [Laughs] Honestly, there's definitely a compliment in that.
"Obviously, since I get that question a lot, people hope for a new Emperor record. And in that, I interpret that people have had a strong connection to the music we did in the past. They discovered Emperor music and it resonated with them. And the compliment is that they want more of that; they want to have more of that feeling.
"But then again, if we were to make another Emperor album, what kind of Emperor album could be possibly made that would satisfy that need? And, first of all, would anyone like a Norwegian true black metal Emperor album that was made to satisfy a commercial need? That's the first point.
"And secondly, how would we go about making an Emperor record like that – where we try to copy something out of the Emperor stuff that people have this connection to and try to fake our way into making a product that would satisfy that? Or would we just continue where we left off and make something based on where we are today musically?
"In my book, if it was up to me… Considering that I did the entire last Emperor album on my own and wrote everything, if it was up to me, it would sound like my solo albums. Just with a different logo. That's how I make my music, and for me personally…
"With no disrespect to Samoth or Trym, from the way I work now, it would be a very strange compromise where I make the style of music that I do. Based only on people involved there, I couldn't pick a saxophone player or anything for Emperor. It would be a whole different thing. It would be very compromising for me, considering where I'm at today.
"I get that. I'm a music fan myself, and I'm humbled that people have a strong relationship with something that I was a part of. But I don't think… If we would make an album like that, I'm sure we could make a lot of money doing that. We would make everything we did back then.
"The absolute uncompromising nature of Emperor is perhaps why we are still able to travel around the world and play our songs to people that they still have a connection with. We never did those compromises and I think that's what people trust. I see no reason after almost 30 years that we would start making those compromises now. I think that would be a discredit to ourselves and to all the dedicated fans that we have."
