Never Enough Imperial Bombast Department

So the new and final Emperor album, Prometheus: The Discipline Of Fire And Demise, has been delayed until the end of the month. I still got a chance to listen to a preview of the album, and I've been meditating on the common criticism by many that this album is more like Peccatum, one of frontman Ishahn's bands, than Emperor.

I think it would be more accurate to say that Prometheus is more like Peccatum fused with Zyklon, the band featuring Emperor members Zammoth (formerly Samoth) and Trym. And I think this statement better underscores the reasons why Emperor is calling it quits: Musically, the team of Ishahn and Zammoth has begun to grow apart from one another. This isn't anyone's fault, but rather stems from the fact that the Ishahn and Zammoth of today are radically different from the two young men who brashly unleashed Wrath Of The Tyrants so long ago. They grew up, refined their musical visions, and found that those visions aren't as compatible as they used to be.

However, that is not to say that Prometheus is a fragmented album. Far from it; my take is that this album does more to re-establish the epic coherence that shone so obviously throughout Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk and which was conspicuously absent from IX Equilibrium. Although there are brief moments in which it seems to wander briefly, it all snaps back with the viciousness of a military grade bungee cord, once holding a tank aloft, suddenly breaking free and slamming into the transport helicopter with several tons of force.

When Prometheus finally makes it out to stores, I will snap up a copy as quickly as I can. You may have hesitations, but hearing what I have heard, I am completely eager to own the final release.