| In the Nightside Eclipse | ||||
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| Studio album by Emperor | ||||
| Released | 21 February 1994 | |||
| Recorded | July 1993 | |||
| Genre | Black metal, symphonic black metal | |||
| Length | 59:54 (1999 reissue) | |||
| Label | Candlelight Century Black |
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| Producer | Eirik Hundvin and Emperor | |||
| Emperor chronology | ||||
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In the Nightside Eclipse is the first full-length album and fourth official release by Norwegian black metal band Emperor. It features one of Emperor's best-known songs, "I Am the Black Wizards". It was recorded in July, 1993 at Grieghallen and released in 1994 by Candlelight Records. The cover was drawn by "Necrolord", also known as Kristian Wåhlin. The album is considered a landmark in the black metal scene, ranked by critics as one of the most influential black metal albums from Norway. This was also the last album to feature drummer Faust and the only one to feature one-time bassist Tchort.
In 1999, the album was remastered and re-released, with two cover songs as bonus tracks. The first bonus track is the Bathory song "A Fine Day to Die". The second is the song "Gypsy" by Mercyful Fate. For the re-release, the opening tracks "Intro" and "Into the Infinity of Thoughts" were combined, and the album came packed in a paper slipcase to cover the traditional jewel case, both featuring the same artwork.
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
According to Steve Huey from Allmusic, the album "somehow managed to capture the essence of the genre while completely rewriting its rule book. All the basic black metal trademarks -- furious blastbeats, tremolo-picked chords, raspy reptilian vocals -- are here, but combined with atmospheric keyboards, symphonic grandeur, and poetic (if indecipherable) lyrics about nature and ancient Scandinavian paganism."[1]
He added, "This is music that's extreme yet expressive, meant to evoke not just darkness and death, but the chill of a Norwegian winter, the dread underpinning traditional folktales, and the harsh and unforgiving landscape depicted on the front cover. Even if the keyboards mostly just outline basic chord changes, they add a melancholy air to all the furious extreme sounds, turning the one-note ugliness of black metal into something emotionally complex."[1]
Finally, he concluded that In the Nightside Eclipse "was the first to fuse black metal with progressive and symphonic elements, setting the stage for a bevy of future experimentation in the genre, and it created a template for using folk traditions and melodies from one's homeland as inspirations for material. As such, it certainly possesses the farthest-reaching legacy of anything from Norway's bloody first wave, and ranks as one of the most important heavy metal albums of the '90s."[1]
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