emperor- key club los angeles

emperor, goatwhore, & crematorium @ the key club. crematorium opened the late starting show, wound-up metal freaks taunted the grindcore style band, but they raged on, playing a very tight set, although the singer lacks any kind of stage persona what so ever, they were not bad & i have seen far worse. louisianas goatwhore were on next. old school black metal, no keyboards, & heavy on the satan. these guys rocked with lots of rabid goatwhore fans going nuts. while america is not known for black metal, bands like this will soon change peoples minds. after a stage change & scenes from "the legend of ricky o", norways black metal gods emperor explode on stage, for the first 30 seconds ihsahn had no vocals, once that was fixed, it was pure black metal. tryms drumming is simply amazing, he is by far one of the best black metal drummers going. samoth had visa issues & was not granted entry to the states, so ihsahn did all the guitar work, & after the vocal mix was fixed, his singing was perfect. i would have to say "inno a satana", "in the wordless chamber", & "the loss and curse of reverence" were my favorite songs of the evening. every song was tight, and ihsahns vocals were awesome, & trym was simply amazing, emperor truly lived up to the legend status they so rightly deserve. all hail!