Emperor - Emperial Live Ceremony

"Wow", I thought when I heard about this Emperor release. A live album by my favourite band, that must be a killer. So I went to my usual store and got this album nearly for free, so it will be easier to review it objectively. The CD comes in a cool box which is really made well, nearly as good as the box of Immortal's limited edition of "Damned in Black"
Let me say first that usualy I don't like live albums because I don't like to hear the crowd. Moreover the sound quality is often quite bad and sometimes the band miss a note... That's why I only have 2 live albums, this one and Mayhem's "Mediolanum Capta Est". But for this album you must really forget all the negative aspects of live albums. This one has a very very good sound, you can hear every instrument just as it should be. I guess I don't have to tell you anything about the songs themselves, so I just tell you what songs there are.
From "IX Equilibrium" : Curse you all men, An Elegy of Icaros, Sworn
From "Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk" : Thus spake the Nightspirit, With Strength I burn, Ye Entrancempirium
From "In the Nightside Eclipse" : I am the Black Wizards (IMO one of the best Black Metal songs ever made), Inno a Satana
And there's even "Night of the graveless Souls" from their demo.
As I already said the sound quality is great, and as you see they chose good songs, if you don't know Emperor, it's cool you can get to know a bit of every album they made.
There's just a little thing that sucks : They added some multimedia (a video of "I am the Black Wizards" and some screensavers) but they placed it before the music which sucks because now you always have to jump the first track otherwise it could damage your speakers.
All in all a great album, but who wouldn't have expected a good one by Emperor. It's moreover a great way to get to know Emperor, because it features songs from all their albums, so you get to know their older songs and newer ones.

9.5/10		Svafnir (2000)

2000
Candlelight
9 tracks (plus Multimedia)
48:38 minutes

01 Curse you all Men !
02 Thus spake the Nightspirit
03 I am the Black Wizards
04 An Elegy of Icaros
05 With Strength I burn
06 Sworn
07 Night of the Graveless Souls
08 Inno a Satana
09 Ye Entrancempirium