Emperor - The Loss and Curse of Reverence

Careful there, this is a musical relic you’re holding in your ears right now. Rumour has it that this song came runner up in the competition to be the Norwegian national anthem. In fact, we’ve got it on good authority that Norwegian children aren’t afraid of a clip round the ear or the Boogeyman coming for them if they misbehave, they’re afraid that they’ll have their Emperor CDs confiscated instead.

Despite those wildly outlandish (as far as you know) claims, it’s no great amount of hyperbole to put Emperor in the S-Tier of the black metal ranking list. Their first two albums, 1994s “In The Nightside Eclipse” and 1997s “Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk” are considered the GOATs of the genre, and not the sacrificial kind either. They’ve inspired more bands to massively downtune their guitars than you could shake Gaahl at and to this day are considered one of the few black metal acts that are truly legendary. That’s the sort of pedigree Crufts could only dream of.

So, if you’re thinking about dipping your toes into the black metal waters for the first time (careful, they’re a bit chilly), there really is no better place to start than “The Loss and Curse of Reverence”. It’s an immense black metal-cum-classical metal masterpiece that really needs to be heard once whether you’re into it or not, frankly. And if you’re already an Emperor megafan, rest soundly in the knowledge that we are spotlighting your thunderous love with our Rock Song of the Week pick. Well, as soundly as you can rest with your ears getting beaten into the side of your head by listening to this at full whack, anyway.