Product Description

The 132-page oversized book featuring foreword and transcriptions by vocalist/guitarist Ihsahn includes original tabs for thirteen Emperor classics contained on the band's 2003 compilation of the same name.

"In my experience as a guitar teacher I've come across a lot of transcribed metal material," says Ihsahn. "However, when looking for material covering the more extreme forms of metal I found there were definite shortcomings and hence came the idea to do a tab book on Emperor.  As tab books were such an important part of my early years as a guitar player, I hope this book too may be helpful and inspiring to guitarists with a passion for extreme  music.”

Respected by musician, fan and critic alike, Emperor recorded their final album, Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise, in 2001.  Guitarist Samoth and drummer Trym continued together in Zyklon; the band's latest album DisIntegrate is in stores nationwide now.   Vocalist/guitarist Ihsahn went on to work with the now defunct band project Peccatum and his recently released solo record, The Adversary.  "Of all the Norweigan black metal heroes out there, Ihsahn is definitely in that small select group that continues to challenge listeners with new sounds," said Decibel Magazine.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #522382 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-15
• Released on: 2006-11-13
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Number of items: 2
• Dimensions: 1.19 pounds
• Binding: Audio CD
• 132 pages

Synopsis
A sheet music book.

Customer Reviews

A great starting point
After their split in 2001, Emperor had truly left their mark on the Black Metal scene as one of its most successful and influential bands. Throughout its two discs, 'Scattered Ashes...' proves time and time again why this was the case.

Disc one spans the entire length of their career, from their eponymous mini album to their final swansong 'Prometheus...'. Apparently, the tracklisting was picked by guitarist/bassist Samoth, and I have to say that he has done an excellent job. The two or three tracks chosen from each album turn out to be the best in every single case. The epic "I Am The Black Wizards" from 'In The Nightside Eclipse' is arguably Emperor's best song, whilst "In The Wordless Chamber" from 'Prometheus...' showed that Emperor were never afraid to progress whilst still keeping true to their roots. The lush, keyboard-laden "The Loss And Curse Of Reverence" and the Classical and Death Metal influenced "An Elegy Of Icaros" would normally be classed as other high points. That is not saying they have aged badly or aren't as good, but the album is of such a high standard that it is near impossible to pick out favourites.

The second disc is a mixed bag, containing covers, songs from split albums and demo tracks. The covers in particular are excellent, highlights being Darkthrone's "Cromlech", Bathory's "A Fine Day To Die" and Thorns' "Aerie Descent". The demos are pretty primitive sounding, but that's what would be expected of a group of teenagers recording on a four-track in a bedroom. Even at that early stage in the band's life, songs like "The Ancient Queen" show they had their artistic flair and creative genius right from the start. It's just a shame they had to let it down by putting the awful Ulver remix of "Sworn" in it, when it should be obvious to anyone with ears how superior the original is. Things are closed with "Opus A Satana", an orchestral version of "Inno A Satana".

If you're an Emperor fan, then the chances are that this will be of little interest to you. None of the tracks are especially rare, and most people into Black Metal will probably own them all anyway. However, for newcomers to the band, 'Scattered Ashes' is an ideal starting point to discover why this band has left such a legacy.

You need this album!!!!
Emperor are truly the greatest black metal, if not the greatest metal band of all time and this double CD is a fine testament to their work. Disc 1 contains all the classics such as "Curse you all men", "Inno a Satana", "I am the black wizards" and many more including tracks from Wrath of the Tyrant right upto epic pieces of music from Prometheus!!. Disc 2 is also brilliant as it contains many rare hard to find tracks and some brilliant Darkthrone and Mayhem covers, it's hard to find fault with this album as it truly is a fitting end to Emperor's reign as the kings of music, it is extremely heavy, yet also eerie, haunting melodic and at times awe inducing, buy this album if you love Emperor, or buy it if you just love and enjoy music itself!! A true masterpiece of legendary proportions!!!!! buy and enjoy!

A good band but a flawed best-of...
Having only heard one Emperor track that wasn't particularly representative of them I decided to buy this album to see what they were really like. The album kicks of with a couple of tracks from their last two albums, hence the songs feature intensely complex arrangements and productions of a very high standard. Well, all's good, I like this kind of thing and from this Emperor sound like a band I may pursue further (despite their having split up). Then we get a track from their first full-length album, In The Nightside Ecplipse. It's not nearly as well produced as the first two tracks, but musically it sounds like something that I could like after a few listens, and it ends on an explosion, which is a good touch.

Straight on from this, however, we go into two tracks from Emperor's early ep's. The production on these makes the previously mentioned track from Nightside seem like Dolby Surround in comparison. They genuinely sound like they were recorded in someone's bedroom on a cheap hi-fi. Musically I don't think they're anywhere near as complex and well written as the others, although it is impossible to tell because they sound so rough. I know some people apparently like this kind of raw edge, but personally I prefer things to be as well produced as possible and in any case it's a complete mistake to juxtapose the levels of quality in the way which it has been on this album. Although there isn't anything quite as extreme later on as the dip in sound quality I've mentioned, there is a lot of variation in production quality which does make this best-of compilation very problematic to listen to as an album in itself.

The second disc features rare tracks, remixes, and cover version recorded by Emperor. The cover versions are possibly interesting if you know the original songs, but I didn't know any of them so I wasn't interested. They all clearly sound like a band covering another band though. The rest of the disc suffers from the same problem as the first in that there is a wild variation in production style and quality. In fact in this aspect it's probably worse than the first disc. However I can't really say because I have only listened to disc two a couple of times whilst I've listened to disc one quite a lot. I think they may have been better off swapping a few tracks from each disc around.

As an album in itself this release doesn't exactly work. As an introduction to the band it is quite good though, since it does give you an example of songs from each stage of their career. I was encouraged by this compilation to buy some of the albums themselves and since the sleeve says which album each song is from I now know which releases I'm after and which ones to avoid. It does also mean that if I get more into Emperor I will already have some of their rarer tracks. I look forward to getting hold of an Emperor album that can be appreciatted more easily as a whole.