Emperor is a Norwegian black metal band formed in 1991, regarded as highly influential by critics and emerging black metal bands. The group split up in 2001, but reunited from 2005 to 2007 for a few festival dates and brief US tours, and again reunited in 2013 to 2014. Emperor reformed for the third time in 2016. The group was founded by Ihsahn (guitar/vocal) and Samoth.
Emperor at Wacken Open Air 2014
Emperor performing in 2017
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an emphasis on atmosphere. Artists often appear in corpse paint and adopt pseudonyms.
Members of Gorgoroth wearing typical black metal gear such as corpse paint, spikes and bullet belts. The band was formed by guitarist Infernus to express his Satanist beliefs.
A common black metal convention is the use of corpse paint, black-and-white make-up intended to make the wearer look inhuman, corpse-like, or demonic. Shown here: Taalroth of French pagan band Hindvir.
Venom's second album, Black Metal, inspired the name of the genre.
Norwegian band Immortal influenced countless bands in the genre.