Copyright © 2006 Candlelight
1. Invocation
2. 2. Called by the Fire
3. 3. Citizen
4. 4. Homecoming
5. 5. Astera Ton Proinon
6. 6. Panem Et Circenses
7. 7. And He Shall Walk In Empty Places
8. 8. Will You Love Me Now?
9. 9. The Pain is Still Mine
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The release puts to rest the long-lying question "Do black metal musicians decay as grossly as rock and speed metal musicians?" as well as illustrating yet again the pitfalls of progressive music. All of the parts of these songs are well-executed, and the songs themselves fit the publically-acknowledged standard of songwriting, yet they manage to express nothing except that old standby, the rock 'n roll drama. Disconnected sequences of riffs cycle past like scenes from some movie with a forgettable plot, joined often solely by juxtaposition, with the artist seeming to count on the crashing together of sounds to constitute continuity. It does not. New musicologists are often amazed by how stupid the majority of jazz fans and musicians are, but that tendency exists for the same reason this album will be praised widely when new but forgotten almost immediately: musical jamming, and progressive guitaring, in itself expresses nothing -- and what makes songs eternal is their poetry, not their mechanics. The reason people do not like Cynic and Nocturnus as much as Morbid Angel is in a rare case not related to their ignorance or stupidity; it arises from the tendency of those who play well to focus on playing and songwriting, but forgetting to put something into those songs which is of interest and helpful to an audience. Yes, friends, art helps get us through the night and gives us reason to sing our sorrows as well as joys, sealing them over with meaning and enhancing them, making them mythical. Albums like this do the opposite and thus are soul-killers for both musician and audience. A melange of lifts from 1970s progressive rock, British avant-pop, technical death metal and cheesy heavy metal ballads, this CD goes everywhere but goes nowhere. Even if Ihsahn breaks out the calculus and shows us that "I am the Black Wizards" is mathematically and musicologically incorrect, nothing from Emperor or its members post-"In the Nightside Eclipse" has captured the mystical imagination of the its audience with anything resembling the same power. This album, for all of the work and expertise that went into it, only helps shove Ihsahn further into the "forgotten" category to which contemporary metal relegates itself.
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