Copyright © 1997 Century Media
1. The Conquering, part I: The Dawn Of A New Age
2. The Conquering, part II: Forhekset
3. The Conquering, part III: Mother North
4. The Conquering, part IV: Du Som Hater Gud
5. The Conquering, part V: Immortality Passion
6. The Conquering, part VI: Nemesis Divina
7. The Conquering, part VII: Transcendental Requiem Of Slave
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This album represents a culmination of all that built black metal during its formative years, and in that is a step forward, but in its failing to notice what made black metal unique, is a regression: although the riffs are beautiful, these songs collect them in a lack of order that disrupts the continuity and structural beauty of original black metal. While there are incredible standouts of riffcraft, as in "Mother North," themes are strapped together by rhythm and aesthetic-only additions like keyboards and vocals, making for a discontiguous listening experience that delivers no change in mental state. As such, this album is more of a compilation of fragmented ideas and imagery than a musical document, despite the excellence of its many parts. It could be construed as counterpart to The Abyss "The Other Side" for its documentation and rendering to basic form of the arpeggios and tonal progressions favored by diverse bands from Mayhem to Dissection to Sacramentum to Gorgoroth. Notably, it is similar to Marduk's "Opus Nocturne" in its use of lead rhythm playing over high-speed double bass drumming. While in musical terms it exceeds most of its genre, especially at the time, in artistic terms it is a reversion to the meaningless riff-salad days of later Tampa death metal.
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