Emperor "Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise (Germany, Nuclear Blast, CD 685-2/CANDLE064CD)"

Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise is the fourth and final studio album by Norwegian black metal band Emperor. It was released on 21 October 2001, through Candlelight Records. Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise differs from Emperor's previous recordings with a focus on a more progressive style.

The album was nominated for a Norwegian Grammy Award for Best Metal album in 2001.

Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise failed to chart in North America and Europe. A music video was made for the song "Empty" and released on 8 October 2001.

The album received very high critical praise from music critics. Reviews from metal-based magazine Kerrang! declared it their album of the week on 10 October, comparing it to Metallica's Master of Puppets in terms of quality, while the magazine Terrorizer picked it as album of the month. John Serba of the online music database AllMusic praised the album, stating "Those willing to invest a significant amount of time into Prometheus will be thoroughly rewarded on intellectual and emotional levels [...] while more practical listeners unwilling to slap on headphones and willfully ingest the lyrics will find the record impenetrable", calling the album a "birth-to-death concept album of such weight and density that it takes roughly two dozen listens to even begin to appreciate the depth of its composition and its painstaking attention to detail."

In 2003, in a review of Emperor's compilation album Scattered Ashes: A Decade of Emperial Wrath, Dominique Leon of Pitchfork referred to Prometheus as "fairly amazing", and "arguably [Emperor's] most technically and compositionally complex album"

Track listing

All tracks are written by Ihsahn.

1. "The Eruption" 6:28
2. "Depraved" 6:32
3. "Empty" 4:16
4. "The Prophet" 5:41
5. "The Tongue of Fire" 7:10
6. "In the Wordless Chamber" 5:12
7. "Grey" 5:05
8. "He Who Sought the Fire" 5:28
9. "Thorns on My Grave" 5:55

Total length: 51:51

This was the final full length by Emperor. This last effort lost their black metal element, being more of an "extreme symphonic metal" album with a lot of clean vocals and keyboards/sound effects.

Reissued as gatefold LP in 2006 by Back on Black.

Reissued by Candlelight Records in 2007 as a numbered limited edition boxed set.

Official music video:

- "Empty"

Recording information:

Recorded at Symphonique Studio, winter 2000-spring 2001, except drums and amp-dubs, recorded at Akkerhaugen Lydstudio

Mixed at Akkerhaugen Lydstudio May 2001

Mastered at Strype Audio, June 2001

Thorbjørn Akkerhaugen – mixing

Tom Kvålsvoll – mastering

Christophe Szpajdel – logo