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😀

Somehow this is the real translation of that interview in Spanish….

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This might be a really stupid question 😭😭 but is ihsahn’s hair actually dyed black?? I know when he was young it was blonde but I thought as he got older it just naturally became a very dark brown (as in some photos the lighting shows a brown undertone) but the post you just made it says he has dyed hair. Today ihsahn still has dark hair and even his facial hair is dark so I always assumed it was natural, but now I’m unsure.

Not a stupid question at all anon. Ihsahn does dye his hair. You can see his natural colour in the earlier '90 '91 thou shalt suffer days. And then both Ihsahn and Samoth had started dyeing their hair black by the time Emperor was created. His hair looks brownish in some of these because the dye was fading. And then when buzzed all his hair off in '98 you can really see his natural hair colour growing back in, which he didn't bother dyeing.

And I guess he dyes his beard too because in those last three pictures you can see his natural facial hair colour better. The last picture I think looks like that because he cut his beard shorter, so there's still some remnants of dye on the ends, but his natural colour growing in. And literally every other picture of Ihsahn his hair and beard are really dark which would be dye.

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EMPEROR in Obscure Epitaph zine issue no.2 (1992)

transcription below (Samoth and Ihsahn smoked weed 🫵)

I guess most of you who bother reading this may know about the Norwegian Emperor. The first part of this interview, which appeared in Obscure Epitaph #1, was done by North[?] with Samoth and Ihsahn (named Ygg at that time) at two different points of time. Samoth’s answers are a  lot older (’91), but both were done while they went under the Thou Shalt Suffer name (which later on became Ihsahn’s solo band).

Tell us a bit about Thou Shalt Suffer, why have you suddenly turned into a two-man band?

Ihsahn: Since the band started in February ’90, we’ve had a lot of name and lineup changes. After wee recorded our mini-LP, me and Samoth wanted to play more evil and emotional music. The two other guys didn’t have any feeling for darkness and evilness, so we found out that just the two of us should continue. 

Samoth told me about a dream/vision he had, please tell us a but about this incident. 

Ihsahn: We had smoked some stuff, and put on Bathory’s “Under the sign of the black mark” [rules]. We laid down, and during the intro, Samoth got a strange dream. He dreamt that he was talking through the desert, and in the end of the intro he finally arrived at the place he was searching for. The [??] of our upcoming LP is built on this dream. 

Do you think that satanic lyrics have become a trend, and that the true scene is dead?

Samoth: Yeah, maybe. I love satanic lyrics, but bands who writes satanic lyrics, and really don’t know what satanism is, that is stupid. If the band really are Satanists, so of course they should write satatnic stuff. Yeah the true black/death metal scene is almost dead, but I really hope it can come back. But if all the bands will play like Morbid Angel, Obituary etc., then we can forget it. They have destroyed the death metal scene together with a lot of tother persons, like Scott Burns etc. Support the true black/death metal scene!

What about the scene here in Norway?

Samoth: Hem… I don’t really know. We have some good bands here, I think, also some good ‘zines. Of course the scene could have been better, but I’m sure it’s ok.

I must say you’ve changed a lot since the Xerasia days, what made you become pure black metal and darkened?

Samoth: Since the beginning, our hearts has turned black as coal and our hatred for white religions has made them even darker. It’s what we are and live for. 

What is religion for you, then?

Samoth: As I said, we hate white religion. My own religion is very important to me. The music I play, the life I live and the death awaiting me depends on my religion. 

What about gigs? Do you have a lot of experience?

Ihsahn: We have not played a lot of gigs, but we have played some. The bands we have played with are: Old Funeral, Disgrace, Thyabborent, Hasty Death, Rupturence [R.I.P], Phobia, Balvaz, and Buttocks (Algol). These were all the death metal bands we played with, but we have also played with some shitty thrash bands etc. 

Back to the lyrics again, are they as important as the music for you? Do you, like Samoth, think that satanic/occult lyrics are becoming a trend?

Ihsahn: Yes, as I’ve, most of the time, done the vocals, I’ve always thought that it’s important with good lyrics. Now they are even more important for the both of us, (Samoth is also going to do the vocals) because of the concept. No, I don’t think satanic lyrics is coming a trend. Many bands use this kind of lyrics, but black/death is and should be evil, so why not? Everything is better than “save the world” lyrics.

Do you think there’s too many ‘zines around right now?

ihsahn: Yeah, maybe. It is very many ‘zines now. It is cool with a lot of ‘zines, but it looks like people think that you’re in the underground, and then you must play in a band or make a ‘zine, so they make a boring ‘zine or starting a bad band. Death to noise bands!

Do you look upon yourself as a true Satanist and have you participated in any sort of rituals?

Samoth: There are several different satanist sects like The Church of Satan, O. T. O., Temple of Set, Order from the Left Hand Path and other smaller sects [??] perversity. I don’t have anything against any of them, but I also don’t follow any of them either. I follow my own belief, I’m my own [??] yes, I would say I’m a tru[??]. About the rituals, no, I haven’t performed any rituals [??]

Any last words of blasphemy?

Samoth: In hoc [??] honorem nocturnus [??].

[End of interview]

So this was a fucking pain in the ass to transcribe. How did I do it? Well I had a ever so slightly better copy of this zine (some parts were still illegible hence the '[??]' I had to put throughout where i jusy couldnt make out the words) that I used but I literally cannot find it anywhere. So this real shitty quality is all I have rn. I also have a better picture of Samoth there on the first page but i also cant find it anywhere T_T i think i might have put both in a folder and accidently deleted it? And onto my comments on the interview:

Umm.. no wonder they wrote such legendary songs at a young age. they had herbal aid. I've never heard them talk about that before? Also Samoth doing vocals?? He must have not been good bc we never heard it lol. And it would be hard to with Ihsahn's insanely good vocals. Not even tryna glaze :3c

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Ihsahn and Ildjarn (1993)

bonus emperor pics below

(Pictures 3 & 5 from Petrified zine issue no. 2, 1993)

The singular person standing between the two sculptures on the Ildjarn album cover is Ildjarn (Vidar Våer), who Ihsahn provided session vocals for in 1993.

Ildjarn is the one who took these two iconic pictures of Ihsahn, Samoth and Faust, also at the same place as Ildjarn's album cover: Patmos Sculpture Park in Akkerhaugen, Norway. Taken in 1992. Bård says it's his favourite picture from this era.

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EMPEROR in studio (1993-1999)

Ihsahn, Faust, Samoth rehearsing in Akkerhaugen, 1993

Ihsahn, Pytten, Samoth, Lee Barrett in Grieghallen Studio, 1994

Ihsahn c. 1994

Samoth, Alver, Ihsahn, Trym in Greighallen studio, 1996

Ihsahn and Samoth c. 1999

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Terje "Tchort" Schei in EMPEROR (1993)

theres not too many solo pictures of tchort from his time in emperor unfortunately. All of the pics above except the 7th are from emperor era 1993.

And here's a couple excerpts from Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult book. I knew that Tchort was charged for assault but not the details. And I didnt know about his firstborn? :(

there's more tchort in group pics here

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EMPEROR magazine features (1994)

Emperor are putting the finishing touches to their first, full length album as we speak. Time is growing short because three members are currently in court, facing a number of offences

- Russ Smith, Terrorizer issue no. 6, March 1994

For years, in the metal world, these gloom-and-doomy Norwegians had been good for a laugh. Suddenly it had all got grotesquely serious [...] Faust had confessed to the killing and also to setting fire to a church [...] Samoth confessed to arson and burglary and bassist Tchort is to be tried for attempted murder arising from a knifing in a street fight

- Phil Sutcliffe, Q magazine, April 1994

The tour was okay, but it was plagued by terrible organisation and we were suffering from a lack of live experience. None of the gigs was satisfying. We will not tour for quite a while yet, because a lot of the things depend on my and Tchort's trials

- Samoth (about the '93 UK tour), Ultrakill issue no. 1, April/May 1994

The covers of the magazines respectively:

From the inside of the Ultrakill issue no. 1 magazine you can see that dumbass photo of Ihsahn with the tiki torch 😭

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Samoth and Nebelhexë c. 1994

I kept seeing that first photo being captioned as "samoth" and I was so confused because ik samoth is a pretty girl, but that's clearly a pretty girl. How tf is that samoth? Took me a while to see that white smudge above the girl is samoth and then i found these two other pics where you can clearly see samoth and the girl, Andrea Meyer aka Nebelhexë/Aghast/Hagalaz' Runedance.

Samoth and Andrea met during the UK tour as she was a dancer for Cradle of Filth's live show (and she also whipped Dani on stage SLAY). They ended up getting married, had a daughter, and separated. She was tragically murdered in 2021 (RIP)

At midnight on the winter solstice last year, Nebelhexa, in a long, red-velvet dress, and Samoth, in his Viking fur coat and Thor's Hammer pendant, hiked up a snowy mountain near his parents' house. Finding a spot surrounded by trees, Samoth used his ritual heathen knife to cut Nebelhexa's palm, and then she his. "We held them together and our mingled blood dripped on the white snow." They made promises to the mighty sky father and all the tree spirits, then exchanged rings that were engraved with the Norwegian words for Thor Helps.

- Spin magazine, Feb 1996

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Ihsahn in EMPEROR photoshoot (c. 1992)

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EMPEROR Anthems promo 1997

the emperor backdrop made by samoth and his mother (x)

these i got from the old website emperorhorde. i wish there were better quality versions of those two photos but i cant find it anywhere 😪

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Inside Ihsahn's Hytte (1994)

"the wastelands, the emptiness, the silence"

It's kind of a meditation because you open your mind to all the impulses you get from your surroundings. The sound from the waterfalls, the winds, the rains. The symbolic world of satanism. It is dark. The wastelands, the emptiness, the silence. It is dark forces. And also in this kind of old Norwegian woods, you also kind of feel the pagan past - Ihsahn, talking about his hytte retreats (source)

Hytte is a Norwegian cabin/cottage. This one is Ihsahn's family's hytte, which has clearly been decorated by Ihsahn. The pictures are from this interview.

In the first picture, you can see that iconic sword on the wall, that you can find in many of their promo pics. I'll have to make a separate post for that curse you mobile tumblr pic limit

^ Bonus pics featuring the hytte:

Ihsahn in 1993 (?)

Ihsahn and a girl samoth

Ihsahn with his guitar and keyboards

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Thou Shalt Suffer era Ihsahn and Samoth (c. 1991)

video and zine interview below

Formerly known as Embryonic and Xerasia, Thou Shalt Suffer was Vegard and Tomas' main band in 1990-1991.

Part of their show in Nottoden here

Tomas does a small interview in Peccatus Altar zine issue no. 1, 1992 (Vegard and Tomas in the photo)

And Bård Eithun reviews them a bit in his own zine Orcustus issue no. 2, 1992

(also photo #2 in the post is from Death Industry zine issue no. 3, 1992 but i cant fit anymore pics and its in lithuanian anyway)

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super halfassed ihsahn study (wycombe re. 1993)

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Ihsahn and Doggy (2021)

i came across this on ihsahns IG and it was too cute not to repost. yes bård, you are so right he is perfect (*ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)

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This fucking pic Mortiis posted on insta of him and Tore 😭

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Samoth and Ihsahn sharing the same blouse c. 1993

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Terje ''Valfar'' Bakken, Windir