The first time Ihsahn met Kerrang!, things could have gone better. The then-17-year-old Norwegian and his band Emperor were in the UK for a short run of shows, having already made a name for themselves in the black metal underground thanks to their Wrath Of The Tyrant demo, and were invited into our office to review the latest singles. The band were pictured all in corpsepaint and carried a stern air of grimness the whole time, to which we responded by captioning the accompanying photo: “Donut, donut, donut and donut.” A quarter of a century later, a smiley Ihsahn is having the last laugh. In the years that followed until their split in 2001, Emperor made four peerless works of black metal, becoming royalty within the black metal scene and managing to reach an audience outside it with...
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