Under the Raining Nightside Eclipse: EMPEROR’s Only Texas Show

Friday, April 10th – the clouds overhead were grey and ominous, the leering evidence that the rain over Radio/East in Austin, Texas was inevitable. And yet, two thousand fans stood in line waiting to get into a show that was being held at an outdoor stage, a show where they would almost certainly be soaked in water and mud. For most people, that would have been a deal breaker, but not for the fans of the rulers, lords, and legends of black metal – EMPEROR.

Hailing from the Norwegian cold, the band’s Emperial Wrath North American Tour was a short-lived one, with very few dates on the schedule. This meant that the band only played one show in Texas – Austin, Texas, at the relatively new Radio/East venue within the industrial area of Austin. Radio/East is a wide, open field of gravel and grass and is home to a coffee shop and bar – as well as two different stages. At max capacity, it can squeeze about twenty-five hundred attendees in it, which is about how full Emperor’s show was. Despite the rain, the love for Emperor was full, and let me tell you, it was the perfect atmosphere for black metal.

The perks to having an outdoor venue is that if you’re there early enough, you get to hear bits and pieces of soundcheck. Blood Incantation – arguably Colorado’s finest modern metal export and Emperial Wrath tour opener – soundcheck almost the entirety of their song “The Stargate” as we all stood under the clouds and waited for entry. It rocked so hard that I felt entirely satisfied having heard it live before I even got in. Blood Incantation is a band that I have a lot of love for, so to hear the song played again as I entered barricade was truly special. What other band plays an hour long set of only three songs? Those three songs were “The Stargate”, “The Message”, (the two songs that make up their incredible 2024 album, Absolute Nowhere) and “Vitrification of Blood, Pt 1”, the first song off of their 2016 album, Starspawn. To think that Starspawn is a decade old now is crazy. About halfway through “The Message” is when things started getting wet. The pools and puddles started gathering, the corpse paint started dripping, and the night started getting darker. By the time their set ended, the sky had poured itself onto the people of Austin, Texas… and the nighttime had arrived.

Emperor played their set with little delay. On a stage pooling water, under storm clouds that only made the atmosphere even more incredible, the notorious Norwegians played a massive setlist that spanned the entirety of their pretty short lived career. Check it out below!

1. Into the Infinity of Thoughts
2. In the Wordless Chamber
3. Thus Spake the Nightspirit
4. The Majesty of the Nightsky
5. Ensorcelled by Khaos
6. With Strength I Burn
7. Curse You All Men!
8. Wrath of the Tyrant
9. The Loss and Curse of Reverence
10. An Elegy of Icaros
11. I Am the Black Wizards
12. Inno a Satana
13. Opus a Satana Outro
14. Ye Entrancemperium
15. The Wanderer

Ihsahn and his band mates all killed it as always. The sound was crisp, and the technical prowess of what these artists were able to do was really something. This wasn’t the first time ZRockR has covered Emperor, and hopefully it will not be the last. What can we say, ZRockR loves Emperor! And though the Emperial Wrath Tour is over, check out the galleries to see the best of the Texas show, and keep your eyes out for the next time the band runs through the states.

PHOTO CREDIT: Live photos by Liam Tennant for ZRockR Magazine – @2026 – All Rights Reserved.