Emperor frontman Ihsahn has once again stated that he would be open to reuniting with his bandmates to write and record a comeback album if the reasons were right. The 1991 black metal band initially broke up in 2001 due to creative differences. Their last studio album, Prometheus – The Discipline Of Fire & Demise was written entirely by Ihsahn which seemed to cause some distance between the band. However, Ihsahn seems to be open to a potential comeback according to a recent interview with Jorge Botas from Portugal’s Metal Global. Thanks to the translation provided by Blabbermouth, Ihsahn was recorded saying, “It’s very hard for me to answer because I’ve always said no, and then I said, okay, I also said that there would never be any more Emperor live shows. So I don’t wanna make myself a liar. So if stars align, and we have been going with the live stuff for a long, long time. But if we were to make something, I think that the reason behind it would have to be right.”

He elaborated on those right reasons, saying, “I like to think that the reason that Emperor still gets to tour around the world, play these amazing places and have thousands of people singing back those old songs is because they know it’s for real. It’s not made for some kind of commercial aspect or some kind of entrepreneurial idea. It’s just music made for the sake of music.” He continued, “Of course there are lots of financial motivations to do such a thing, but then again, I don’t think any of us would want that to be a motivation for us doing what we do. I think that would be kind of making everything that we did in the past into a lie…If we do it, it would have to be for the right reasons – because we really wanted to and we felt that’s the right thing to do.”

Since the band’s breakup in 2001, they have reunited several times to perform live. According to Blabbermouth, the band has reunited periodically between 2005 and 2014. Additionally, they came together for a special set of performances to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their wildly successful album, Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk. One of Emperor’s most recent endeavors was finishing their first tour in the U.S. in over 15 years in 2023. While Emperor does not seem ready to release new music yet, the band’s frontman is not ruling it out yet. The full interview with Ihsahn can be viewed here.