special introductory
paragraph!
Burzum
Det Som Engang Var
Aske EP
Ragnarok (A New
Beginning)
Hvis Lyset Tar
Oss
Filosofem
Daudi Baldrs
Hlidskjalf
Burzum is one of the leaders of
Norwegian Black Metal. It is a one-man band whose real name is Varg
Vikernes (I guess?). He also goes by the name Count Grishnackh, and right
about now he probably goes by the name "Butt Pirate" since he's spending a
few years in prison for murdering the former leader/guitarist of fellow
Norwegian Black Metal leaders Mayhem, a fellow who went by the name
Euronymous. He knifed him all to hell, he did! He also burned several
beautiful old Christian churches in a show of contempt and true wish to
bring back the old Nordic Pagan ways. The whole movement is freaky like
that. All these humorless guys dressed in black who want to bring back the
original Viking ways, with all the violence and hate that that includes.
How this brings them personal happiness I have no idea. But hooee the music
is cool! The drums are insanely fast -- pretty much the fastest they can
be. The guitars are just as fast, pounding out insanely vicious, reverbed,
repetitive chord-driven riffs while Mr. Vikernes screams in an indiscernible
high-pitched wail that reeks of pure torture. Later he brought in
classical-type keyboards -- and now he's recording completely instrumental,
keyboard-only albums in prison, which his mother is apparently releasing to
the public! He's also become a neo-Nazi, figuring, I suppose, that being
known worldwide as a murderer just isn't threatening enough. I can't
imagine that he's anything but an absolutely monstrous prick, but I bought
all his albums anyway. Color me hypocritical! Or periwinkle, if you think
that would match the furniture better.
Because Varg was getting alot of attention from the media which he himself wanted,he planned to kill Varg.Varg along with Snorre from Mayhem went along to Eurymous home to see what this was actually about.Euronymous attempted to attack Varg and Varg killed him in a self defense situation.Varg was unarmed apart from a blunt pocket knife.How cruel and threatening.Euroymous was not brutally stabbed 20 or whatever times by Varg,but he fell onto a pile of broken glass in his underwear whilst fighting with Varg
Before you accuse people,look into the facts.find out who actually is the prick
A landmark black metal recording. Varg handles
all drums, bass, guitars, synths and vocals himself, blasting forth with
boo-tih-boo-tih-boo-tih speed grindcore (not cymbal-crazy noise grindcore
like early Napalm Death - just a solid 4/4 backbeat being played entirely
too speedily) and abominably ugly and annoying shrieked vocals. The Pagan
Horseman of Odin? Or just a really annoying young longhair making noise? A
little of both. The lyrics are all in English but you can't understand a
word of them. Subject matter is of course Viking-related, with such moving
refrains as "Cries of the (ha, ha) suffering sound/Cries for help to all
their dead Moms". The metal riffs are pretty threatening, though fairly
predictable -- lots of "play this chord here and move my finger up a bit,
then move up to the next chord and move my finger up a bit, then back down
to the original chord, repeat." Aside from the grindcore-type tunes, there
are a couple of really cool NWOBM-type riffs ("War" is killer!
Killers, this means war!) as well as some cold clinical synth
instrumentals to help you better envision the dark Norwegian tundra in all
its frightening majesty (especially "Dungeons Of Darkness," a
Residents-style ambient piece de concrete featuring the winds of demonness,
chimes of evil and other spooky noises of HELL). It's not the greatest nor
most listenable CD I've ever heard, but a score of 7.51 seems about right.
If you like speed metal, this is just taking it an EVIL step further. But
don't you even TRY to tell me that the singer's voice doesn't annoy the shit
out of you. I don't even know you and I know it does.
Less speed thrash this time aboundst, with the
majority vote going to more midtempo Iron Maiden-ish riffitudinal
viscosities. Also more atmospherics and keyboards for your listening
pLEASURE TIME PRODUCTS. Vocals? Stiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiill ghastly! The
production seems stronger this time 'rounds, with more bass and
double-tracked guitars in the mix. And for a big superchange that would
certainly stick around for decades to come, Mr. Varg has started penning his
lyrics in some weird Norwegian style language that makes no sense to the
people of our century! Two of the songs are still in English, the world's
finest language and four are instrumental and thus speak the universal
language of love, but those other two? Oooh la la! As for the two songs I
can factually understand, they're about how angry Varg is at the church and
society for not allowing him to follow his morbid path of darkness. "I will
open the gates to Hell one day..." he screams in "Key To The Gate," alluding
not only to his desire to seek out an alternative lifestyle but also
possibly to his desire to unleash the hounds of hell upon society. Of
course he ended up blowing his big chance by killing not a Christian leader
or Norwegian politician (whatever the hell political system they use over
there - do they still barter?), but just another dumb Norwegian black metal
guy!!!!! Sheesh! Talk about a waste of a philosophy! That would be like
if GG Allin, after all these years of threatening to kill himself on stage
and take as many spectators as posible with him, were to die alone in his
sleep of a drug overdose!
His later work, however, is dull CRAP, the worst black metal I've ever
heard. Varg simply lost the ability to make his music the least bit
interesting. He should've taken the time to compose more than one boring
riff per ten-minute song, instead of burning churches and stabbing metal
dudes.
Well, you do what you gotta do, I guess...
Aske??? My fiancee's last name is Aske!!!! It's
as if Mr. Varg Vikernes penned a romantic love triad to my sweet snuggly
girl! "A Lost Forgotten Sad Spirit"? That's what I feel like when my
sweetheart isn't by my side. "Stemmen Fra Taarnet"? I'm pretty sure that's
just a translation error - it's of course about my "Woman From Charlotte."
And "Dominus Sathanas"? I think Varg is poking light fun here at how often
I order Domino's Pizza for dinner -- ha ha you Vargo! Musically, more of
the same here. Great punk-style chord thrashin' and metallic riff lick
stickin' with those atrocious vocals come home to roost on the chimney. Not
as much arpeggiating on the strings this time around though. Did I mention
that in the last two reviews? If not, do a quick cut and paste because he
certainly loves to run his pick up and down the strings one at a time while
scuzzly-duzzlin' his high speed chordature. FYI, you can get this EP and
Burzum on the same CD, so do it! I know what you're thinking,
Sniffy. You've been steadfastly reading every single album review on my
site with one thought thinkin' up your headbrain -- "Why does Mark give out
so many fucking 8's?" Well see, this is a hobby for me. I don't get free
records regardless of how many rim jobs I hand out at CMJ every year, so I
have no choice but to review the albums in my collection. And what artists'
catalogues am I most likely to own in completion? The ones I REALLY LIKE!
And since scores of 9 and 10 mean the same thing to me - darn near
perfection - not that many albums are going to rate that high. Thus, I have
a lot of "8" albums in my collection. If you want to see some really low
grades on my site, feel free to record your entire Jimmy Buffett collection
for me. That's my company line anyway -- honestly I just give out all the
8s so I can keep repeating my favorite piss joke, "On a scale of 1 to 10,
you're an 8!" Ha ha ha!!!! Ah me, it's every bit as funny to me today as
it was when I first heard it as a wee, wee European.
I don't know if this is a bootleg or something
that Varg had his mother put out to raise money to break him out of "the
chain gang apartments," but it's something of a ripoff to normal Burzum fans
like you and me. It's got four instrumental demos of songs you probably
already know, one new one, a Cliff Richard song (???) that he performed with
Mayhem (presumably before he murdered their guitarist by stabbing him 50
million times) and then the head of the Asatru religion (?) singing the
words of Odin (?) while backed by a Burzum instrumental that I'm sure you've
heard a hundred times on your local classic rock station. Don't complain
though - this is the first Burzum release that comes with a photograph of
Mr. Vikernes, the scummy hippy! Looks like me with my old hairdo, he do!
But with a battle axe instead of a seventy-five inch penis! On the upside,
this whole "instrumental and other singers" format means that you only have
to hear Varg's ear-curdling shrieks in a couple of songs. But on the down
hand, most of the material is half-finished and sounds that way. So be sure
to pick a bale of cotton before you blow $20 on this as one "Mark Prindle"
did at some point.
No, it's not a bootleg. Ragnarok is a limited edition 2000 release with
a print run of 1,000 copies (mine is #961, so they must be sold out by
now.) It will also be the final release under the Burzum name, or so Varg
says. Apparently he's pissed off at all the music stores that kept filing
his prison-made synth albums in the black metal section.
For the record folks, it wasn't Billy Corgan who murdered the spirit of the American people. He just molested it while Courtney Love put a gun in its' mouth and pulled the trigger.
Four songs = 45 minutes! As ever always and eve,
interesting stuff though. Kind of the And Justice For All of black
metal, what with its endless repetitive riffing. Track one? Midtempo
riffage typical of Varg - chords arising and a-lowering into the bowels of
rockin' goth hell with a churchy synth background. Track B? Speedcore!
Track M? A departure! Odd two-note bass line more reminiscent of Can than
Burzum. All three become Business As Usual (copyright Men At Work) pretty
quickly though, with Varg screaming his little lungs out, the fuck. And
trak final? SYNTHS - like the soundtrack to a horror movie.
Eeeeerie. I'm not saying that the dude really brings that much new to the
table here that we haven't already heard from him, but he does a good job
tying together a bunch of lengthy passages. Plus he recorded like 15 albums
within the span of a year so it's easy to forgive him for lack of artistic
rebirth. One other thought has crossed my mind: Regardless of the dreary
cover art, endless ghastly shrieking and horrific Norse lyrical overtures,
most of Burzum's music isn't scary. Certainly if I saw Varg Vikernes
walking down the street, I might step aside, he being a murderous sociopath
and all, but his music - as distorted, reverbed and minor-keyed as it is -
isn't scary. Irritating? Sure, at times. Boring? Okay, he likes to
repeat chord sequences over and over again. But scary? Mmmm.... Some of
the synth stuff would work well on the soundtrack to Halloween The
13th, but it's not going to make anybody but a buffoon run and hide
beneath the bedsheets. But then again, I live in the sunny U.S. of A. If I
lived in dark, cold Norway where the demon horsemen ride by night, perhaps I
would be every bit as afraid of Hvis Lyset Tar Oss as I am of Billy
Joel's Turnstiles LP. Have I mentioned recently how much I fucking
hate the pussyass music of Billy Joel? Feel free to argue with me here, all
you Burzum fans.
Just understand that Burzum is not about trying to achieve the feeling of a horror music in music. Itīs about something else. And the vocals are great! They just sound almost like he is crying. Black metal is not about sounding "cool" and "spooky".
I Give this album 10/10
Mark claims this is the ...And Justice For All of black metal but I disagree. Using that analogy, this would be black metal's Reign in Blood. Untouchable. For your own sake Mark try listening, really listening to this with headphones at night. It will not, and should not, scare you but instead take you away somewhere far. Det Som en Gang Var- What Once Was.
..."what with its endless repetitive riffing."
That's because it's supposed to be hypnotizing.
"And trak final? SYNTHS - like the soundtrack to a horror movie. Eeeeerie."
You clearly don't understand music at all if you think the fourth track is "eeeeerie." It's relaxing; he's taking all the negative sonic emotions from the previous three tracks and attempting to calm the listener down a bit. Quite frankly, I'm amazed even someone not well-versed in black metal could miss this. Hell, I know a few potheads who chill out to "Tomhet," and stoners generally aren't going to "chill out" to something that would "would work well on the soundtrack to Halloween The 13th" now would they?
Nerps and sherps, baby! Nerps and sherps! That's
what Varg is singing about this one, Nerps and sherps! No, but venereous
baby.... Listen at THIS shim - a feller at the Houston Chronicle - I'm not
gonna give out his real name, but it rhymes with "Gwight Bilverman" - he
says to me, "I'd love to review your site but you say 'Fuck' too many times!
You know us family papers!" Can you believe that pussyshit? So now I'm a
failure. A nobody. And it's all the fault of a guy at the Houston
Chronicle whose name rhymes with "Gwight Bilverman". Sheeshkabob! This CD
starts off tricking you into thinking it's going to be the best yet. The
first two songs are monstrously fuzzed out anthems -- LITERALLY billions of
fuzzy guitars meshed with the gentle wisp of a gothic synthesizer. Best of
all, Varg is no longer shrieking annoyingly, but rather screaming maniacally
into a distortion device! Listenable? Shit man, pretty as your
sister! No, not your buttugly one - the other one! You know, the
one we all fuck all the time! See, that's what gets me about "Gwight
Bilverman." It's okay for him to fuck your sister, but I can't talk
about it on my site? Jesus christ. So you're enjoying this dandelion of a
good midtempo black metal CD that kinda reminds you of Samhain when all of a
sudden this track #5 comes on. A nice little synthesizer number called
"Rundgang um die transzendentale Saule der Singularitat" (translation:
"Hey") and suddenly you realize that you're bored out of your mind and the
goddamned three-note song that goes NOWHERE is TWENTY-FIVE FUCKING MINUTES
LONG. And then track 6 is like a repeat of one of the earlier tracks. And
you're all like FUCK!!! WHAT FUCKING FUCK IS FUCKING VRUCKARG VFUCKIRERNES
TRYING TO FUVCKAITNK FUCKRFEUR????? And then we all take a piss on the
floor and lick it up.
Funny how killing a guy and going to prison will
put a damper on your rock and roll career. Just ask Eddie Money! So's
Vargarie recorded this all-synth minimalist amateur classical-type album
while cooped up in the pen. Is this what my tax dollars are paying for?
Ensuring that convicted murderers can put out their least interesting works
yet? Granted it's an exciting Rambo moving picture compared to Glenn
Danzig's comparable Black Aria, but that's like comparing apples and
really shitty Danzig albums. The music is more sorrowful than scary, but
it's not even all that sorrowful. It's just like muzak for sad alternative
teens or somesuch. Pleasant enough in that sense though. But darn it,
every time he comes up with a really great keyboard line, he plays it 52
billion hundred times in a row until you never want to hear it again! Still
- not bad when you get down to it. Inoffensive, repetitive, melancholy
fare. So come on down and join us at the Inoffensive Repetitive Melancholy
Fair! Where the rides don't do anything and the animals all keep
diaries!
More prison synths but even dumber this time.
Evil sounds that aren't evil, circusy-tones that are fun but forgettable,
even more endless repetition of simple little melodies that a child could
have written -- occasionally enjoyable (especially the bizarre sound
experiment "Frijos goldene Tranen," which appears to feature both ring
modulation and acoustic guitar for a chilly feel not unlike early King
Crimson, which I'm sure is exactly what Varg was going for. What black
metallist isn't trying to imitate the king of Cold Morbid Satanism, Mr.
Robert Fripp?), but not something that would appeal to metalheads or
easy listening fans. So who's into this stuff anyway? Just sissies who
wish that they could someday be thought of as tough by somebody even
sissier? Like Donnie Wahlberg?
burzum always
Varg's a fascinating guy, that's fo sho. At heart, though, it seems like
he's just a D&D geek who started to take that shit a little too seriously.
Good for him that he burned those churches.I hope all
the churches in the world burn.Fuck the churches,fuck
the culture,fuck the society and most of all FUCK
YOU.Have a little one on one with Varg Vikernes see
what a good pirate he is.
HA HA ,Butt Pirate!!! That's classic,yeah I've heard of this loser,probably
getting butt-fucked as I speak. I'm surprised to see this loser band in your
reviews,what a goddamn bunch of rejects,you should review a real band like
B.O.C. and not waste your time on garbage like this.
Obviously you have read all the hyped up media and not the real story of why Euronymous was killed.It was in fact euronymous who was the prick,taking money from Varg without paying him back so Eurnymous could keep his record store open.To promote this,Varg did an interview and Eurnymous got a swarm of customers but because he is a knobend he closed it down.Vargs childhood love of his countrys mythology and tolkiens books got out into the open and being as he like to mess around with fake swords with his friends,the media classed this as satanic rituals when it was just a bunch of lads having a laugh.
Before I continue I would like to state that Varg Vikernes is a dickhead. Thank you. This is one of the blackest black metal releases ever. Yeah it's rudimentary, yeah it's a bit on the amateur level...but that ambience! Bathory achieved the same thing (only better) on their "The Return" album, but Burzum's debut comes pretty close. And those vocals! Yeah I can't understand any of 'em (except at one point where Vikernes says "This is....HARGH....War!") but the wierd, wailing effect he has overall is pretty unique. Note: I own an original Deathlike Silence records version of this CD, put out by the guy Vikernes killed. I am wicked sick underground and no you can't have my copy. N'yah N'yah.
The best Burzum album, by far. Some of these tunes are even impressive from
a compositional point of view, which is rare with Burzum.
Unbelievable. Every week, I check into Mark's page to see what crappy
punk/hardcore band he's added (as well as the occasional GOOD band like BOC
or Motorhead) -- and suddenly, out of the blue, he reviews Burzum. Fucking
BURZUM!!! Norwegian Black Metal God Of Hell!! Is this a sign of the
apocalypse? It must be!
Can't believe Varg actually made people shell out the big bucks for this. Guess maybe he thought he could use it to get the wardens to buy him a bigger recording studio. In case anyone checkin this out doesn't know, Varg broke out of jail last month and was captured after a high speed chase with Tommy Lee Jones and co. In the meantime, damn it Beavith, put that away. You're not supposed to have your seventy five inch penith out while you're reviewing Burzum.
oh yes it is a bootleg, and a shite one at that. as far as i can remember
it consists of a slew of demo tracks and a deluge of irrelevant others
downloaded from the old burzum.com website, hence the 128kbps "near CD"
sound quality. that's why it has a picture of varg on the cover, which he
hasn't done since 1992 on the original version of the debut. not to
mention his denouncing all guitar-based sound as "nigger music" being an
indication of his inclination to release this material. i'm gonna go dive
into a bathtub full of bagels.
Hvis lyset tar oss is one of the best black metal albums Iīve heard. Det som en gang var is considered by some people the best black metal song ever. The songs are not about being as scary and spooky as possible. Itīs all about the atmosphere and getting into a trance-like state. I live in Finland in the middle of forest and I feel familiar with this music. I can understand that some guy in U.S.A canīt get into this album. I quess itīs easier for scandinavians to fully understand this music. People in USA donīt really have very deep roots with ancient believes and all that (except the indians)
hvis lyset tar oss is the best black metal album i have ever heard.Varg=genious!
I completely agree with the guy above. Mark has approached this album from the wrong angle. In my opinion this is the record which proved black metal could be more than just a past time for teenagers; it is the first time the black metal music did actual justice to the black metal ideal.
Well what can I say, I've heard the first track of this album and ordered it
yesterday on vinyl. Who cares if its simplistic, its the atmosphere of utter
despair and catatonic trance-like state that it conjures that just makes it
and absolute must if you are seriously into (or even if you are just getting
into) black metal. And before anyone asks no I don't wear corpse paint and
all black, I don't live in a dark forest in the northern reaches of
Scandanavia in fact I live in England in a relatively viking mythology free
village.
I have to say your lack of knowledge shows through clearly in this review. For Christ's sake, all you have to do is read Varg's thoughts on the album to know he wasn't trying to scare you.
Im gonna have to agree with these other folx and say you missed the boat completely. This album is a masterpiece. The fact that you listened to it and still reviewed it from the perspective you did......that says you dont quite get BURZUM. Its night music. I understand not every note the guy ever did is so genius or anything like that,but this album....you gotta let it get into you. Listen to it while on your substance of choice at night.
Gramamma had a quilt with a lady horn blower very much like the album
cover.....gramamma smoked too much & sounded a lot like Varg those last
coupla months. Call me sentimental.
Hi You recommended that I listened to Burzum and so I did. Now I feel extremely dark and I dont like it. Thank you very much! And I was so dumb that I ordered an album of him some days ago. Filosofem if you must ask. How do you survive with yourself knowing you have an album of Burzum in your music collection?
absolute masterpiece..and death to everyone who tries to deny Varg's genious!!!!!!!
Well for starters "Vargs" actual name is Kristian (I know, odd to hear the name "Kristian" and the phrase BLACK METAL in the same sentence, huh?) Anyway, I can
understand how some people might not like this brand of BLACK METAL and his new synth stuff. I personaly like it a lot, but hey, that's just my opinion, I really just
wanted to let you know about his real name is all, later man, keep it Evil.
varg hurry up and get the fuck out of jail........................................
Well, if you're gonna insist on screaming at me over those boring metal
riffs, you'd goddamn well BETTER be a murderous church-burnin' Nazi fucker.
Hey, just on the subject of Burzum. -I had an interest once but got pissed off when Vikernes murdered one of the few talented individuals on the Norwegian scene (Euronymous of Mayhem)...
Hail!Most of you so-called Black Metal "fans" don't know shit.I respect Varg for his integrity and talent.So he murdered Euronymous,who gives a fuck!?Euronymous was a cowardly communist bitch anyway.If I were to have joined Varg on that fateful night I would have gladly fucked him up too.And after my brother Varg and I did that deed,I'm sure we would have scored some booze and chicks and partied and thought nothin' of it.Hail the Hordes
Burzum is one of the most talented projects ever created. Go and kill yourself, you fucking idiot. And by the way Varg never burnt any of the churches himself.
Shut the fuck up you assholes.You don't know what
Burzum is what this music means nobody gives you
idiots the right to make fun of people.You and your
entire family of assholes.
do you actually have any music understanding at all? your reviews of Burzum's instrumental albums unveil your ignorance.repition in music has a strict purpose . to the spastic black metal moron teenagers that have no musical knowledge repition is boring because kids dont have a large attention span they have to be constantly entertained.to a musicians and the like who indulge in this trancendental art form, repition is not going to take you on a musical journey it is to keep you trapped in a moment in time and allows you time to explore the realm therein.but for those unable to acheive this I bet your bored by it .INTELLEGENCE SCARES THE STUPID.
I don't know how old this site is, but I must say I've throughly enjoyed reading every word you've written pertaining to Varg... So many Burzum fans take themselves way too seriously, and this shit had me laughing from start to finish!!
Click here to PURCHASE some of this 'killer' music