Burzum – Fallen (Byelobog/Candlelight, 2011)

I find it odd that several prominent (I use the term loosely) metal websites decided to ban coverage of Burzum in response to a recent online rant by Varg Vikernes regarding the shootings and bombing carried out by Norwegian extremist Anders Breivik.  Isn’t this ban coming about seventeen years too late?  A self-righteous denouncement of Vikernes this point in the game is basically the same as saying “Murder and arson are okay, but hey, we draw the line at hateful remarks!”  Of course, I realize that these sites weren’t around back when Vikernes was actually committing crimes, but if they truly found him to be so deplorable, shouldn’t they have banned coverage from the outset based on his actions and not some ineffectual hate-mongering that no one would have paid attention to in the first place had they not drawn attention to it with their sanctimonious grandstanding?

But I digress.  I do not wallow in the cesspool of imagined ethical superiority, and therefore have no problem discussing Varg Vikernes’ music.  Contrary to what the metal morality police attempt to shove down our throats, it is entirely possible to separate Burzum from its creator’s dodgy politics/beliefs.  With that out of the way, it pleases me to say that Varg Vikernes the musician has solidified his “comeback” and proven once and for all that his trailblazing brand of black metal is indeed timeless with Fallen, his second album since being released from prison in 2009.

But what is it that makes Burzum timeless?  For me, it’s Vikernes’ guitar playing.  His note choices and sense of composition have a hypnotic effect, the very definition of the infamous black metal “trance-out”, a web of spindly, treble-soaked riffage that’s all too easy to get hopelessly lost in.  Whenever I listen to Fallen I think of enormous trees, with gnarled, twisted, tangled roots burrowing deep into the soil; it probably has something to do with the earthy, slightly raw guitar tone Vikernes employs here.  It gives the album a naturalistic quality that makes the compositions feel as much like folk music as black metal, but without ever degenerating into the silliness that “folk metal” typically implies (perhaps more akin to neofolk?).  Of course, black metal at its core has always been a form of folk music, and there are few better suited to uphold that tradition than an outlaw/pariah such as Vikernes, who also happens to be one of the genre’s architects (okay, so maybe you can’t separate the man from the music 100%, oh well).

Speaking of tradition, Fallen was recorded at Grieghallen with production and mixing assistance from Pytten.  This studio/producer combination has been responsible for nearly every landmark album in the Norwegian black metal canon (De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, In the Nightside Eclipse, etc) and although only time will tell if Fallen will ever reach the same level of acclaim as those classic recordings, the album does manage to capture a similar vibe without sounding forced or self-consciously retro.  This is how black metal is supposed to sound; uninhibited, mesmerizing and totally free from the trappings of modernity.

In addition to showcasing Vikernes’s six-string mastery and benefitting from a strong production scheme, Fallen also represents Burzum at its most compelling from a compositional perspective.  If anything, the album comes off as a refinement of the ideas that Vikernes began to explore on Filosofem; the spellbinding repetition, hazy, quasi-psychedelic atmospheres and unique vocal approach have been honed to a fine point.  Whereas Filosofem sounded like a collection of experiments (albeit very successful and interesting ones), Fallen sounds like a collection of songs.  In this respect, Fallen brings the more experimental qualities of Filosofem together with the sharp yet expansive songwriting style Vikernes brought to the fore on Hvis Lyset Tar Oss.  Indeed, the more I listen to Fallen, the more I tend to view 2010’s Belus as a “warm-up” album.

Regardless of what you think of Varg Vikernes the person, it is difficult to deny the significance of Varg Vikernes the musician, especially when he continues to craft such intriguing, vital and relevant work.  Fallen just might be the most fully realized Burzum album to date, an elegy for what once was, and a glimmer of hope for the future of the black metal tradition.

http://www.burzum.org

I Dream of Burzum.

A few months back, just before Belus was released, I dreamt of helping Varg Vikernes escape from prison.

Of course the really odd thing about this is that Vikernes was already out at the time I had this dream. I suppose it was brought on by all the research and re-reading of old articles I was doing in preparation for my review of Belus. Anyway, the dream went a little something like this…

It was nighttime, middle of winter (of course). The Norwegian prison didn’t even look like a prison, more like a huge, gothic mansion. I was dressed in black commando gear, like Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2. I walked right in past the armed guards, and there was Vikernes standing there as if he had been expecting me. If anything, it appeared as though he lived a pretty normal life in the mansion and was just under house arrest, rather than being in a real prison. Even though I had blown right past the guards to get in, we still had to sneak out the back way.

We got into an old, beat up Volkswagen Beetle (presumably I had driven this to the prison) and sped away.

Of course it wasn’t long before the police were on our trail.  This is where things get really weird.  The police wore uniforms and drove in cars that were clearly US Highway Patrol.  I’m guessing this is because my subconscious has absolutely no frame of reference for what a Norwegian policeman looks like.  Anyway, we somehow managed to evade them in spite of the poorly chosen escape vehicle and pulled into the safety of a large tunnel.

We got out of the car and made a campfire in the tunnel.  This is also strange because I don’t know the first thing about camping, making fires, or the outdoors in general.  We sat around it in silence, watching it slowly burn down to nothing more than embers.  Varg abruptly got up and told me that he had to go the rest of the way alone.  I went over to the car, pulled out a black duffle bag and handed it to him.  I bid him good luck and he began to walk into the darkness of the tunnel.

And that’s when I woke up.  The dream was obviously quite vivid, although I don’t remember much, if any conversation between the two of us.  In retrospect it seems like most of the dream played out like a silent film.

I’ve been listening to Burzum for a long time, not to mention reading about Varg’s exploits.  Is he really so deeply ingrained in my psyche that he’s showing up in my dreams?  What does the fact that I had no problem assisting a convicted murderer and arsonist escape from prison say about me as a person?

I’ve always thought of dreams as just your subconsciousness’ way of randomly re-playing skewed versions of whatever happens to be floating around up there at the time.  I don’t really put much stock in the idea that they mean anything, but I would love to read some interpretations of this one.  Does anyone else out there ever have “metal dreams” and care to share them?

Burzum in Decibel and Terrorizer

Burzum mastermind Varg Vikernes graces the cover of this month’s issue of Decibel magazine, as well as last month’s edition of Terrorizer, which is just now available on US shores.  (It’s a shame Terrorizer can’t get a printer in the US so we wouldn’t have to wait, not to mention pay an arm and a leg for each issue) Both articles are well done, although I find the Terrorizer piece to be a bit more insightful.  Regardless, both are well worth reading and I’m pleasantly surprised that an American metal magazine had the stones to put Varg on the cover.

Also, be sure to pick up the excellent new Burzum lp Belus while you’re at it, if you haven’t done so already.

http://decibelmagazine.com

http://www.terrorizer.com

New Burzum album imminent.

I have to admit I’m pretty damn excited about hearing some new music from Varg Vikernes now that he’s finally out of the slammer.  And unlike most “metal journalists” out there, you won’t hear any of the usual FUNderground whining of “boo hoo, he’s a terrible human being but golly gee, he sure did write some swell music… waaaaah,” from me.  No one really cares whether or not you agree with Vikernes’ actions or political beliefs, especially well over a decade after the murder of Euronymous and the church arsons in Norway.  I sure as hell don’t.  What I do care about is hearing some more Burzum, and whether or not the new album will live up to the legacy of the classic pre-incarceration material.

New Burzum ritual Den Hvite Guden to be released in 2010.

Burzum mastermind Varg Vikernes has announced plans to release the first album of new Burzum material since 1999’s Hlidskjalf.  This will be a return to Vikernes’ metal roots (the last few Burzum albums were electronic/ambient due to Vikernes’ incarceration for murder) titled Den Hvite Guden (The White God) and will be based on the norse god Baldr.  No word on what label (if any) will be releasing the album.