The man, the myth, the mouth, the monster, the murderer is back. Many a tale has been told of the exploits of Varg Kristian Vikernes and most are true, if not exaggerated. Even if you have lived under a rock and only have a fleeting interest in metal, the chances are you will have heard something of his nefarious exploits, the burning of churches, the neo-nazi affiliations and his diatribes and the stabbing to death of former friend and band member Euronymous. It is all well documented and needs little more than a mention here. His musical career was quite unsurprisingly compromised although not completely stopped by inevitable incarceration and following on from some of the undisputed greatest albums from the first wave Norwegian black metal we ended up with a couple of more ambient efforts interspersed with folklorist musings and ideologies from the warped and eccentric mind behind them. It must be said that for us here in the UK and certainly those in America a certain amount of bewildered bafflement was felt not so much as by the albums themselves but by the seemingly soft touch of Norwegian prisons that allowed him to compose them, as well as escape on day release and get married amongst other things too!
Well I for one can only have very contradicting views on Burzum. I love the actual music, even the charm of the prison albums and there is no denying the legacy of the likes of ‘Det Som Engang Var’ ‘Hvis Lyset Tar Oss’ & ‘Filosofem,’ three of the very best black metal albums ever written. On the other side, the rhetoric, propaganda and bullshit racist ideas from the mind behind them is deplorable and despicable to my rational thinking mind. Obviously I and many others would have liked to see new album ‘Belus’ the name of the album originally to be entitled ‘The White God’ to fail. Indeed many of the bigger magazines felt the need to even justify including features with Varg due to his outspoken philosophies but then again how could they not; we do live in a society that believes in the freedom of speech after all.
Even on first spin it was quickly evident that ‘Belus’ was going to be far from a failure. That is after we got ‘Leukes Renkespill (Introduksjon),’ which sounds like a hollow metal sphere being dropped on concrete out the way. The second that trembling riff flows out of ‘Belus' Død’ you are well aware that the man behind a thousand imitators is back and reclaiming his throne. Interviews state that he has no interest and no real knowledge of what has been going on musically within ‘black metal’, if even such a term itself is relevant today. The only band I have seen him mention as being relevant to him are Darkthrone, whose new album is also featured on this update. Whilst they have obviously progressed (or should that be regressed) from the days Vikernes was locked up, this sounds like it is a simple continuation from the works of ‘Filosofem.’ All that has really changed is perhaps production values but here they are thick, bass heavy and booming rather than weak, weedy and treble heavy. The Grigenhallen recording gives the album a feel of brooding malevolence. As for the vocals, well they are still gargling and gravid and at times we get some clean crooning and soft spoken word orations on the album. The obvious sticking point of contention is that they are all obviously in Norwegian and although printed in the album booklet I feel the need to know what I am listening to and is it more propagandist wittering that I would feel sickened by if I truly knew its meaning? The ever incessant and mesmerising guitar tones are prevalent throughout the album, they may well chill somewhat as they do on the mellower sounding ‘Glemselens Elv’ but they are always there and have the true voice of the album.
The hypnotic flow of the music is all encompassing and the songs are expertly crafted here, they completely involve the listener into their grasp and take them off into their evocative folds. At 50 minutes everything here is pretty much wrung out to perfection, there is, after that strange intro which obviously has some sort of significance, not an ounce of filler. After the longest track on the album you are snapped back into the more urgent angry rasping tones of ‘Kaimadalthas' Nedstigning.’ The bass is thick and heavy but the track keeps dropping out into what I can only describe as what sounds like an announcement spoken out of a radio before the panic-laden instrumental assault and rasps plough back in. It’s all quite odd as are the soft spoken croons that crop up here. Still it’s incredibly frustrating as I really need a translation! To be fair it is only my ignorance that gets in the way as Burzum’s official website does have them translated into German, French and Italian, just not English. That particular number thrown into an online translation seems to be inoffensively about wizards, elves, magicians, sorcerers and swords so we could well be on safe if not geeky gaming nerd ground. Similarly it seems the struggle of seasons is addressed in ‘Keliohesten’ and this is a fierce number as strong and pounding as the harshest winter and one that is a real fist pummelling number and (yeah I have to joke and say this) would be particularly good live.
Putting all lyrics aside it is the closing instrumental assault ‘Belus' Tilbakekomst (Konklusjon)’ which is probably my favourite on the album. It is best played very loud and it really hammers in the ever repeating looped out riffing which had only just numbed us from previous number ‘Morgenrøde.’ The trick here however is to build the rampant melody up into huge peaks and cut the channels and instruments to a minimalist structure and then repeat again, it’s pretty damn breathtaking stuff as I feel somewhat guilty saying is the album as a whole.
Whatever you think of the man behind ‘Belus’ there is no denying the power of his actual music, this is probably going to sell by the proverbial cartload and be bought by fans, curiosity blackpackers and many who would not even normally look twice at such things if it were not for the name behind it. If ‘Belus’ were released 15 years ago, which at times it sounds like it could well have been (and in truth many of these songs were formulated back then) it could well be declared a masterpiece. In another 15 years or so it may just well be so too!
http://www.burzum.org
