Hey kids! Black Metal! And all that comes with it! So, bring out all your ‘Satan’s, in your best Ghaal, all your church burning, your corpsepaint, your ‘Fuck them! You know what I mean?’s, and let’s go for a wild, wild ride with this Burzum twofer.
And I’d really, really like to give you a detailed account of the life and times of one man band Varg Vikernes (a.k.a Count Grishnackh, but to be fair, I think I’d be better off trying to explain almost fifty years of convoluted X-Men continuity, alternate realities and all.
Long story short? Crazy boy Vikernes hooks up with equally demented Satanists, joins band, forms band of his own, burns churches and probably tortured cats too, has a falling-out with former band, kills former band mate Euronymous, goes to prison for a long time like all psychos should, and while in prison, the Norwegian tax-payer’s money was partially spent (however marginally) on the recording of these works of art.
So there you go, and that’s all you need to know. Sort of. Well, let’s get on with it, let’s review these two landmarks of Black Met…. Er. What? What do you mean ‘these are not Black Metal records’? By god, man! You mean to infer that this paragon of darkness somehow produced anything else other than one of those legendary antichristian manifestos of his? I say thee : nay!
I can only imagine what dumbstruck, diehard, hardcore Burzum fans must have felt like when they first listened to these records… quite possibly many retched in disgust, while others shook their heads sadly, proclaiming Black Metal to be Dead. With a capital ‘D’ and all, so it becomes all the more ironic. (Wiki Mayhem and Dead if you want to know what I’m talking about.)
So it stands that while imprisoned, Mr. Vikernes here wasn’t allowed any other instrument other than synthesizers, and as such, he felt upon himself to release these two pieces of art to the sensitive ears of mankind the world over.
I’m pretty sure that by now you must have noticed the sarcasm in what I write. These two albums – while far from really bad, considering the pick of the crop from Black Metal – are actually as far from Black Metal as anything can be, at least in terms of sound. What we’ve actually got here are two attempts at creating something maybe in the vein of Dark Ambient music, with some splashes of medieval folk and classical music. And, you know, all things considered… it could have been much worse. The first album, ‘Dauði Baldrs’, made me laugh out loud at how childish everything was, from execution to outcome. I’m sure the guy’s intents were good in the first place, but the roughly forty minutes that make up this record are unbelievably juvenile in the listening. Of course, I knew, going in, that this man here normally comes up with a basic and catchy hook for his songs, almost like a pop song, and then repeats said hook for however long he wants. In the record ‘ Filsofem’, there’s a song that’s about 25 minutes long called ‘Rundgang Um Die Transzendentale Säule Der Singularität’ that’s exactly that…. And so it remains, but at least now (or ten years ago, really) he didn’t go for much longer than seven or eight minutes at a time.
And yeah, I know that what with him being in prison, and having to record everything (presumably) in midi format, severely limited his ideas, but this work dedicated to the death of Norse god Balder is so poorly conceived and executed, it hurts. I don’t mind the repetitiveness of the songs, it’s only that for most of the time it sounds as if the guy actually had no idea what he was doing.
But give him a couple of years practice, and by 1999’s ‘Hliðskjálf’ things were a bit different. It saw a more – dare I say it? – mature (musically speaking) Vikernes, who, this time round seemed to know just what he could do with the tools at his disposal. Not only was me more mature, he was also more ambitious. He even attempts some orchestrations and arrangements. Of the two records, this is by far the better one.
It’s a fine attempt at something grander than the previous effort, but that still falls short of actually being what could be considered a good record. No-one in their right minds could ever consider this guy a musical genius, (after all, he is batshit crazy, though in some respects also a guy that must be really interesting in a VERY disturbing kind of way), but if anything, he is wildly successful at creating droning, sleep-inducing music. All in all,these are interesting – if ultimately rather pointless and not really on the rewarding side - listens, so if you ever find yourself with forty spare minutes, and you’ve got nothing better to do or to listen to, check these out. Or, alternatively, don’t. I hear silence can be rather good, too…
‘Dauði Baldrs’ (1997)
1 - Dauði Baldrs (1997)
2 - Hermoðr á helferð
3 - Bálferð Baldrs
4 - Í heimr heljar
5 - Illa tiðandi
6 - Móti ragnarokum
'Hliðskjálf' (1999)
1 - Tuistos Herz
2 - Der Tod Wuotans
3 - Ansuzgardaraiwô
4 - Die Liebe Nerþus
5 - Frijôs einsames Trauern
6 - Einfühlungsvermögen
7 - Frijôs goldene Tränen
8 - Der weinende Hadnur
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