Burzum, Hvis Lyset Tar Oss (Misanthropy-1994)
Recorded in September of 1992 this album along with three others were recorded in just over a year. Each for me are well worth buying and highlighting “Filosofem” from 1996 as it really is two completely different sounding albums.
This album is a concept album and in English is called If the Light Takes Us. Much of the Black Metal world was all about volume and speed where this music rewound all that back. This is far more of an ambient album. But the influence is there.
"Det som en gang var" ("What Once Was") starts the album with a guitar sound that has been made to sound very empty owning to the concept of the album. He messes about with synthesizers and guitars multi tracking to make a sound I really do not think could be done live. Well up to a point where a full band sound kicks in and all the rock fans out there will recognize some classic elements of riffs and rhythm. All still played while there is a droning in the background. About now you are shocked that it is all done by one person, every instrument, mixing and production was all done by one person. I think this is the key here as most people would most likely get someone else to play drums due to not being good enough but on this album it really does work very well. The production is not crystal clear but that is the whole point as well.
What is new here is the mix of ambient and metal in the same songs and at the same time. None of this one minute intro of building music up to a big guitar blitz. This is all here at once. Fourteen and a half minutes fly by.
"Hvis lyset tar oss" ("If the Light Takes Us") brings us back to a style most would see as BM but again there is that droning guitar sound. Same goes for track three "Inn i slottet fra droemmen" ("Into the Castle from the Dream") this has more of a repetitive nature to it. Not that far away from a drum and bass sound. The screams and growls keep you where you want to be though. Saying that the vocal work on this album is really kept to a minimum and I think that is helpful to many new ears on the style of music. Track three has most of the vocals on the whole album. And to those like me who can’t speak Norwegian you will not know what he is singing. There are plenty of pages on the web with translation and the lyrics are really nothing amazing. First verse of track three is “Between misty vales, Between gloomy mountains, Under gray clouds, In the black night”
Lyrics are never this style of music’s strong point. Well it is one of those reasons it exists. Can’t sing well it is not needed. Same as in track four "Tomhet" ("Emptiness") why bother writing bass, guitar and drum parts when you can use a synthesizers to make the epic feeling of nothing. I have read some say this track is a filler track and for me they are wrong it is my stand out track. I once went to Norway and got the train from Oslo to Bergen and got off at a stop in-between and went for a walk in the mountains of Finse. With 2hr wait between the trains I had a good listen to this music and it really does sound right. There is more to the track as it builds up and it really catches you unaware. I won’t ruin it but is for me a fantastic track. Other times I listen to it is on long flights more so at the start of the flight just to settle me down a bit. It has that effect on you.
This blog is about albums that missed the big time. This could never have made it big but looking at the last few years of Black Metal and bands headlining 60,000+ festivals and making big money then yeah the payoff never happened. Can’t do this live and I would never want to see it live. But what a great album.
If you like this check out “Filosofem” as well.
Twitter: 29xthefun
My trip to Norway in 2012 on Flickr
