Borknagar
Empiricism

THE REVIEW

A dark album. A (wonderfully) avant-garde album. An album that combines black metal with symphonic, progressive elements and traditional music - so much so that someone has spoken of "folk/black metal". Labels are as transient as ever: we can compare this CD to Arcturus' masterpiece, "La Masquerade Infernale". There, as in "Empiricism", we can talk about a black metal foundation, which, while consolidating the typical violence of the genre, adds ambient parts, chiaroscuro choirs, and some truly respectable riffing. Without losing imagination, without losing incisiveness.

One might say "it's already been done many times", and simplistically might think of Dimmu Borgir (as expected), but the comparison is reductive: there's something better here. This album does not suffer from the problem of many albums by the aforementioned band, which is, a "symphonism" (at times) so extreme that it becomes an end in itself (thus, losing impact: but this is a personal impression). The parts are always perfectly balanced, in a mix of chiaroscuros worthy of a true work of art. There's the artistic flair of Lars A. Nedland, who wonderfully handles synthesizers, organs, and piano. There's the sublime technique of Tyr, a former live musician of Emperor. There's (not least, and not only) the very distinctive singing of Vintersorg, which closely resembles that (for example) of the great Ulver. The overall style of the band, by the way, was "dictated" by former members of Arcturus, Immortal, Ulver, and many others.

It's a pleasure to listen to such an album, so meticulous in its details, simply perfect, full of both raging and dreamy parts at the same time. We can hear every instrument perfectly, each musician has their space, without overdoing it or overlapping with others. The "clean" choirs are surprising, reminiscent of legendary albums like "Anthems to welkin at dusk" by Emperor: here, they succeeded in capturing that idea, extending it, and inventing something new on it. All this while reconciling the dark side with the contemplative one, the growling with the clean, without exceeding in violence, without abusing virtuosity, and never tiring our (poor) ears...