Borknagar
Epic

THE REVIEW

I return after a few days to talk again about Borknagar. It's not an obsession of mine, or maybe it is; the fact is that these days I can't listen to anything else when I can, and therefore I feel it's my duty to share my impressions of a band that, in my opinion, deserves a lot of recognition, certainly for their content and extraordinary artistic talent.

Let's dispel any doubts: this "Epic" that I am reviewing (unworthily, I would say) is perhaps, for me, the best of the best of their already prestigious and multifaceted discography.

It is necessary to make distinctions regarding Borknagar: starting from a sound firmly rooted in symphonic Black Metal, with an eponymous album at the origins, they, thanks to the undeniable capabilities and intelligence of the guitarist Øystein G. Brun, in particular, revolutionized the concept of musical extremism, linking it indissolubly to what was then a branch of Black, namely Viking, derived from various influences, including those of Bathory.
The concept underlying Borknagar's artistic formula was simple but not easily foreseeable: the detachment of Viking properly said, establishing itself as a standalone genre, without giving up the necessary extreme origins that were still part of the band's songwriting.

Slowly but surely, thanks also to contributions from magnificent singers like Garm and I.C.S. Vortex, Borknagar gained a loyal and "elite" fan base in extreme domains, almost always resorting to stunning and astonishing blends of different genres. Black came first, then Viking was added, and it didn't stop there, as a faint but undeniable Progressive vein recalling the seventies was added, and finally, last but not least, an avant-garde music style emerged where one always risked breaking their neck searching for pleasing and fitting definitions, became distinctly clear.

And it's precisely this last period that still endures today, thanks also to the valuable contribution of an artist like Vintersorg, permanently in the band, and who has released "no less than" three albums with them: the much-celebrated "Empiricism," this "Epic" I'm writing about, and the last, totally acoustic "Origin."
Thanks to Vintersorg, Borknagar has acquired an eclectic and different taste, "universal" one might say, in music.
Here, the fierce "to the bayonet" parts filled with malevolent screams are certainly present, but they often give way to airy Progressive moments, highlighting Hammond organs, pianos, and keyboards (commendable work of a certain Lars A. Nedland, known as "Lazare," a member, for the few who didn’t know, of the equally indecipherable "Solefald"), all always and anyway seasoned with that overflowing and cyclopean aura of unmistakable and original epicness that the band itself inaugurated in unsuspecting times.

So, with this "Epic" and previously with the extraordinary "Empiricism," the band takes an indefinable but polished and fascinating direction that, for those who love "thoughtful" and never boring archetypes, certainly makes one think of the instrumental similarities Borknagar shares with another extreme Scandinavian pillar: Opeth.
Rest assured, I don't intend to blaspheme, nor would I ever want to be pointed out how different and varied, incomparable, the "distinguishing features" found in one band and the other are, but certainly, beyond all discussions about the entirely different "original" genres of the two components, it is undeniable that the same "pathos," the same sentiment, the same decadent and intricate atmosphere unites them, and all, naturally, without speaking of plagiarism or "mutual" directions, quite the opposite.

Borknagar are and will remain (at least so it is believed) an extreme band dedicated to a Black Metal, albeit denatured and structured differently compared to most bands of the same genre, and Opeth can certainly still be referred back to a deep, caustic, and dark Death Metal; the points of contact, however, exist and it would be hypocritical not to highlight them, precisely because these embellish and make "unique" the sound of one and the other.
Specifically, regarding Borknagar, I believe with good reason that episodes like "Origin" (the song, not the album), "Sealed Chambers of Electricity," the beautiful instrumental "The Weight of Wind," would not have been such without the serpentine "seventies" feeling in the background, a surplus of an artistic composition to be listened to calmly to assimilate its complex and sensitive structure little by little, without necessarily having to pay ten thousand attentions to the same song to convince oneself of its goodness.

None of that. If you are looking for "feeling" and subjectivism, you will find them in abundance here, and no singer like Vintersorg will know how to reveal it to you, with his always particular voice: atrocious in the scream passages and aching, almost broken, in the clear parts, managing thanks to his abilities to continuously interweave one with the other supported by forceful passages between keyboard works performed with mastery and excellent skills, varied and imaginative guitars that never indulge, as the minimal tradition of Black Metal would suggest, in indefinable and muddled orgies of sound. No! You won't be able to expect this from Borknagar, because it would be too simple, too predictable, and too foreseeable for a band that, no one can deny, has always elaborated its own canons and standards in a manner always ten thousand kilometers above every other extreme component.

The examples of all that’s been said so far, with regard to "Epic," are inherent in all the tracks, many of which, such as "Resonance," "Cyclus," and "Future Reminiscence," are authentic stabs of cruelty and nihilism on notes, while others, like "Quintessence," "The Inner Ocean Hypothesis," and "The Wonder," instead, highlight the more seminal, intimate, almost "shamanic" approach to Borknagar's music and, if you really want advice from someone who generally frowns when giving it, get the album, it's certainly worth it. Of course, for those who naturally love certain refinements, certain paroxysms, certain paradigms and would always want to make them their own.