Burzum
Burzum

I think by now everyone knows the events surrounding Varg "Greifi Grishnackh" Vikernes, so I won't dwell on his (sad) story. "Burzum" is the first album by the Norwegian artist, and along with DarkThrone's album "A Blaze In The Northern Sky" and Immortal's "Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism," it is one of the key releases of 1992, and an extremely influential album for Norwegian black metal.

Side A of the vinyl is titled "Side Hate" and opens with "Feeble Screams From The Forests Unknown". It is a powerful and fast composition, supported by a martial drum machine. The guitars outline very simple musical lines. And the voice...the voice is an inhuman shriek, very high-pitched. They are spectral and unrefined vocals that are frankly extreme. Until that moment, nothing more unsettling had been heard. Grishnackh compensates for the simplicity of the compositions with great creativity. Throughout the song, there are several changes in tempo, riff, and sparse melodic flashes. The central sections are undoubtedly slower and darker. The atmosphere is sick, hostile. The cold and minimal music contrasts with the complex structures then in vogue in death metal. The riffs and melodic passages are repetitive, without frills. In short, from the very beginning, Vikernes proves to be an artist dedicated to a relatively personal black metal.

"Ea, Lord Of The Depths" opens with a much more melodic riff than those heard in the previous track. The lyrics speak of a deity from the Mesopotamian pantheon. In the future, Vikernes would recommend considering Ea as an image of Odin, but the reasons he would later present were weak. In reality, it is a youthful text that has nothing to do with his future Odinist mania. Vikernes hates being accused of inconsistency and often defends himself with embarrassing excuses. The song is not very fast but is dynamic. There are no tempo changes as before: the rhythm is constant. The basic succession of the main riff and sung parts makes "Ea, Lord Of The Depths" decidedly captivating. There's even room for a short guitar solo. "Spell Of Destruction" is one of the darkest tracks on the whole album. Slow and meditative, it advances with a funeral cadence. There is not a real riff: guitar and bass create minimal harmonic successions that oppress the listener. The screams of Count Grishnackh are as tormented and inhuman as one can imagine. Particularly, the slowness of the track fills them with spite and hatred. For example, in the transition between the first part of "Spell Of Destruction" and the second, the screams become so exasperated that the impression is given that the one emitting them is really suffering on their flesh. "Channeling The Power Of Souls Into A New God" foreshadows the future ambient shift of the post-incarceration period. This track with an unpronounceable title is a meditative instrumental performed only with the synthesizer, distant from the wickedness of the three previous songs. It is one of Vikernes' first mystical visions, and it is an evocative intermezzo that fits perfectly in the place it was inserted. It concludes with a voice whispering the words "Worship Me".

Unlike Mayhem and DarkThrone, Burzum stands out for a more varied musical proposal; indeed, side B ("Side Winter") opens with "War", a thrashy composition reminiscent of early Bathory. By Vikernes' own admission, in fact, the song is a homage to Quorthon's band. With "War", Burzum settles the score with tradition and welcomes the unsettling war theme, seen as a release of one's bloodthirsty instinct. One of the first tributes to Viking mythology, or should we say Tolkienian, is the short instrumental for guitars "The Crying Orc". It is nothing more than a guitar interlude endowed with a melancholic melody that fades away gradually. Ideal nonetheless to render the vinyl more varied. This instrumental is followed by "A Lost Forgotten Sad Spirit". The track opens in a fairly gritty manner. The harmonic passages create effective epic and distressing atmospheres. The rhythm is fast and engaging. Suddenly the track slows down significantly, plunging the listener into the darkest of depressions. "My Journey To The Stars" is the masterpiece. Burzum's style is unmistakable, rich in epic breath and at the same time unequivocally black. The lyrics express concepts such as the search for oneself in the higher planes of consciousness, isolation from the world. The composition is rich in tempo and riff changes. Melodic sections are more frequent and perfectly arranged. The use of the drum machine only makes Burzum's music even more martial and distant.
In the future, Viking metal will take cues from tracks like this. The album concludes with an atmospheric track titled "Dungeons Of Darkness". It is an unsettling and claustrophobic crescendo that really gives the impression of being in a tunnel with no way out. Headed to hell.

Undoubtedly "Burzum" is an excellent debut, and one of the best in black metal. The only flaw that prevents the record from being a true masterpiece are some lyrics, especially that of "War", rather immature and trite. With this debut, Varg Vikernes planted the first seed of atmospheric black metal, standing in stark contrast to the classic black "invented" by DarkThrone, made of linear structures, buzzing guitars and hyper drum beats, and creating the first avant-garde trend within the Black Flame.