Burzum
Hliðskjálf

[So: the author of the album reviewed here has expressed and continues to express political positions and has committed (and incites others to commit) actions that DeBaser finds repugnant. Ultimately, however, we are talking about music: so we publish the review nonetheless.
We also clearly state that we have nothing to do with the author of the same and that the nickname chosen by them, with explicit reference to a character responsible for unspeakable crimes against humanity, embarrasses us (but mostly disgusts us). /DeBaser]

Hlidskjalf is Odin's high throne, from which the God observes everything and towers over the worlds. It is the untouched heart of every manifestation, the abode of the absolute spirit, the Eye of the cyclone. The inner point where peace reigns while outside the elements rage. Hlidskjalf consists of eight icy gusts of cold nihilism, decidedly evocative and typically Nordic. Eight magical nights whose most solemn actors come from the depths of strange Ages. Hlidskjalf is also the conclusion of a brilliant career that lasted almost a decade, now arrived at total cultural awareness and aesthetic purity. It is also the title of the second ambient work of the Burzum project, a monument of austerity and pure Nordic romanticism, which follows one year after the release of Daudi Baldrs.

The album opens with the evocative "Tuistos Herz" (The Heart of Tuisto), which tells of a Viking who decides to carve the figure of Mannus, son of Tuisto, the oldest of the ancient Gods, onto a rock. He is the God of the sky who begat Mannus and Bestla. He is "the double," for his two palms represent the Sun and the Moon. Here the music is minimal and contemplative, almost resembling a primitive prayer that comes and goes.
In "Der Tod Wuotans" (The Death of Odin) the moment when Odin dies on the plain of Wigridr is evoked. Here the music almost suggests that eternity is nothing but the perpetual renewal of the cycles of life. The present world, in which the unsolvable conflict of opposites is suspended in a difficult balance, must come to an end when the measure of time granted to it is fulfilled: then the opposing powers will face each other in a definitive struggle that can only end in mutual annihilation. Only from the reconstituted duality will a new separation arise, and with it, a new cycle. The day this final battle takes place, which the Norns had prophesied to Odin and was announced by the death of Balder, is Ragnarok, the "Twilight of the Gods." The five hundred and forty doors of Valhalla will open and all the heroes will join the Gods in the fight. Odin will ride first: on the field he will wear the golden helmet, wielding the spear Gungnir. He will advance against the wolf Fenrir and fight him, but the wolf will swallow him, and thus will be his death. The music is dreamy and melancholic, accompanied by the sound of war drums that lead us towards one of the most beautiful melodies ever composed by the Count. War, in this light, is the vitality of a people. It is their pride. Not a pointless slaughter, not the madness of generals without ethics, but the essential state, in which man fights alone against the telluric forces of chaos and matter.
"Ansuzgardaraiwô" deals with the "Wild Hunt," also called "Asgardsrei." The myth tells us that on some fateful nights of the year the door separating the universes of men and those of the ethereal people of the pagan overworld opens for a few terrifying hours, in which space and time dissolve. And there are druids and druidesses, bards and skalds, bearers of spectral torches that do not burn, and a procession of pagan gods, whose song sounds frightening to the ears of Christians, who flee to their homes to protect themselves from the ride of the dead. Here the melody is minimal, repetitive, transcendental... it almost seems to perceive the vibration of silences that envelop the dark recesses of a forest.
"Die Liebe Nerþus'" (The Beloved Nerþus') is a short track characterized by a medieval-sounding melody, almost an ancient dance that seems to evoke images of ladies and knights, standard-bearers and musicians, jousts and sword duels in the mind. It describes a procession of happy men and women crossing a forest enlivened by colors and their dances and heading towards the sacred lake. In front of the lake, there is a priest who strangles people who approach. Their dead bodies are then thrown into the lake as a sacrifice to the Mother Goddess. They offer their lives, as a gift to Nature, the divine Mother of all things, the Mother of Gods and mortal men.
"Frijôs einsames Trauern" (The Lonely Grief of Frijô) is a pleasant composition whose sounds seem to recreate the tears of Frigga for the death of her son Balder. Balder was a strong and good young man and was loved by all for this. Frigga also had another son, Loki, who was very jealous and envious of the love the people had for his brother, and for this reason he wanted him dead. One night Balder dreamed that he would be killed. When Frigga learned of her son's death dream, she was very frightened and to avoid it becoming true, she went to the Air, Fire, Water, Earth, and all the animals and plants, asking for the promise that nothing bad would happen to her son. But Loki knew there was a plant to which Frigga had forgotten to turn. This plant lived neither on the earth nor below the earth, but on an oak tree. It was mistletoe. So Loki made a mistletoe arrow that struck Balder and he died. The sky darkened and all things on earth and in the sky wept for the death of the God. For three days all the elements tried to bring Balder back to life, but in vain.
"Einfühlungsvermögen" (The Power of Empathy) refers to the moments following the chaining of Fenrir, a monstrous wolf, son of Loki and Angerbode. The legend tells that Fenrir lived among the Aesir, but was inaccessible until the God Tyr, losing a hand, managed to chain him to a mountain with the very strong rope Gleipnir, woven specifically by the Dwarves artificers underground, using a woman's beard, mountain roots, bear tendons, fish breath, and bird spit. Since then the wolf remained there, imprisoned and howling, with foam at the mouth, and will remain imprisoned until, tearing the ropes, he devours the sun and Odin himself on the day of Ragnarok. Then he will also die, pierced by the sword of Vidhar, son of Odin.
"Frijôs goldene Tränen" (The Golden Tears of Frijô) is linked to the touching episode related to the same goddess Frigga, who alone, at night, weeps for her husband's absence and for the end of the Golden Age. Thoughts of what once was cross her mind. Memories of a happy and distant past trouble her heart. A sense of solitude permeates the entire composition. "Der Weinende Hadnur" (The Weeping Hadnur) is a very brief minimal composition that closes, dealing with Hadnur, the blind God who, due to Loki's deception, killed his brother Balder. Aware of what happened, sorrowful although not guilty, he returns to his home consumed by remorse and aware of the impending death. He will indeed be killed by Vali, the youngest of Odin's sons. The production of the album is pure, almost crystalline, and it is hard to believe it was really recorded in a prison. Only the keyboards - with some rare hints of percussion - dominate. The Count's music, defined by some as ultra-minimalistic for its simplicity, is made up of sounds close to classical music, forming the backdrop to the narrative of the epic deeds that are the true focus of this work. The cover (authored by Tanya Stene) shows us an altar hidden in a birch forest. The Birch is the sacred tree par excellence, it is the cosmic plant, "the guardian of the gate," the key that opens the way to the sky for the neophyte. It speaks to us through the voices of the leaves in the wind.

The booklet contains the lyrics that accompany the compositions and eight illustrations by the artist Stephen O'Malley.

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