A diamond in the rough.... from my vinyl vault: Burzum

Burzum's 1st album

I was lucky enough to scoop up a good deal on this particular record at Skinnies Records in Norfolk. There were also some really nice re-releases of Mayhem, Darkthrone, and Burzum there as well that hopefully I'll get around to picking up eventually. It wasn't an easy process of elimination that day between those choices-- as each of these groups helped start an entirely new style of heavy metal, but I figured why not start off with this intriguing classic as a very first for the Black Metal section of my collection.  Rather than be redundant of other blog and/or site that has spoken of Varg Vikernes controversial past and points of view (none of which are what interests me in him), I have chosen this record because of its importance to the history of heavy metal. Its significant for its rather large role in supporting the creation of the black metal sub-genre, and especially for the concept of the one-man black-metal band.

To outsider ears of heavy metal-- some will struggle to hear the difference between death metal and black metal. Especially since in the time since the original scenes have moved on, newer bands have embraced both styles and infused them. At the time though, these original groups made every effort to musically state that they were separate and a new breed if you will. This album encompasses practically all of the characteristics of black metal: unlike death metal, where the guitarist often did just power chords or even just drop-tuned and played the top three strings to create the deep chugging-riff style typical of that style-- black metal guitarists were often using full bar chords (particularly as minor chords) with tons of distortion. The vocal styles are both screaming yes, but rather then simply write it off, its notably a different technique: death metal was distinct in its low-guttural approach (such as the Swedish death metal band Entombed for example) whereas black metal vocals tended to be not necessarily high-pitched, but not concentrated on achieving a low growl, more of just the most fierce scream of terror the frontman could deliver. The drumming certainly had the most similarities: lots of double bass and often blast-beats as well.

Inside of album gatefold.

Rather than give you a track-by-track detail (as there are more than enough of those reviews on Metal-archives of all sorts of opinion)-- I'd rather sum up the sides of the record and also make note of its overall atmosphere. It's important to realize that black metal is about atmosphere. Both the first self-titled album, and the included Aske mini-LP included are loaded with tremolo-picked blistering icy distorted guitar, pummeling drums, blood curdling eerie vocals. Surprisingly, there are strange creepy ambient noise moments, a bit of calm before the storm. The entire record is a unique blend of heavy metal, that is both haunting and eerie. There is a unique air to this style and sound, it possesses a strangely addictive quality-- it technically should be considered one of the worst things you've ever heard, since it breaks a lot of rules musically and also for recording production. Yet the fun in this musically speaking is much like Halloween-- it's an entertaining form of heavy metal to be sorta scared of at the same time. This might sound strange at first, but historically speaking this is not dissimilar to anything before with say Screaming Jay Hawkins popping up out of a coffin during his songs, or Alice Cooper "executing" himself on stage-- its now just taken on its own form within the realm of heavy metal.

Some other quite interesting and rare things compared to even other black metal acts at this early point in the movement, was that Burzum never played live, and never has played live (and quite possibly maybe never will). This was very rare at the time, as how was a record supposed to draw any attention at all if you never performed it to help make it known? So naturally this struck people as odd. Also, Burzum was simply just Varg Vikernes--- he played all the instruments and recorded it entirely by himself, so unlike Darkthrone and Mayhem- he was strictly a one-man band. Not only was this very uncommon for black metal, but this is extremely not common for metal in general. Quite possibly the most important thing would be the intentional direction of the production of this record. Varg chose intentionally "bad" sounding things. He made the guitar scratchy with too much overdrive, he only has the drums set up to be just audible enough without trying to a achieve the "big" drum rock'n roll sound that most bands aimed for in the studio, and he allowed the vocals too scream and clip over-top of the recording sometimes (apparently he recorded these by screaming into a headset as he stated in the documentary Until The Light Takes Us). He intentionally used the cheaper equipment, and did things not recommended for the "ideal" sound, and sloppily selected reverb and mix settings. Hahaha, can you imagine how weird this was for the recording engineer? Weirdest day at work ever!

Back of record.

Some have argued that this is an overrated album in the vast amounts of black metal now available since its heyday in the nineties. However, before judging so harshly it should be considered that this album created a template in which most bands of this style after Burzum would follow. It should be kept in mind at the time this album came out, other than Mayhem & Darkthrone-- there was virtually nothing else that sounded like this. Though of course Bathory is a huge influence, and there was also Venom before-- while groups such as these made vital contributions to the very existence of black metal-- it didn't truly become its own style until Burzum, Mayhem, and Darkthrone put out their significant releases marking the turning-point of this new music). Everything about this record was musically rebellious to the current thriving thrash and death metal of the time: the style, the production, the theme, the look, and the atmosphere were all unique. This album in particular was not only significant to the birth of black metal, not only a blueprint for the enormous amount of black metal to follow in its footsteps, but also forever put Norway on the map for heavy metal and has wrote a very interesting chapter in the story of heavy metal.