Friday, July 20, 2012

Burzum - Filosofem

Burzum is a Norwegian black metal project by Varg Virkernes that started in 1991. Burzum, along with Darkthrone, are perhaps some of the most influential bands in the Norwegian black metal scene. There is a lot of controversy with Varg Virkernes, which you can read about here, because it's a very long ordeal. Filosofem was Burzum's last album before he made before he went to jail in 1993, however, the album was released in1996. The album is black metal with a lot of experimentation with minimalism, repetition and ambiance. It was intentionally recorded as poorly as possible, with the guitars being played out of a stereo instead of an amp and the vocals being recorded through headphones. The guitars are fuzzy and distorted and the growling vocals are raw and noisy. Everything about this album is near perfection. The shortest song on the album is around seven minutes long, but I didn't once catch myself wanting to skip to the next song. Best songs are "Dunkelheit" and "Jesus' Tod", but every song on the album is great. If you've never heard of Burzum, you need to give this a listen. Plus "Burzum" means "Darkness" in the black language of Sauron, and that's fucking awesome. As a note, this is the German version of the album, there is no difference except the song names.