Umskiptar

Wow, this is bad. In fact, I can hardly believe it. 'Umpskiptar' is more than an hour long and I can hardly imagine anyone listening to the entire album without skipping any part or smashing their own stereo. If anyone managed this exploit, I can only think of a Buddhist monk. Good luck to those who dare try.

Now let's get to the point. Like many of you, I'm an early Burzum diehard fan. I bought 'Belus' and 'Fallen' and found both albums pretty decent, despite being inferior to the '90s classics as well as somewhat repetitive.

'Umskiptar' is far, far worse. All the good elements from the former works are gone. This is just a series of boring arpeggiated riffs played on a slow tempo and being repeated through more than 7 minutes on each song with Varg quoting the lyrics in his normal voice and occasionally using harsh vocals. Sometimes he sings in a clean voice, but his clean vocals are as uninventive (they follow the main melody) as they are weak (so are the harsh vocals).

Wait, the guitars and drums are uninventive, too. They keep on playing the same pattern on and on. The lead guitars are completely forgettable. The whole full-length sounds like a guitar practice method or like a long incomprehensible, unrhyming poem recited over a melody-rhythmic background. No inspiration, no variation, and no emotion (except boredom).

Add to that all the flaws of the two former albums (which still had at least catchy melodies and trance-inducing moments) and you have 'Umskiptar'. Fortunately, I listened to the full album before blindly buying it. Had I bought it I would have sold it back after the first listening session. I don't really want to try and go for a second session, enough is enough.

My mark is 5% because I liked the beginning of "Valgaldr" (the first 20 seconds).