I listen occasionally. None of his albums has ever been a total home-run for me:

-I haven't heard them in years, but I remember the debut and DSEV as "so-so," with moments of brilliance but also some pretty disagreeable vocals.
-On HLTO, I find the vocals somewhat better, and in any case made much more tolerable by the other (excellent IMO) qualities of the songs, though the ambient closer is "so-so" at best.
-Filosofem has unobjectionable vocals at last, IMO, and retains and refines a lot of what made HTLO great, but goes off the rails in the second half.
-Belus and Fallen are pretty all right, though a couple notches or so below the classics. Never bothered with the ambient/prison albums.



I'd draw an analogy to being a vegetarian who makes the decision not to consume meat, but happens to like or even love the sheer taste of bacon. Bacon for many/most people interacts with the taste-buds in extremely, uniquely enjoyable ways. But the larger "experience" of consuming food has ethical/ecological/societal ramifications as well, beyond the sphere of immediate sensuous gratification.

Vegetarians might typically weigh these factors differently than meat-eaters: For the first, the cons (e.g., contributing more than otherwise to destructive agricultural practices) might be seen to outweigh the pros (e.g., experiencing more pleasure than otherwise in eating and sharing meals). Similarly for the person who likes/loves what Varg does with his guitar, but couldn't forgive themselves for giving money to a racist.

Yeah, that’s a good analogy. I really like Akhlys, and especially loved The Dreaming I, and remember really liking Aoratos. But then I found out Naas is a piece of shit with fascist ties so even if I like his music, I prefer to not listen to or buy his music anymore.

I didn't see your previous posts as "trying to start shit", and you're making valid points. It's worth examining the motivations behind our actions, as well as the impacts when it comes to "problematic" or at least "controversial" artists. Your previous posts were a good way to dig into these things and to advance the discussion a bit. I personnally didn't write in the thread until the 4th page because I've alreayd expressed myself on this subject many times and didn't feel that this particular thread was addressing any of the "issues" or "problems" in a compelling or new and interesting way. So yeah, I was just lurking and answered SomeGuyDude's post to just state where I was standing, and also to address the "wearing merch" of Burzum theme, because I find it to be one of the most interesting threads to follow, and then you answered my post, so I wanted to answer you back, as I agreed with some of your points, and a little less with some others.

I do agree that these discussions often tend to get derailed, with personnal attacks and whatnot, while the discussion in itself can still be interesting if we explore it in a thorough manner.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to answer my posts. Have a good one!

I don't listen to Burzum, period.

I also don't listen to Omnihility, another band with a convicted murderer in their lineup.

Then again, I'll still watch all three movies of the Naked Gun movies, despite O.J. Simpson being in all three of them. Three of the funniest movies ever made.

I feel like there is such an annoying preponderance of these threads that they should just be confined to their own mega-thread or something. This entire topic is just a black hole where nothing insightful is ever imparted to one another, no opinions are changed, just people talking past each other and getting nowhere. Any metal community I've ever been in that allowed these discussions would inevitably turn into a shit-flinging, dick measuring contest at the expense of the actual music.

Interesting point.

You also have people who only use a selective "I'll listen to this album, but not this one, because a particularly bad person played on it" rule (applied to many, such as Emperor, Saxon, Manowar, Pyrexia, Judas Priest, Sabaton, Mayhem, etc.), which may not be the same as bands where the whole catalog has that person on it (Lostprophets in particular).

You have people who think it's okay if it's someone in a certain function, but not another. I remember with Lostprophets, someone said that it might be possible to separate the art from the artist if it had been the drummer, but not if it was the vocalist and main songwriter (which it was).

Ultimately, eahc person draws the line for which stuff they choose to be comfortable with, which may not always make complete sense from an outside perspective. I for example swore off listening to Burzum ever again, but can't bring myself to do the same for say Led Zeppelin or Dissection. I find the actions of Jimmy Page and Jon Nödvedt extremely reprehensible, but it's Varg that always throws me off (whom admitely is beyond unhinged in all his hateful views at this point).

As a side not: what did Pyrexia do? Never heard any controversy about them before.

One of the former vocalists murdered three men in a shooting. He was given three life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Wtf!? I listen to Burzum because of his actions!

No not really, I do like the first 3 Burzum albums a lot, but I can't sit through Filosofem. Hliðskjálf does have some charm.
It's always the music that matters, not the person (although having a good/cool person making the music is a nice bonus).

Early Burzum is not bad, I personally prefer Mayhem, Darkthrone and Emperor but I can respect Burzum's early works. But after Filosofem it's just downhill from there.