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ForNaught
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Mar 27, 2006 5:37 pm
Posts: 1093
PostPosted: Mon May 20, 2013 11:09 am 
 

It's actually better than I was expecting. My expectations were quite low, though.

Obviously it's far better in full than samples would suggest-- it's ambient, it's all about the feeling. I don't think it's going to change anybody's mind about ambient Burzum, however. It gets better as the album proceeds so I would recommend against judging it on the basis of the first track or two.
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Stabwound
Metal newbie

Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2004 6:46 pm
Posts: 200
PostPosted: Mon May 20, 2013 6:53 pm 
 

I find it hard to believe that there is much of an overlap between fans of black metal and fans of dark electronic ambient music. I guess he's going to do what he wants to do, and it would be disengenuous at best to kept releasing half-hearted metal albums, but I just don't like his ambient shit.

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Oddeye
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Jun 28, 2009 12:24 pm
Posts: 2281
Location: Sweden
PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 5:57 am 
 

This was actually pretty interesting. Sounds much better than the last album.

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vengefulgoat
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:15 am
Posts: 978
Location: Poland
PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 9:34 am 
 

This is actually a huge turd, sounds like a great soundtrack for a movie on National Geographic about unicellar organisms' reproduction. Obviously there exist people who will try to convince themselves it's good by creating some atmosphere behind it, but if they weren't so delusional they'd realize they can find as much "atmosphere" on this record as if they turned their CD player off. I find it really hard to understand how a proper metal fan would value this over Umskiptar, for example. Don't get me wrong, I listen to ambient every now and then too, but it's one of the genres under which releasing complete crap is passable, mostly because it's rather easy to initiate the better artists and come damn close to their sound while doing shit music.

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Chaosmonger
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Apr 29, 2006 5:59 pm
Posts: 1451
PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 10:35 am 
 

^The Burzum spirit shines through on every Burzum album I've heard even though the quality of the music can be up and down. Whatever instrument it's played on is cosmetic and his metal is ambient anyway so I don't see this big divide between the two that you do.

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vengefulgoat
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:15 am
Posts: 978
Location: Poland
PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 1:29 pm 
 

Chaosmonger wrote:
^The Burzum spirit shines through on every Burzum album I've heard even though the quality of the music can be up and down. Whatever instrument it's played on is cosmetic and his metal is ambient anyway so I don't see this big divide between the two that you do.

:lol:
Surely there are connections between his various albums, but saying that Burzum metal stuff is pretty much ambient done on guitar is another of those shitty overinterpretations in the vein of Vivaldi playing thrash metal on strings or whatever some retard came up with.

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Chaosmonger
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Apr 29, 2006 5:59 pm
Posts: 1451
PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 1:58 pm 
 

Right, except that it's true. Ambient doesn't have to be played on synth lol. A good amount of Varg's metal (certainly not all) is about texture and mood, everyone knows that. Remember the Daudi Baldrs track that was also on Belus?

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vengefulgoat
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:15 am
Posts: 978
Location: Poland
PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 2:05 pm 
 

Chaosmonger wrote:
Ambient doesn't have to be played on synth lol.

But repetetive, "unmetal" black metal isn't ambient either, regardless of similiar songwriting style.

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Chaosmonger
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Apr 29, 2006 5:59 pm
Posts: 1451
PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 2:10 pm 
 

Eh, I'm using the word in a looser sense. Why isn't it ambient, in your words?

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vengefulgoat
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:15 am
Posts: 978
Location: Poland
PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 2:30 pm 
 

Because the style Burzum plays is black metal going by the genre definitions. (Well, Umskiptar really isn't, but it doesn't have the ambientish songwriting at all, I'm talking about its metal tracks of course). I don't really mind tagging Burzum as black metal/ambient (NOT because there are ambient albums and black metal albums, but as the style of few of his metal albums itself), although I'd keep such tag for artists that went even further with minimalism (Paysage d'Hiver, Ildjarn, Darkspace, Branikald, Trist (Deu) again not because they have full on ambient tracks/albums, but the style of their black metal), in fact in Burzum I can only see ambient influence on metal songs from Filosofem and to a much lesser extent Belus and Hvis Lyset Tar Oss. Repetition and keyboard itselves are often a characteristic of a black metal even if it's not trying to sound like ambient on guitars and drums.

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Chaosmonger
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Apr 29, 2006 5:59 pm
Posts: 1451
PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 3:14 pm 
 

Well, my bigger point is that it's all Burzum no matter what, all of the same spirit and that's what's really important. I honestly don't see how you can like his other stuff and not find something to like on this one but oh well. I fail to see how it comes off that less work went into this one than Umskiptar or Belus. All are really simple albums with simple layering, despite the difference in instrumentation.

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vengefulgoat
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:15 am
Posts: 978
Location: Poland
PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 4:34 pm 
 

Chaosmonger wrote:
Well, my bigger point is that it's all Burzum no matter what, all of the same spirit and that's what's really important.

That's really questionable. There are not-so-small differences, both in plain music as well as 'spirit' or atmosphere, just in his first four albums, let alone rest of his discography.
Quote:
I honestly don't see how you can like his other stuff and not find something to like on this one but oh well.

I don't really know why you find it strange that a metalhead dislikes something that sounds like if it was distracted from Animal Planet docummentary. You know, not all of us are ultra wide tasted, open minded music appreciators, with spot for free jazz album in the middle of their power electronics / southamerican deaththrash / neoprogressive rock fascination phase.
Chaosmonger wrote:
I fail to see how it comes off that less work went into this one than Umskiptar or Belus. All are really simple albums with simple layering, despite the difference in instrumentation.

Well, I'm not going to speculate how much times has Varg spent writing this, but no doubt there are musicians who could record something alike in one day. As for the comparision, I don't see what's so overly simple in Umskiptar, this album is more complex and varied than most of metal out there.

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Sick6Six
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:01 pm
Posts: 1988
Location: Woodstock, IL
PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 5:20 pm 
 

vengefulgoat wrote:
This is actually a huge turd, sounds like a great soundtrack for a movie on National Geographic about unicellar organisms' reproduction. Obviously there exist people who will try to convince themselves it's good by creating some atmosphere behind it, but if they weren't so delusional they'd realize they can find as much "atmosphere" on this record as if they turned their CD player off.

HAHA, this actually makes me want to listen to it just to see how awesomely bad it is!
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Chaosmonger
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Apr 29, 2006 5:59 pm
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PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 5:25 pm 
 

vengefulgoat wrote:
As for the comparision, I don't see what's so overly simple in Umskiptar, this album is more complex and varied than most of metal out there.


Going to have to agree to disagree with the rest of your post but c'mon, this is ridiculous. Most songs are 2-3 riffs at most and none of them are complex nor is the layering complex in any way. It's good, though!

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vengefulgoat
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:15 am
Posts: 978
Location: Poland
PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 5:36 pm 
 

As opposed to what? Metal isn't generally the most complex music around.

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Chaosmonger
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Apr 29, 2006 5:59 pm
Posts: 1451
PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 7:10 pm 
 

As opposed to any technical or progressive band, c'mon now.

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~Guest 302292
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2012 1:03 am
Posts: 135
PostPosted: Tue May 21, 2013 7:53 pm 
 

Wasn't really a big fan of Sol Austan, Mani Vestan at first listen.
It all seemed to sound the same. I also heard that it was supposed to sound like Hildskjalf, which had me really excited, but this was a letdown.
I'll definitely give it more tries in the future and hope that it sinks in.

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Turner
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Aug 23, 2002 2:04 am
Posts: 2247
Location: Australia
PostPosted: Wed May 22, 2013 1:36 am 
 

ok colour me badd at the internet but where can i listen to this?

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Paganbasque
Metal freak

Joined: Thu Dec 24, 2009 9:28 am
Posts: 4027
PostPosted: Wed May 22, 2013 3:55 am 
 

I like the album, it is what I expected taking into account the samples, somekind of ambient ritual album, its a nice listening and I think Varg has done a good job. Anyway I have to listen to it more and see if it is that good.

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InnesI
The Goat Fucker

Joined: Sat Jun 01, 2013 3:19 pm
Posts: 2187
PostPosted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 5:17 pm 
 

I have only given the new album a couple of spins but I think its ok to good but nothing really special. I happened to really like Belus and Fallen but was very unimpressed by Umskiptar. I'd say the new album is better than Umskiptar but pretty far from the first two post-prison albums.

I can't compare it to the two other albums Varg released that are in the same vein since I haven't actually given them a chance. I do however hope that he will go back to a more metal sound. It doesnt have to be full out metal - perhaps a mixture would work well - but the thought of albums exclusively in the vein of Sôl austan, Mâni vestan from here on doesn't really rock my world.
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Sick6Six
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:01 pm
Posts: 1988
Location: Woodstock, IL
PostPosted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 5:55 pm 
 

I listened to a few songs, total garbage. Since it's "Burzum" he can just record anything, throw it on an album with a cool cover and people will convince themselves they like it.
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Conservationism
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2010 3:48 pm
Posts: 431
PostPosted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 3:24 pm 
 

I don't think it's simplistic. He uses a few main themes, but works in variations of those in addition to layers. (Layers are actually quite easy to do. Song development is harder.)

I can't claim to like Belus, Fallen and Umskiptar but hybrid neu-wave black metal has never done it for me.

The newer album however has some of his old spirit, and some new directions, instead of him trying to palm off something trivial as living up to his legacy.
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InnesI
The Goat Fucker

Joined: Sat Jun 01, 2013 3:19 pm
Posts: 2187
PostPosted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 10:15 am 
 

vengefulgoat wrote:
This is actually a huge turd, sounds like a great soundtrack for a movie on National Geographic about unicellar organisms' reproduction. Obviously there exist people who will try to convince themselves it's good by creating some atmosphere behind it, but if they weren't so delusional they'd realize they can find as much "atmosphere" on this record as if they turned their CD player off. I find it really hard to understand how a proper metal fan would value this over Umskiptar, for example.


This is a great description of the album. I definately get the feeling as if Im watching a documentary onunicellar organisms or perhaps something about outher space. But in my case thats a positive. I've been giving this album alot of time the past two days and it grows on me and I have come to really appreciate it.

As for why a "proper metal fan" (whatever that is) would prefer this over Umskiptar its quite simple - I get more enjoyment listening to the new album while Umskiptar was a chore to listen to for me. Good music always beats mediocre music whatever the genre. I'd also pick Lana Del Rey's Born to Die album over Umskiptar simply because I get more enjoyment out of the former compared to the latter..
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Paganbasque
Metal freak

Joined: Thu Dec 24, 2009 9:28 am
Posts: 4027
PostPosted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 3:48 am 
 

InnesI wrote:
vengefulgoat wrote:
This is actually a huge turd, sounds like a great soundtrack for a movie on National Geographic about unicellar organisms' reproduction. Obviously there exist people who will try to convince themselves it's good by creating some atmosphere behind it, but if they weren't so delusional they'd realize they can find as much "atmosphere" on this record as if they turned their CD player off. I find it really hard to understand how a proper metal fan would value this over Umskiptar, for example.


This is a great description of the album. I definitely get the feeling as if Im watching a documentary onunicellar organisms or perhaps something about outher space. But in my case thats a positive. I've been giving this album alot of time the past two days and it grows on me and I have come to really appreciate it.

As for why a "proper metal fan" (whatever that is) would prefer this over Umskiptar its quite simple - I get more enjoyment listening to the new album while Umskiptar was a chore to listen to for me. Good music always beats mediocre music whatever the genre. I'd also pick Lana Del Rey's Born to Die album over Umskiptar simply because I get more enjoyment out of the former compared to the latter..


+1(including the reference to Lana del Rey´s album)

Umskiptar had some great ideas but something fails in this album, that good ideas didnt finally turn into proper good songs, or at least an overall good album.

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ginometalhead
Metal newbie

Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2009 4:36 pm
Posts: 92
Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 4:22 am 
 

vengefulgoat wrote:
Chaosmonger wrote:
Ambient doesn't have to be played on synth lol.

But repetetive, "unmetal" black metal isn't ambient either, regardless of similiar songwriting style.


Metal can be ambient. Listen to Paysgae Dhiver

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