Burzum

 

The story of BURZUM is well-documented, so I'm not sure how much detail to go into.  I'll try to limit my discussion to the music and not focus on non-music shenanigans. Varg Vikernes (the mastermind behind Burzum) began a solo project called Kalashnikov around 1988, after he had only been playing the guitar for a couple years. Within a year or so, he changed the name to Uruk-Hai. There is debate about whether or not there are any known recordings from that time period.  In later years (sometime in the later 1990s), some recordings emerged of Uruk-Hai material, but there is doubt about whether it's from 1988-89 or the early 90s.

After the early Uruk-Hai years, Vikernes joined the Norwegian death/black metal band Old Funeral.  As I noted on my entry for early Norwegian black metal, this band also had (at various times) Abbath (of Immortal fame) and Jørn (of Hades fame). Varg has said his time in Old Funeral was highly educational, as he learned about the more technical aspects of music. 

A classic promotional pic of Varg

After the demise of this band, Vikernes revived the project Uruk-Hai before soon changing its name to Burzum, which is the word for "darkness" in the Black Speech of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.  He also started going by the stage name Count Grishnackh to further distance himself from his old ways. Burzum was more or less an old-school black metal project, but with the touch of that occultic edge that 1980s Mayhem had.

From the first untitled Burzum demo, this is "Lost Wisdom"

Vikernes put out two untitled demos in 1991 under the Burzum name.  They included many songs which went on to become classics, such as "Lost Wisdom," "Spell of Destruction," "A Lost Forgotten Sad Spirit," and "Feeble Screams From Forests Unknown."  Many of these songs were instrumental, with no vocals.  Nonetheless, they highlighted the emerging Norwegian sound.  Bearing resemblance to what Mayhem had done up to this point, while maintaining some uniqueness, these Burzum tracks helped lay the template for many black metal bands to come.

This is from the 1992 self-titled album...

As is known,  Burzum recorded all of what would become his classic nineties material in the span of about a year. Recorded in January of 1992, Burzum first released a self-titled album.  This was put out on Euronymous's label Deathlike Silence Productions.  In terms of black metal sound, the self-titled album was a continuation of the the sound pioneered on the demos, but at the same time an improvement.  I think that Vikernes' vocals were more tortured, more insane-sounding than pretty much any other black metal vocalist up to that point in history.  That first album is one of black metal's all-time greats. It's simple, yet raw and merciless in its effect.

Recorded as part of two different sessions in 1992, Burzum put out an EP entitled Aske (which is the Norwegian word for 'ashes') in early 1993. Also released through Deathlike Silence Productions, this is one of the few Burzum releases with another musician on it. Samoth (of Emperor) played bass on Aske because for a brief while, Varg entertained the idea of playing live. He did not hold on to that notion for long. 

"Key to the Gates" is from Det Som Engang Var

Burzum's second full-length album was Det Som Engang Var. Recorded in April 1992, this album feels conceptually linked to the self- titled one. With music that still feels raw and primitive, DSEV is as good an introduction to Burzum as any. This album was released in 1993 through Varg's new label, Cymophane Records (which was a sublabel of white power label Resistance Records). It was pressed in a limited run (950 copies), so this resulted in many bootleg editions in circulation. 

From Burzum's 1994 album, this is "Inn I Slottet Fra Droemmen"

Burzum's third album was recorded in the fall of 1992. It took a while for this album to get released because Varg's legal troubles began mounting. He signed the rights to his last two albums over to a third party who then founded Misanthropy Records.  Once this dust settled, this album--titled Hvis lyset tar oss--was released by Misanthropy in April 1994. It felt like a departure from the previous two. Yes, the primitivism was still present, but we see a real transcendence being achieved on some of these tracks. In this way, it foreshadowed what was to come on Burzum's fourth full-length album. 

My favorite Burzum song,  "Darkness (Dunkelheit)"

Burzum's fourth full-length studio album--titled Filosofem--was recorded in early 1993. By his own admission, he was rebelling against the new developments in the black metal scene and this made its way into the recording sessions. He once called this album an "anti-black metal" album. But by rebelling against some of the emerging trends in the black metal scene, he merely set a new bar for black metal!  The raw production, the hypnotic riffs, the droning ambient...all of these things took Burzum's black metal to another level entirely. Many say that Hviss lyset tar oss is in the running for greatest black metal album of all time, but I place Filosofem higher. It was released through Misanthropy Records in 1996, after Varg had begun serving his jail sentence for his crimes (church burning, Euronymous's murder).

And this is as good a place as any to pause the story of Burzum. As is widely known, he was able to put out two fully ambient albums while in prison (while in prison, he claimed to have sworn off guitar-based music forever), but that doesn't interest me. Perhaps I'll resume his story where it picks up when he was released from prison....? We'll see.

This song was recorded during the Hvis lyset tar oss sessions but never made it to album

Select Discography:

Demo I (1991)

Demo II (1991)

Burzum (demo) (1991)

Burzum (full-length) (1992)

Aske EP (1993)

Det som engang var (full-length) (1993)

Hvis lyset tar oss (full-length) (1994)

Filosofem (full-length) (1996)

Next time: NECROPHOBIC

Sigh

An early photo of Sigh

SIGH, hailing from the capital city of Tokyo, is probably Japan's most famous extreme metal export. Upon their initial formation in 1989, they were primarily a band that covered old-school thrash and speed metal (and Venom, too).  They eventually decided to try to write some original material after months of performing covers, and the result was 1990's Desolation demo.  Desolation can best be described as an old-school black metal style, but with jarring guitar patterns and highly atmospheric keyboard playing.  It was a bit odd, and that oddness would become Sigh's signature over the years.

Here is Sigh's Desolation demo in its entirety

After another 1990 demo (Tragedies), Sigh's unique sound caught the attention of record labels the world over, and they signed with Wild Rags Records and released the Requiem For Fools 7" in 1992.  This, in turn, caught the attention of Mayhem's Euronymous.  He signed Sigh to his Deathlike Silence Productions, and the phenomenal full-length Scorn Defeat was released in 1993.  Scorn Defeat is a unique release, with the dark and evil atmosphere one expects from black metal, but more of their angular and unusual guitar riffing--as well as the aforementioned keyboard playing--made this album stand apart from the then blossoming Scandinavian black metal scene.

Off of Scorn Defeat, this is "Ready for the Final War"

With Scorn Defeat, Sigh had arrived on the world black metal stage.  Unfortunately, the events surrounding Norway's Inner Circle led to the demise of Deathlike Silence Productions, and this left Sigh without a record label. They then signed with Cacophonous Records and released a slew of albums, including a split EP with Greek black metallers Kawir, an EP of Venom covers and their 1995 and 1997 albums, Infidel Art and Hail Horror Hail. While Infidel Art can be seen as a continuation of their 1993 debut, Hail Horror Hail is where Sigh's oddness and slightly avant-garde tendencies began to dominate their sound.

"Desolation" is off of 1995's Infidel Art

Title track from 1997's Hail Horror Hail

Hail Horror Hail marked a definite turning point in their sound.  While the music rested upon an extreme metal foundation, the members of Sigh were not afraid to experiment with epic synth passages that resembled horror movie soundtracks, as well as unconventional instruments. Jazz, funk, even reggae--all of this was fair game. I think it's fair to say that Sigh's appeal to the average black metal fan diminishes more and more with each release.  For the adventurous, however, their more recent output is worth checking out.

An example of their increasing experimentation,

this is "Scarlet Dream" from 2001's Imaginary Sonicscape

Select Discography:

Desolation (demo) (1990)
Tragedies (demo) (1990)
Requiem for Fools EP (1992)
Scorn Defeat (full-length) (1993)
Infidel Art (full-length) (1995)
Hail Horror Hail (full-length) (1997)
Scenario IV: Dread Dreams (full-length) (1999)
Imaginary Sonicscape (full-length) (2001)

Next time: SHUB NIGGURATH