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Burzum: Fallen
04/04/11 || Love Lagerkvist
If Varg hadn’t gone to jail for that little… incident way back when, he would probably have been the by far most productive black metal musician in like, ever. By using the power of first-grade math, I’ve come to the conclusion that if he hadn’t burned those churches and killed that dude Burzum’s back catalogue would be at least 20 albums long, if not more.
Of course, you wouldn’t actually know that this stuff came to life just a few months ago, as this is a lot closer to classic Burzum than last year’s (still quite brilliant) “Belus”. The second that the one-minute waste space that is the intro “Fra verdenstreet” ends and album headliner “Jeg faller” jumps in, you just know that Varg wrote that riff with a big stroke of nostalgia. It’s raw, repeating and intensely melodic in that incredible way only the man with the scar in the face can do. But alas, not everything is the way it was back in ’92. Enter a chorus that contains not only clean vocals, but even some humming. Yes, humming, and some damned good humming as well. In fact, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that “Fallen” has the best humming on a metal album ever.
Just so we are clear, everything on “Fallen” isn’t comprised of the best humming in the history of the world ever. Most of the vocals are still screamed, and I’m glad to report that these are just as good as always. One interesting change here is the higher prominence of more complex drumming and – hold on tight – an audible bass. Varg is really getting wild with that experimentation here. Production-wise it’s not quite as perfect as “Belus”, mostly due to a lot more clarity in the mix, but does its job and fits the razor sharp riffage like a glove.
Then comes the problems, or, well. I don’t really know if I’d call my few complaints with “Fallen” problems as much as they are by-products of stylistics. Except for the already mentioned intro and the excellent instrumental closer “Til hel og tilbake igjen” most of the tracks fall into the same format as “Jeg faller” (jump up two paragraphs), with the constant tremolo guitars just ending up blending into each other. It’s kind of like having a Ferrari with a cracked window: while a really awesome car in nearly all respects, it’s kind of hard to drive if you can’t actually see where the hell you’re heading.
Bottom line, “Fallen” is Burzum. For every new element (humming!) there’s something a bit more old school to even things out. And while it fails to beat “Belus” because of variation issues, it’s still mandatory listening. The Count really is back.
- Information
- Released: 2011
- Label: Byelobog Productions
- Website: www.burzum.org
- Band
- Varg Vikernes: everything
- Tracklist
- 01. Fra verdenstreet
- 02. Jeg faller
- 03. Valen
- 04. Vanvidd
- 05. Enhver til sitt
- 06. Budstikken
- 07. Til hel og tilbake igjen
