BURZUM — Burzum (review)

Album · 1992 · Black Metal

2.5/5 · 2012-01-10
Warthur

Whilst Darkthrone's A Blaze In the Northern Sky set the standard for the image "kvlt" black metal bands would try to emulate, Burzum's debut album set the stage for another phenomenon of black metal - the one-man multi-instrumentalist project. Tubular Bells this ain't, of course - what you've got is Varg Vikernes delivering howling buzzsaw guitar riffs and screaming, tortured vocals to a rhythm backing which ranges from pure black metal to something verging on black metal rock and roll at points.

Lyrically, magic, mystery and misery are the order of the day - Varg's obnoxious and kooky politics don't get a look in aside from what *might* be a glancing reference to race war towards the conclusion of My Journey To the Stars. In fact, the most sensational aspect of the album is probably the brief guest appearances by Euronymous, providing an ironic and macabre touch to an album already rendered uncomfortable (in a good way) by Varg's extremely depressive approach to black metal.

Unsettling to the extreme, Varg likes to brag that the early Burzum albums were used by Euronymous as a benchmark of just how evil black metal ought to be. If that's true (and bear in mind that Varg is an egotistical, self-aggrandising little neo-fascist so you really ought to take what he says with a pinch of salt) it's not hard to see why, because for all the rudimentary, lo-fi qualities of the recording, it's hard to deny that it's an influential work.

That said, it's possible for an artistic work to be influential without necessarily standing the test of time itself. It's fair to say that in 1992 there wasn't a whole lot out there that sounded like this, here in 2021 there's masses of atmospheric black metal releases which build on the sonic ideas that Varg and his contemporaries on the Norwegian scene used without buying into either the bigoted politics Varg would later espouse or the risible edgier-than-thou nonsense of the Norwegian black metal world from this era.

Odds are, there'll be things which you find interesting about Burzum, and things which bug you - and in the wide world of black metal these days, you're sure to be able to find a project which goes in hard on the aspects of Burzum which you find enjoyable and doesn't include the stuff which annoys you. (For my part, I find the goofy D&D-and-MERP fantasy inspirations Varg uses endearing, but when it comes to black metal with a sword and sorcery bent Immortal were kind of always better at that.)

It's probably also fair to say that this debut is somewhat more less successful in its sonic goals than some of Varg's later releases. If we imagine an alternate timeline where Varg never murdered anyone, never burned any churchs, and never became a racist internet troll constantly trying to push his shitty tabletop RPG, and never made, say, Filosofem, would we remember this debut all that much? Probably not - we'd leave it to the completists, and we'd probably be right to do so.