Varg is Free

After spending two days in a French jail Varg Vickernes is free. He was arrested at his home in the French village of Salon-la-Tour, basically for having a copy of the manifesto written by Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway two years ago.

Vikernes is of course a nationalist , but has not shown any ties with Breivik in the past nor has he really had anything positive to say about him. The only thing I find strange is that Varg was in France in the first place other than the fact his wife is French,  since he is so proud of his homeland why go to France  or is the right wing more relaxed than when I left and we are no longer trying to rid the Homeland of the christian influence from back when the corrupt kings decided to adopt christianity in order to gain the favor of England and open the trade roads. Rulers have been using religion not only to manipulate their people but influence diplomatic relations, America does it. What President has claimed to be a member of some flavor of Christianity? Obama was even a member of a radical pentacostal church whose pastor was a racist, though in America racism is o.k if you are the member of a minority  that is seen as having been oppressed. 

So ...Varg is with his wife in France, she buys four rifles, and she is  part of a gun club in France so has a thing for them, but after the purchase they are suspected of stock piling weapons for some sort of mass terrorist action and labelled as being Nazis. The Paris prosecutors office admitted they found no evidence Vikernes was plotting a terrorist attack .The charges are now reduced to inciting racial hatred.

Now... if those charges were enforced here in America, almost every Rapper would be in prison, but most main stream sites are still quick to call Varg a Nazi. Norway was allied with the Nazi's in World War 2 , not that they had a lot of choice in the matter, but when you are an entire country that embodies Hitler's racial ideal, they weren't going to just give Norway a pass because of Hitler's Viking envy. Even metal sites like the Jewish run Metal Sucks are going to be quick to label Varg a nazi and make snide commentary because they don't know the difference between national pride and racism, or even if we were going to say Varg is racist, does that make him a Nazi?  Does Germanic Neo-Paganism make someone a Nazi just because there is some shared mythos. 

We can debate this all we want but this whole thing stinks like a witch hunt to me. 

Burzum: "Sol austan, Mani vestan"

Despite the album cover I had a talk with myself to prepare for no metal. I like hypnotic ritualistic music , sure I have sat on the Wardruna album ,unable to really sit down and dissect it, this doesn't seem to be organic or earthy in any nature, though from the album cover I am sure Varg sees this as the music of the elves, though the reality is it is the soundtrack to the movie "Forebears" Varg made with French Film Maker Marie Cachet, a documentary about returning to nature and the connection with pagan ancestors.

Peter Gaberiel’s soundtrack to the Last Temptation of Christ sets the bar for going into this sort of thing though it was more world music in tone. Still they stood on their own as songs, rather than tinkling bell here and there so it sounds like im sampling keyboard sounds at guitar center, the second song comes closer to achieving this than the opener. “Runar munt..” or "You Shall Find Secrets" is more percussive to by nature it will move where the intro had no sense of progression. There is a droning quality to this, I wouldn't say this music is particularly dark in fact I would say the new Wardruna is darker.

The Tangerine Dream like synths of "Haugaeldr" or "Burial Mound Fire" sounds like it was left off of the soundtrack to a seventies sci fi movie. "Feorahellir" has almost a Cocteau Twins cadence to it but without Elizabeth Frasier to come in and actually make it a song, for what it is it's decent if not monotonous , which is the main problem with a lot of these compositions is they just seem like a cool keyboard part that he never developed into an actual song. "Solarguoi" or sung god, kinda drifts like a relaxation cd from any new age bookstore, elevator music for hippies would be on way to think of it.

"Ganga at solu" is more interesting than the previous song and sounds more fitting for the exploration of caves and historic reenactments the movie depicts. Like the other songs it sticks to the one thing rather than transitioning or adding layers for it to go anywhere."Hid" or "Bear's lair" is surprise surprise a synth patch that feel like waves a night, so the bears must have been into night swimming as that the vibe I get here. Two minutes of this was enough for me to imagine my horror when I looked up to see I had four more minutes.

"Heljarmyrkr" or " Death's sarkness " is of course no where near as exciting as it's title its synths for hippies again, who unfortunately unless they are into Germanic neo paganism will never get to hear this, as I can see them getting stoned and doing yoga to this song."Mani vestan" or "West of the Moon" is rather lunar and in fact I wrote something just like this when I was tripping on mushrooms in 1996 and I remember feeling very lunar at the time as well, so this must be what the moon sounds like. "Solbjorg" or "Sunset" has more interesting sounds than most of the other songs on this aside from the one that reminded me of the Cocteau Twins.

Seems like a good way for him to get this out of his system and make another metal record. This album does do what it sets out to accomplish, most of this sounds like the sounds-cape channel on demand that I take naps to so I personally do not see the need to own this, even if I went back to doing drugs , though this would be a great I in a drug cocoon music as well or to help babies fall asleep. I will give this a 4, even though I might round it up if I get to take a nap but not anything I need on my ipod.



2

Burzum : " Umskiptar"

Varg Vickernes is back.the man the myth the legend, Americans built in their minds as a black metal Charles Manson. This album is devoid of any sensationalism, the fresh out of prison novelty has worn of and the elder statesman of Norwegian black metal is now making music for the sake of making music. This album is a companion piece of sorts to a book Varg wrote called Sorcery and Religion, an exploration into Norse folk lore and mythology . The lyrics taken from the poem Völuspá are once again sung in Varg's native tongue.
Umskiptar means metamorphosis, a fitting title because it steps further way from black metal or what we traditionally think of as Norwegian black metal. This is going to be a sticking point for fans of pre-incarceration Burzum and for those who thought "Fallen" wasn't kvlt enough. If you have read or watched interview where he is allowed to actually talk about music this should not come as a surprise, in numerous interviews he compared "Fallen" to classical music. Bookend by two pieces of minimalist ritualistic ambiance, there is really only nine songs here.
The first real song "Joln" ...or deities, is classic post-incarceration Burzum, the guitar is both abrasive and droning. The vocals have a very ritualistic feel, a heavily reverbed mike makes them sound like an invocation, which given the lyrical content is fitting, harsh vocals space these chants out, there is a weird clicking in the middle section where the drums drop out . Suppose a click track of sorts, I put my head to the speaker to see if my ears were playing tricks on me. There are alot of subtle sounds on this record and best listened on headphone. A far cry in the production from when Varg asked for the shittiest microphone they had.
"Alfadanz" the elf dance follows, after a piano intro launches in to pretty straight forward mid-paced metal riffage,accompanied by more chanting, which is a theme of the album as , the "clean" vocals here are less sung and more recited in almost a conversational tone. While I like this song, it trudges in pace more than what you would expect from Burzum and reminds me for some reason of Carpathian Forest.
On "Hit Helga Tre" or the sacred tree... the plodding thunder continues, this time in a more compelling manner as it's layered with tremolo picked guitar.
"Aera" or honor, brings harsher vocals back to the table, the angry thrash guitar is still pretty straight forward and more blatant than what I from Varg these days.
"Heair" or esteem...brings to mind the breakdown section in "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" the this is not your father's Burzum continues on "Valgaldr" this might be Var's prog song as it goes from a waltz to almost a depressive black metal feel as it descends into a more solemn dirge.The doomish depression continues on "Galgviar". This songs comes close to being a ballad, I like the guitar melody but very different from what I think of Burzum .Varg's baritone lament is more more emotive than his vocals on "Fallen" . The slow dissonant guitar creep along making it a song i don't see making the transition over to my Ipod. To be the albums longest track "Gullaldr" never really builds into anything, the guitar has too much space to make the song flow.
I'm on board for 7 of the 9 nine pieces I consider songs,though the album is growing on me, I don't think I will latch onto it as I did with "Fallen". Take into consideration I'm a pretty big Burzum fan , who is down with the maturation of post-pokey Varg when I give the album a 7 out of 10
and yes this the beginning of my my scoring since I get requests for that sort of thing