New Burzum album 2011 (Fallen)

[Cargést]

Listened to Fallen again tonight.  It loses momentum after the fourth track, though the outro is pretty good.  I'd rate the first half of Fallen as being better than the latter half of Filosofem, any day.  If he'd made an album which was tracks 1-3 of Filosofem and tracks 2-4 of Fallen, with Filosofem's production, I would be a happy man.

The production really does bug me, though.  There are so many ways it could be improved (or, from the perspective of a "normal" person, made worse ;p).

[Forbinator]

I'm enjoying Valen, but the rest of the album seems to fall flat. Admittedly I'm relying on shitty youtube rips at the moment. I really enjoyed Belus and saw it as valid art, but Fallen just seems bland and formulaic.

Cargest, may I ask what appeals to you about tracks 2-4? Jeg Faller must be the silliest Burzum song, with that sugary singalong chorus.

[Cargést]

I'm still working it out for tracks 2 and 3.  Track 4 is the most Burzum-y track he's done since coming out of jail.

[Conservationist]

Belus sucks, and Fallen sucks. He stopped wanting to make music, and started wanting to make money from idiots. Sad, as his legacy would have not only done better but sold more the other way.

[Athanasius contra mundum]

No bro, you obviously dislike it for ideological reasons, not because you actually find the music bad. Don't you understand that it's impossible to disagree with the tastes of people who enjoy this album?

In all seriousness, I thought this album sucked too. I don't care if he was cashing in or not, he could have absolutely no intentions of making any money on this album and I would still think it was terrible.

[UmlautsForEnglish]

I'm still working it out for tracks 2 and 3.  Track 4 is the most Burzum-y track he's done since coming out of jail.

It sounds a lot like if was ripping of his own song, Jesus Død.  The whole album kind of gives off that vibe.  I remember Varg saying in an interview that he was going to make music like the earlier tracks of Filosofem once he got out of prison.  He has done that for the most part and it has been uninspired, save for a few songs.

[Cargést]

I like this new stuff about as much as I like Filosofem, at the best of times.  I don't much like FIlosofem, compared to early Burzum, though it's still easily up there on my list of "best pieces of music ever".

[JewishPhysics]

Honestly, after listening to this album, I'm content to just let Varg do whatever and pay no attention to it.  I don't know what his motivations are, but I've given him two chances and he's disappointed on both occasions.  He will never produce albums on the level that he once did, but will most likely continue to produce a series of mediocre ones in which he experiments with different sounds, similar to mid to late era Bathory.

[Sepulchral Voice]

Late Bathory is a good example. Belus and Fallen remind me of the Nordlands. Trying to capture the old spirit with new technology, then falling flat in the area of composition.

[aquarius]

Filosofem was aimed at expanding atmosphere through abstracting older material, and it's miles away from these last two albums as it still had the spirit to create something profound.

Fallen fails to achieve ambience and only seems like it does to appear connected to older works, in the end ambience is incompatible with the pop structure/technique found on Fallen. The concepts, lyrcs, interviews and posing for the camera are also a derailment from the original vision.

[Cargést]

pop structure

Dunkelheit is a good example of "pop structure"; Fallen is not.

[Athanasius contra mundum]

pop structure

Dunkelheit is a good example of "pop structure"; Fallen is not.

Oh geeze...

[Cargést]

Dunkelheit just goes ABABCDA, with minor variations throughout.  Fallen is more like ABABCDCDABAB, with no variations at all.  I've never heard a pop song using the structure of any of the songs off Fallen, but I have heard pop songs using a moronically simple form of the structure used on Dunkelheit.

No, really.  I'm mildly serious.

[Forza Romana]

For fucks sake, I found myself reciting Jeg Faller  the next day I listened to the album. Of course I did listen to this as I slept so that had to have an effect.

I believe this also brings about the ultimate point as we age. Most musicians fade away when it comes to retaining the power of the music, especially metal music. I am 30 now, but in the last 10 years I have been listening to harder heavier music. We also compromise our art form to please others. Obviously this new Burzum album to some is utter shit and to others it still is decent. I do not disagree that it may be an utter mess of his legacy but we do expect a lot from Varg.  At this point, I do not  expect much from artist's at this stage but hey a worthy surprise would be nice.

[Athanasius contra mundum]

Dunkelheit just goes ABABCDA, with minor variations throughout.  Fallen is more like ABABCDCDABAB, with no variations at all.  I've never heard a pop song using the structure of any of the songs off Fallen, but I have heard pop songs using a moronically simple form of the structure used on Dunkelheit.

No, really.  I'm mildly serious.

The letter-format of structural notation has always come across to me as a very ineffective method of making structure easy to comprehend for morons. Regardless, I like very simple music, such as early Renaissance and Medieval music, and I like music that is very complex, such as Beethoven's Grosse Fuge, but I still do not care for Fallen.