Burzum - Belus

[Andrew]

http://cosmicdreamland.blogspot.com/2010/03/vargs-insecurity-death-of-burzum.html

[ShitFaced]

You can analyze this shit to death but there's no point. It's obvious Belus isn't as good as the earlier Burzum albums. If you find it to be a good album regardless, that's completely reasonable. I like it myself. It's possible that Varg forgot what it takes to make a timeless album. It's possible that he's making music for his fans now and not himself, resulting in less personal music. I say we wait until the next album - maybe Varg will step up.

[E]

When listening to or playing music they can escape to a romantic fantasy where they are powerful and in control.

If that is all you get out of Burzum, maybe you should just speak for yourself. And start exploring classical.

[NHA]

Metal is about power. The reasons why people become interested in extreme metal vary, but many love it because they do not experience power enough in their own lives.

Sounds like how American Liberals tend to view power worshippers in general. ie. if you like power you must secretly have a complex that you are trying to overcompensate for and you should really just mellow out man.

For most people security/insecurity is transient and context specific, and most of the population is nowhere near a position of real power.

Besides it could be argued that metal doesn't make the listener feel powerful but the exact opposite.

The original "heavy" aesthetic is probably from the church. Cathedrals are designed to loom over villages, and organs are designed to crush people with a wall of sound - the whole point is to dominate mortals into submission.

[kultron1]

Just got the vinyl today, I think the album is great. I like it better as a whole more than Filosofem, and definitely more than some of his earlier gaffs (War, the Crying Orc). Who cares if some of the money is going to Haiti? It's not like Varg can collect on it. The album speaks to me, and if doesn't to you, why make a stink about it?

[Sepulchral Voice]

Just got the vinyl today, I think the album is great. I like it better as a whole more than Filosofem, and definitely more than some of his earlier gaffs (War, the Crying Orc). Who cares if some of the money is going to Haiti? It's not like Varg can collect on it. The album speaks to me, and if doesn't to you, why make a stink about it?

Ahh, you had me going there.

[Conservationist]

The album speaks to me, and if doesn't to you, why make a stink about it?

Why ever speak out against a bad idea or false thing?

[Thamuz]

The album speaks to me, and if doesn't to you, why make a stink about it?

Why ever speak out against a bad idea or false thing?

I don't know - why ever deny that someone with intelligence might like something that you find false or a bad idea?

[Humanicide]

So I finally heard this album.

Not that anyone cares, but here's my take on it.

I was not expecting something like old Burzum. In fact, I was not expecting it to be as good as old Burzum. It isn't. That being said, there are some excellent songs and moments (I'm partial to Glemselens Elv), and Varg really does know how to make repetition work. However, there are times where the album genuinely drags, in a boring way that Burzum never had before.

I'll need to listen to it more to formulate a more concrete opinion (as of now I've only listened to it maybe 5 times), but so far this is neither the triumph of Burzum nor the total failing either. Its a middle-of-the-road album. Despite what some people will tell me, I do not see anything wrong with that. No artist has a perfect track record (except for some classical composers, smartasses, I know that). We're talking metal here.

As of now, I like it but I am slightly disappointed.

[En Vind Av Sorg]

i second what deadite and others have said. i can enjoy this album but it is not close to what i expect (in terms of quality) from Burzum. it also seems that Varg is lost in a web of bullshit. my two cents.

[the spine]

So after 6 or so plays I would say Belus is sub par, not a heaping turd like some here in the aspie nerd underground claim - just really disappointing.

I still think Varg has the potential to make fantastic music, but he put this album together far too quickly. Iff he gave the songs conclusions, or the journey like voyage like on old Bumzur they could have been mindblowing. Glemselens Elv is realy the only song that impresses me - it has the hypnotic beauty that only Varg can capture so well -  If Glemselens Elv had the kind of dramatic movement and revalation that you would find at 4:57 on Det Som En Gang Var it could have been his best work to date. Besides this the rest of Belus is more or less garbage/filler. Most of the rest of the album he introduces the themes, then recycles them through out the song (see Belus' Død, & Keliohesten) - no journey. I get that this is the kind of structure he did with Filosofem, but it just isint working, it's in no way hypnotic. If he puts more thought into where the songs will go, the next Bumzur album will be colossal.

Then again he wrote all four Bumzur albums within a year...so maybe it wasn't put together to quickly, maybe he has just lost it.

Still, I look forward to the next Bumzur and still have alot of faith in what his music is capable of!

[TableauxParisiens]

Is this what we've come to?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNRGDeXpnvU

Edit: Is Belus Doed ripped off from Jesus Tod? I may be handicapped to think this was intentional as to mirror the storyline of Jesus Tod.. If not, how can you so blatantly plagiarize your own material?

[Sepulchral Voice]

Is this what we've come to?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNRGDeXpnvU

Edit: Is Belus Doed ripped off from Jesus Tod? I may be handicapped to think this was intentional as to mirror the storyline of Jesus Tod.. If not, how can you so blatantly plagiarize your own material?

The melodies from Jesus Tod have recurred a few times in the Burzum discography. The verse in Black Spell of Destruction slightly resembles the progression in Jesus Tod, the melody is also in Balferth Baldrs. Belus Dod also mimicks the opening of Daudi Baldrs exactly (not trying to hide anything). I'd say it was more of a "remember me?" gesture.

[nothingnowhere]

I can think of quite a few classical composers who blatantly plagiarize their own material!

[Sammaellofi]

That doesn't mean it is completely off the hook of responsibility just because a higher class of musicians showed similar error.


Then again, two of the greatest Bathory songs (and most famililiar) are the exact same riff and almost same structure as eachother and rarely dp people complain about it.