Burzum’s Top Ten Metal Influences

Varg Vikernes posted a video a few weeks ago to his ThuleanPerspective Youtube channel listing the ten metal albums most influential to Burzum. We forced a lowly, supple-assed Death Metal Underground junior staffer/catamite to type them up into a play list for our readers:

10. DeicideDeicide (1990)
“The only death metal album on this list. Raw; extreme and brutal. I got this in 1991. It was the last death metal album I ever bought.”

9. Iron MaidenIron Maiden (1980)
“I got this when I was 13-14 years old. It was a revelation in music to me. A whole new… strange world.”

8. SlayerReign in Blood (1986)
“I go this as a Yule present from my brother in 1987. Fantastic album.”

7. DestructionInfernal Overkill (1985)
“I got this from my childhood friend, Truls Birkeland, probably in 1989, because he didn’t like it, but thought that I would. And I sure did.”

6. BathoryBlood Fire Death (1988)
“I first heard this in 1988 or 1989, when a friend, Karl Ronneberg, visited from Alesund. And I loved it from the first listen.”

5. KreatorPleasure to Kill (1986)
“I first heard this via the little brother of Einar Osland, whom I played role-playing games with. Awesome album! I still listen to it some times.”

4. BathoryTwilight of the Gods (1991)
“I purchased this when it came out in 1991, at a time when it was popular to hate Bathory, because he had (with Hammerheart), ‘wimped out’.”

3. BathoryHammerheart (1990)
“I purchased in 1991, along with Twilight of the Gods. A truly amazing album. Bathory’s best for sure.”

2. Iron Maiden – Killers (1981)
“One of the rawest albums of the 1980ies. I got this album along with the other Iron Maiden albums, around age 13-14, and I never looked back.”

1. Iron Maiden – Somewhere in Time (1986)
“Probably the best metal album ever, according to me. Apart from the first track, I love everything on this album.”

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17 thoughts on “Burzum’s Top Ten Metal Influences”

  1. Necronomeconomist says:

    WOW. This is radical! Strangely eye-opening.
    In his Top 10, 3 are Bathory, 3 are ‘Maiden, and then 4 others.

    In Burzum, I hear the Bathory, not really the ‘Maiden.

    And he called “Somewhere in Time” the best metal album ever. HELLOOOoooo!

  2. C.I.L.L. says:

    No surprises on this list. The sentimental nature of “Somewhere in Time,” the abrupt transitions of Kreator, the melodic leads tracing major themes of Destruction, and the raw intensity of Deicide. His ten non-metal influences was more of a shocker: the Cure, no Kraftwerk, no Skrewdriver.

    1. Robert says:

      Don’t forget Dead Can Dance. He said he loved “Within the Realm of a Dying Sun”.

      1. But where are Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk?

  3. nigstomper88 says:

    ‘metal is all degenerate garbage so you should live in a cabin and play myfarog all day instead, btw Iron Maiden’s worst 80s album is the greatest metal album of all time”

    1. KingdomGone says:

      “Iron Maiden’s worst 80’s album”.

      You sure about that?

    2. I used to like Number of the Beast. Now I find it cloying.

      1. canadaspaceman says:

        agreed, Number of the Beast is overdone, just like Powerslave, so it should not be a surprise the other 1980s Maiden Lp’s are liked a little more these days.
        I play Seventh Son and Somewhere so many more times than them two.

  4. Anthony says:

    Somewhere in Time is indeed a godly Maiden album, but I’m a bit confused as to how someone could dislike the first track. The only throwaway on that album for me is Heaven Can Wait with that awful repetitive chorus. I remember getting that album years and years ago, and when that song came on, even my nonmetal brother thought it sucked.

  5. Sodomized They Sqweak says:

    Haha… better late than never…
    Iron Maiden’s Somewhere in Time and Killers are my all time fav metal… it’s nice to know Varg likes em too…
    The Loneliness Of A long A Distant Runner is simoly superb…
    As a Runner that song perfectly captures the Human Spirit…
    The rest if his choices are great too…

  6. Rainer Weikusat says:

    Pleasure to kill was actually the first metal album I ever encountered: The covers was projected onto a wall with an overhead projector and a short sound sample followed, both intended to serve as scary examples of what to avoid during a mandatory school church service. I bought it has second-hand vinyl version a few years later. Despite I’ve since fallen out with thrash in general and Kreator in particular – this whole ‘fix it by violence’ approach is a definition of mainstream mentality – that and Reign in Blood are the only two decent albums on this list.

    It could possibly get used to the Deicide as well although this sounds exactly like what it is — heavily Slayer-influenced then-fashionable Florida-band, sterily produced to the degree of giving the impression of an studio technology demo, with the vocalist doing the ‘Tom Arraya’ most of the time. And this ‘showy aggression’ is what I’ve come to dislike about this music, see above. Death metal should be something much less regular, much darker/ more sinister and considerably weirder.

    That people who were into Bathory before 1990 – I remember listening to a short bit of that on some mix tape and I was very impressed with it at that time – weren’t exactly fascinated with “Bathory for Iron Maiden fans” is probably not so much a matter of fashion but rather of the change of style: This candy-coloured pseudo-past is fundamentally for ‘shiny, happy people holding hands’ (and eagerly populating the world with their own offspring).

    1. OliveFox says:

      Decide’s first 2 albums are classics, ya silly goose.

      1. OliveFox says:

        Highlighted by the fact that I spelled their name wrong, somehow!?

    2. Syphilis says:

      What do you mean by weird? Carnival music is weird, but its also garbage. Also you come to some really weird conclusions with your tirades.

      1. Skull Powder says:

        “less regular, much darker/ more sinister and considerably weirder” could describe Nespithe, though I wouldn’t say it’s much darker.

  7. revdom666 says:

    I have gained massive respect for Varg from this, if only because he thinks Somewhere In Time is the best metal album of all. It is such an amazing, underrated album. Also, I appreciate the love he gives to Twilight and Hammerheart. Those and Blood On Ice are my favorite Bathory albums, for sure (though, the latter has such awful production).

  8. fuck_norgay says:

    Burzum is a shit band formed by an autistic faggot edgelord larper who likes attention whoring himself on internet and who uses a cheap tape recorder to record his “music”

    Doesn’t matter what this idiot has to say about anything.

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