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Extreme Heavy Metal Reviews

Almost Perfect Black Metal - "Filosofem" Review (86%)

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Filosofem
Filosofem by Burzum.

Burzum is no stronger to the masterpieces that spawned here and there during the second wave of Norwegian black metal. The first four albums from Varg Vikernes' project are all ranked alongside De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, Memento Mori, The Birth of a Cursed Elysium and Under a Funeral Moon.

With that said, among these four albums there are two that usually stand out as the "pinnacle" of the genre: Hvis Lyset Tar Oss and Filosofem, with Filosofem usually the preferred opus of the two.

Yet that is incorrect, as Filosofem - despite its grandiose aura - is not without its flaws.

Both evolving to simplicity and devolving to a less structurally intriguing form of pop music, Burzum produces an obscure and romantic work of black metal atmosphere. Ambient song structures, where a circular pattern gains variants in each successive iteration, incorporate the narrative structures of earlier Burzum within these loops, but most notably in the epic atmospheric narrative, framed by Varg's eternally demented vocals that surpass and transcend all forms of humanity in the name of black metal folly.

The first three songs define the "Odinpop" format that makes this album such a fan favorite: verse/chorus, with a long bridging deviation that weaves harmonic detail through simple progressions, creating an enveloping sound like a microcosmic version of Demonecromancy's approach in which aspects of harmony are added or subtracted to create a prismatic structure, or one in which repetition becomes non-repetitive because of the altered context into which these repeated phrases are injected.

Yet, this change in format is also what lessens the intensity and mystique of Burzum's majestic black metal, by removing some of its tenseness and ambiguity.

Almost Perfect Black Metal

Burzum
Burzum.

As much as silly fan-boys of a certain era love to criticize and rant about how Varg Vikernes almost ended up making an ambient project out of Burzum, that still doesn't really affect the final outcome of Filosofem whatsoever, no matter how much that may piss some people off.

Filosofem, despite its flaws, is a fantastic, glorious black metal album. The epic scales and shifting rhythms travelingly seemingly effortlessly through the somewhat lengthy 6 tracks-long colourful landscape all exemplify the top-notch musicality embraced by Burzum, and all the while make for some of the genre's best diabolical anthems, without ever compromising or failing their true roots, still being firmly built on a solid, bullet-proof black metal foundation, as evidenced by Burzum's haunting atmospheric patterns that powerfully erupt like shadows from the orchestral background elements to take the unprepared listener by storm, serving as a reminder of the true nature and meaning of Burzum - "darkness" - since the band's very conception.

Upping the intensity, ambition, artistic merits and production values with every consequent release since their magical 1992 debut, this album stands today as the perfect embodiment of the heights reached by the non-stopping maturing process undertaken by underground black metal in the early to mid-1990s.

I am glad Varg Vikernes took the lead on Burzum, rather than just following the herd like Darkthrone did with Panzerfaust - we know how that ended up, a band copying its own sound forever - as it has only become clear with time how he was the most gifted creative figure in the Norwegian second wave, as well as the main reason behind the genre's quality and acclaim, and rightfully so.

No matter what genre the band plays, it's more than evident that Burzum is truly a one of a kind band, and it takes no more than a listen to Filosofem to prove just that.

Filosofem score: 86/100.

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