Black Metal's Most Epic Soundtrack - "The Ways of Yore" Review (89%)
Blackened neoambient gains another monster. The genre - constructed of evil and haunting soundscapes, sinister medievalism, neofolk and dark ambient with some structural ideas from black metal - rose out of the ashes of black metal, with bands like Beherit, Neptune Towers (Darkthrone), Lord Wind (Graveland), Verminlust (Vermin) and of course Burzum leading. On The Ways of Yore, Burzum integrates organic sounds like vocals and guitar into the cosmic ambient that defined the last album, Sôl austan, Mâni vestan.
The Ways of Yore creates within the same spectrum of music stretching between early Phantom and Tangerine Dream that marked the previous album Sôl austan, Mâni vestan but with even more of an ambient feel. Songs rely on repetitive patterns with layers of instrumentation and even song structures shifting, as in technical death metal, to develop melody or make dramatic contrast enhance the imitation of their subjects.
As in ancient Greek drama, poetry and music merge with sole musician Varg Vikernes' surprisingly competent alternating spoken, sung or shrieked vocals - so much for the "Varg can only do one vocal style" bullshit - guiding the progress of atmospheric music of epic proportions.
Melodies refer to each other across the length of the album through tonal shifts, and extremely complex yet seemingly simple harmonic variations, culminating in the track "Emptiness"... which previously made itself known as "Tomhet" on Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, the album that single-handedly ended black metal by raising the bar above what others could imitate.
Black Metal's Most Epic Soundtrack
As I mentioned, while every riff or lead appears simple on the surface, a look at the deeper meaning found in the way each individual segment is arranged to form a coherent whole, that both expands the narrative recital and enhances the atmosphere, reveals a surprising complexity that goes well and beyond what passes for "technical" death metal.
This album The Ways of Yore is technical on a very deep layer, where songwriting and atmosphere combine for a transcendent experience of epic proportions.
Without taking either the venomous aggression or the atmospheric profundity to ridiculous or try-hard extents like modern war metal or post rock "atmospheric ambient" metal bands, respectively, The Ways of Yore sounds sober, mature, well-structured, and rich in its many shades of black (metal).
It's not shy of brief calmer moments either, and these serve their purpose well by making the wrathful passages stand out in the layout of the album that much more emphatically. One of the most remarkable features of the record is that it doesn't really leave any real space for filler at all - something expected from bands with a big reputation behind them - yet Burzum truly has outdone its previous self and used the little over 68 minutes of running time on The Ways of Yore well to bring savage black metal to the table, sounding as hungry and serious as ever.
This full-length is a great example of what the black metal and ambient fusion should sound like, something more than the sum of its parts for one, and it's nice to see it released in these days of bedroom DSBM ambient bands that really could really learn a thing or two - like how to write music - from Burzum.
As much as people might try to point out how easy it is for a band like this to reach this sound, I believe a lot of effort and care have been put into The Ways of Yore. As natural and organic as it is, and it deserves to be praised for it, this is more than a Burzum comeback, this is the kind of material the heart of the genre can keep living on.
I'm honestly glad to witness how, regardless of extra-musical circumstances - prison, different countries, different genres, different instruments - Burzum really is as immortal as it gets.
The Ways of Yore score: 89/100.
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