I love Varg Vikernes. I’ve blogged about him and, especially, his views before, explaining that despite not agreeing with almost anything that he says, I find myself oddly respecting and understanding his somewhat crazy point-of-view. Yes, he’s a church-burning racist murderer, but he’s badass enough to get away with it. Despite this, my love for Burzum fails to match my love for him as an individual, which saddens me greatly. Believe me, I’ve tried to love Burzum, I really have, but I can’t help but see them as poor in comparison to many other quality black metal acts. Of course, I understand their importance within the early Norwegian black metal scene and by no means am I bashing their significance, I just don’t get the same feeling from a Burzum record as I do from, say, an early Mayhem record. There are a few cracking songs on pretty much every release, but I’ve never been able to love the entirity of any one release. Still, this didn’t stop me from becoming terribly excited when I heard the news of a new Burzum record being released, the first in nearly eleven years.

I can’t quite make my mind up when it comes to whether or not “Belus” is as good as some people are saying, and I don’t seem to be the only one. People seem to either think that it’s the greatest black metal album ever released or extremely mediocre, especially seeing as it’s released by one of the ultimate legends of the scene. For me, there are definitely parts of the album which are pure gold, perfectly showing that Varg still has that old magic that made early Burzum material so unforgettable and influential, but there seems to be something missing; it seems to drag on for too long, the longer tracks such as “Glemselens Elv” being a perfect example, standing at 11:54 minutes long. In my opinion, this song is 11:54 minutes too long. Slightly cruel, maybe, but it’s a poor song compared to many of the others on the album and it clocking in at nearly 12 minutes does not help whatsoever. I have no problem with long songs (many of my favourite bands are bands that write 20+ minute tracks) but it seems to me that Varg has chosen the poorest tracks to be the long ones on the album.

There are positives though, of course. One thing I am very pleased about is Varg’s new and improved vocal style. One of the main reasons why many people I know dislike Burzum is due to his infamous “shrieks”, although labeling them even that is debatable; they definitely are an acquired taste. But, a new record has brought about a new Varg and a new vocal sound, much improved from the Burzum releases of the early 90s and sounding oh so crisp and clear, yet still as perfectly evil and raw as they always have been. The much lower-sounding screams and grunts perfectly suit the more thrash-orientated songs whilst the interesting use of haunting clean vocals work fantastically with the more doom-esque tracks on the album. The split between the two styles throughout is great, although, personally, I would’ve preferred more doom and gloom than thrash, but I guess that’s just me being my nihilistic, sorrowful self. That grievance aside, Varg has done well to balance out the two.

Overall, “Belus” can be seen as both a good and bad album, which makes it difficult for me to come to even a personal conclusion on what I think of it. Yes, there are one or two poor songs and some riffs feel recycled from earlier releases, but there is plenty of brilliance to make up for it. In all fairness, is Varg even capable of writing anything that is terrible? The man is brilliant and an influence to so many, and I’m very interested to hear Varg’s next release and whatever news about the band’s future may be coming soon.

Long live Burzum!

6/10