Burzum mastermind Varg Vikernes demonstrates a long history of crossing over between worlds. With Burzum, he crossed black metal with the cosmic space ambient music (RIP Edgar Froese) that defined the best of the previous decade, and now with his newer folk/ambient work he crosses over between the world of role-playing games, philosophies that get bast the postmodern thought-loop which has stalled humanity for the past century, and the inspiration in warfare, wizardry and medievalism that distinguished the aesthetics of his black metal.
In releasing the new track “Mythic Dawn,” Vikernes shows us a work in progress with a somewhat sparse but distinct track in the style of the second half of The Ways of Yore, specifically “Autumn Leaves” for the shimmery distorted background guitar effect and “The Lady of the Lake” for the plodding slightly offtime loop of neo-tribal drums over a simple bidirectional chord progression. As a work in progress, the new track is naturally sparser, but the chord progression seems very basic and song structure less integrated with its own purpose, which suggests this is a very early conceptualization of this track without the traditional Burzum “magic” being added. As musicians age, they often retreat into the realm of techniques and textures such as specific samples or types of melody, and this can adulterate the material that in their younger years they would have agonized over until all of it had an intensity of its own and none fit within a template, even if of their own making. With some luck and gumption Burzum will not avoid that fate.
As part of the video, Vikernes reveals pages of his Myfarog role-playing game (similar to Dungeons and Dragons, usually abbreviated “D&D”) and in the text on the background image of the video describes its appeal to those who, like Vikernes, have rejected modernity not just as an experience but as a concept entirely and seek alternatives outside of the realm of what modernity can describe. The game looks complex, and the song is promising for its initial stages although it looks like it will require some work, and so the audience looks on with interest at this evolving event and hopes for more.
- Myfarog role-playing game
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO2_VsickLs
Tags: Ambient, Black Metal, burzum, myfarog, role-playing games
I’ve been wanting to play MYFAROG for quite some time, I haven’t played pen’n’paper RPGs ever since I was a teen, playing Shadowrun and D&D for hours each weekend, those were the days. Varg also has a short video overview of the game, if anyone’s interested you can easily find the playlist on his Youtube channel.
Did not realize he has such an active youtube feed. This was interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOgCxx41ho0
Just a normal father with a sense of humor working on his car. He seems content.
Ice T has home videos like that up on YT too, fixing stuff.
I can understand his political videos or the ones about game, but this? It mainly exposes he wasn’t really fully equiped on the tool front, as any man/prepper should be.
He has one video in which he explains that Caesar’s conquest of Gall was a Jewish conspiracy, haha. Whatever, as long as he keeps up the music he can be as wacky as he wants.
I suppose this is my hope for computer-mediated communication, especially on this website:
Intelligent, confident, open-minded but reality/consequences-oriented people having a discussion over cigars, cognac, green tea, whatever.
A club from the late 1800s with civility as the rule.
We are people; what we debate is far more important than us…
We can get to the bottom of this, and it helps if all voluntarily adhere to a higher standard than the “AOL” level of the internet right now.
Burzum’s ambient stuff is impossible to get excited about. Am I supposed to be on a handful of vicodin to appreciate it? I remember reading an Animals As Leaders review that said the album sounds like video game music; if you’ve played literally any fantasy-oriented games (RPGs or dungeon crawlers) since 1995 then you’ll have heard exactly the same kind if thing that Burzum has been squeezing out since 2010 or whatever, after Fallen and the sort-of-black-metal album after that. This stuff is less trookvlt than Ulver’s album of psychedelic rock covers.
This is so excruciatingly boring, just like his last ‘album’.
Don’t tarnish the memory of his pre-release albums with the stuff he has done since!
His post-release black metal albums were second rate black metal. You understood this. But you do not see that his post-release ambient albums are second (and sometimes third-rate) ambient music.
Why the inconsistency here?
Is it because of his politics? In that case, shame on you as our trusted music critic.
I don’t agree here. His material has its strengths and weaknesses but on the whole manages to be interesting, evocative music. I don’t read the lyrics. The most recent had a rushed feel to it but I hope that will not carry on into the next. Then again, he was also facing legal troubles and trying to get an RPG out the door.
Assume that Varg’s recent music is indeed interesting and evocative. The point is that there is so much ambient music that is ‘interesting and evocative’, but that is BETTER than Varg’s latest efforts.
But you don’t review that. You review Varg.
Hypothesis: it’s because of his politics, or the general ‘traditionalist’ aesthetics and concepts surrounding his music?
All Malevolent Creation stuff is fucking amazing. They haven´t done one single bad album since their inception. Shame on you Kontinual for not having this amazing band reviewed !
…but Eternal and In Cold Blood had nu riffs in them! The Machine Head influenced vocals didn’t help those albums either. They sound like some kind of aggro/mall death metal. A later album with a James Murphy guest solo had this annoying wigger who did metalcore shouting vocals.
As a side note, any band who makes “racist”/non-P.C. statements should stand behind them if they believe in them and NOT get all P.C. like Inquisition, which is what Malevolent Creation does in a lot of interviews.
I don’t agree here. Their material has its strengths and weaknesses but on the whole manages to be interesting, evocative music. I don’t read the lyrics.Is it because of his politics? In that case, shame on you, if anyone’s interested you can easily find the playlist on his Youtube channel.
This has nothing to do with politics. It is disingenuous for him to retract those statements as a “joke” when he’s allegedly faced with “danger” over saying those things. Be a man. Mean what you say or don’t even waste the time. That’s what I mean. For further consideration, see how Inquisition uses “social taboos” for underground points but then retracts them with a press release that basically amounts to “we’re not racist” so people don’t feel bad and keep buying Immortal/indie-rock hybrid albums.
I don’t agree with the interesting, evocative music statement – at least throughout their discography. While Eternal has songs that can fit this description, such as Enslaved (track 6), on the whole you will find concessions being made to fit in with the aggro/mall crowd as well. I’d even say some of the blame for the metalcore trying to pass itself off as death metal can be found in those 2000’s albums with the wigger vocalist, and the seed for that can be found in their post Roadrunner albums which start with the Eternal album.
I remember reading once how Slipknot claimed to have been inspired by Malevolent Creation. I once owned the In Cold Blood album and, after recalling the abominations that were the title track and VII, I could see where they found the inspiration. Before any “political” accusations against me are made, I saw an interview with Fred Durst where he claimed to have been inspired by Napalm Death. The only reason I hate Napalm Death is not because of their vegan hippie feminism lyrics, but because of the same reasons Malevolent Creation suck now: a mall/crowd mentality approach towards creating music.
And yet both Napalm Death and Malevolent Creation made quality music in their careers. (It should be noted that Napalm Death did so mostly by appropriating one of the creative forces behind Terrorizer.)
The problem is the herd. When you let mass tastes dictate who can make enough money to survive as a musician, you get pure whore.
The masses are not dictating anything.
That is the subterfuge of our time.
It’s only the political arguments that have nothing going for them that counter all criticism with “well you’re just brainwashed!”. Marxists call this tactic false consciousness.
I don’t see where Malevolent Creation made concessions to fit in with the “aggro/mall crowd” but even if this were true, Malevolent Creation’s overall quality never plummeted to abyssic levels of suck like most Floridian bands. The concessions you mention do not overshadow their body of work which has remained proportionally consitent to the overall quality of their entire discography; whether or not their overall artistic level is sufficient to your particular standards is a different topic.
I’d like to know what Bitterman and Brett Stevens think of Malevolent Creation’s material which in any case, if it reflects any negative trends or influence on current metal, I’m sure Brett would like to have a voice on the matter.
Admittedly, the audience that would care for Malevolent Creation´s style are in its entirety metalheads that purposely find enjoyment in speed metal / death metal hybrid bands such as: Morbid Saint, Demolition Hammer, Exorder, Devastation, Dark Angel, Hobbes Angel of Death, Gammacide and Cabal.
It’s essentially dance music. The mainstream had disco in the 70s, electro trance for some audiences, latinos have salsa and cumbia and metalheads have Malevolent Creation to dance around.
Varg got racist and started churning out shitty and boring and albums.
“Where’s all the white people? =(” – Varg’s inspiration for the last 20 years.
The Ways of Bore: Turbo HD Remix Ambient Alpha