I’m not what you’d consider a hardcore fan of Burzum’s music, but the genius of Varg’s work certainly doesn’t escape me. His ability to craft such incredibly evocative atmospheric soundscapes from extremely simple repetitive riffs is still unparalleled within the genre. In fact, the song ‘Det Som En Gang Var’ is probably largely responsible for getting me into the more depressive side of black metal in the first place.

Burzum returns after eleven long years with his new albumBelus. While Belus may not stick out among its peers as much as Burzum’s earlier albums did, the new album shows Varg is still a more than capable songwriter. On Belus he has smartly modernized Burzum’s sound, but the songs still also retain a flavor of what made Burzum’s older releases great. These songs are on the whole faster and the overall sound is perhaps less extreme: the inhuman shrieks of albums past have been replaced by more conventional black metal vocals, and the production doesnt stick out as anything special either. The riffs, however, are still incredibly simple for the most part, with some shredding fast sections combined with repetitive arpeggios that work to create a hypnotic effect. The intro ‘Lukans Renkespill (Introduksjon)’ consists of some unsettling sound effects, and ‘Kaimadalthas Nedstigning,’ probably my favorite track on the album, includes a chorus consisting of a rather disturbing spoken word / clean singing combination that’s quite unique.

Hardcore Burzum fans might be a little disappointed, as really only a couple of tracks seem to fit well with the style of Burzum’s previous albums. Newer fans who may not be familiar with Burzum’s work might also be a bit disappointed since Belus doesn’t really sound all that different from your typical black metal band nowadays, and certainly doesn’t lend itself to the kind of hype that surrounds Varg himself. However, Belus does stand up well with other recent black metal releases, mostly because of Varg’s songwriting ability and originality. He’s crafted an album that is still vaguely identifiable as Burzum, but brings the project’s sound into the current scene, and manages to stand out from the pack while staying firmly within the boundaries of the genre.

» Buy Belus from Amazon.com