Metal Reviews

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I'll probably give this a pass since he's pretty much done with metal now. I really liked the direction Varg was going with on Belus and Fallen with the richer sounding guitars and varied vocal approach. Oh, well. Knowing him, Varg probably felt metal was too close to the blues (black music) and wanted to go with something more anglo-centric.

Cute theory, but I think you are more likely to make that link than even he would be.

Fallen and especially Belus were good enough for me, and filled in the gap after Filosofem adequately.

(Apologies for racist language contained in this reply. These are direct quotes from Varg himself and have not been changed or altered by me at all. They do not represent my opinions on race or music. I'm putting up this disclaimer so there is no question as to my position. Simply illustrating a point here.)

Here are some wits of wisdom from Uncle Varg taken from his website:

"The guitar is an European invention, just like the synthesizer. However, the music played on guitar is mostly nigger music – and that goes definitely for all metal music."

"You become what you listen to (mentally), so I deem it very important that we promote Aryan music to our Aryan race. This as well, is a part of the struggle. This way we can save our collective mental and spiritual health as well. Instead of primitive, degenerate, subhuman mentality promoted by the nigger (pop) music today, we can educate and 'heal' our race with Aryan music,..."

"I categorize music like this; Aryan music (European classical and folkmusic, as well as some other more electronic music); Alien music with Aryan lyrics (like all these Viking-metal bands, Oi-rock and the like) and; Alien music with alien lyrics."

Quotes taken from link below:
http://www.burzum.com/burzum/library/interviews/varg/

Varg expounds on Aryan vs Alien music here. I'll let you decide whom he is referring to with the "mud" descriptor.
http://www.burzum.com/burzum/library/text/heavy_metal/

What a douche!

We've heard this stuff a million times on this forum before, long before your time, sort of amusing to see you hash it out all over again. Varg is extremely prone to contradictions too, so lets not play the quote a crazy Uncle Varg game.

Actually I should apologize for being so vague in my original comment, which had basically nothing to do with Varg. I was poking fun at your 'Kumbaya' theory of metal which draws connecting lines from black metal to punk to death metal to hardcore to thrash to hard rock to blues and back again. It is a cute theory.

Just have no interest in non-metal Varg, mainly because he's so crap at it, and so much better with all these "black" instruments.

I should have probably just left it with something like what Goat said...

Thrash: before you might misinterpret anything I just wrote, let me say that my objections to your theory remain rooted in my dislike for simple pop/rock song structures which I probably have sounded like a broken record on this forum about for many years. Something like jazz, for example, while not being my favorite genre, is something I can respect in the (or lack of) song structure element. The vast majority of my favorite metal is divorced enough from pop/rock structures to the point where my position is that you just can't draw line from classic rock to it.

Also, I wasn't trying to be derisive when I wrote Kumbaya or cute, take those terms on a face value. I obviously disagree with the theory, but appreciate that opposing viewpoints lead to further understanding of my own opinions.

I think this is quite a generous score for such god-awful album.

Well, it's not MY theory actually. Metal's lineage is pretty well researched and documented. There are a plethora of books, band interviews and documentaries with rock/metal musicians directly stating they took their influence from x who were initially influenced by y all tracing their roots back to black blues. It may not sound just like John Lee Hooker or BB King but the chord progressions that the early white English bands took from American bluesmen are the same. Early rock pioneers like the Beatles, the Stones, Cream and the Yardbirds were all born from the blues. Everything that came after was built on the foundation they (and bands like them) created. Sabbath and Priest both began life as heavy blues rock bands inspired by the likes of the previous group. Various styles of rock and metal have branched out along the way of course but every one of them took a piece from a band that had influenced them when they first got started. Obviously some bands won't fit comfortably within the direct line but that doesn't mean they aren't still part of the same family tree. You're using a very small sample size (bands you prefer) to flatly denounce a widely held position that applies over a much larger representative group which validates the theory. It's fine that you like that weird, eclectic shit but realize it's not the "be all, end all" of metal. Death and Morbid Angel fall directly within the lines of the theory. Would you say Schuldiner and Azagthoth wrote music filled with simplistic rock/pop song structures?

As for Vikernes, I think he makes his stance pretty clear on music and society. Contrarian though he may be, Varg's thought process has been fairly predictable in recent years. My observation was based off readings of his numerous self-penned articles from Burzum.com and on many of the interviews he's given over his 20+ year career. Vikernes can come across as a pretty affable guy when making small talk, but then he dumps a load of crazy in your lap and it all goes south from there. Or maybe he just likes to fuck with people. It's difficult to tell sometimes.

You strawmanned my position. I never denied the existence of a large portion of metal that uses simplistic song structures (some of which I like, such as MA and Death, though those two mix up their song structures, particularly on later albums) but either way those two bands would not make my top 100 metal acts.

Your appeal to credibility on the connections of genres simply has no resonance when discussing bands like Monolithe, Ruins of Beverast, or Elysian Blaze. If you were less ignorant of that 'weird eclectic shit' you'd be less obsessive about adhering to the grand uniting music theory which might have made a great deal of sense when the most obscure metal out there was Hellhammer but appears laughably incomplete now.

I'm done here.

PS-Your inane disclaimer disavowing Varg's comments was hilarious.

From my interview with Varg (*preens*) he did seem like a grumpy sod who takes offence easily and loves to wind people up. I'm sure he'd be pleased that his work causes arguments every time they're discussed here at MR... Let's keep it friendly guys.

Real talk, though: why does Varg not get the hate that say, Opeth do for leaving metal behind, even though he's plainly incapable of making music anywhere as tremendous as before? People seem to give him the benefit of the doubt very easily.

Why don't people hate Varg (well, some people) for leaving metal behind? Some people need a führer, Louis Cachet fits the bill. For this kind of person, music is not paramount.

[quote="Goat"]Let's keep it friendly guys.[/quote]

Hey, I'm not the one hurling insults here, Zaddy. I've taken the high road and not gotten personal with this guy but his snide, holier than thou BS really makes it hard not to go there. But am I wrong with supporting the argument that blues was the core root of rock and metal? A handful of obscure modern bands who don't utilize blues scale progressions in their music does not entirely negate the chain of influence that led to their existence in the first place. I never said the theory was a pretty box with a neat little bow on top but you can clearly follow the progression of the genre through the decades and see why everything sounds the way it does. I'm not trying to beat a dead horse but it's just exasperating that NFH can't see the forest for the trees here.

[quote="Goat"]Real talk, though: why does Varg not get the hate that say, Opeth do for leaving metal behind, even though he's plainly incapable of making music anywhere as tremendous as before? People seem to give him the benefit of the doubt very easily.[/quote]

Maybe people just expect better things out of Opeth now than they do from Vikernes. Varg has been beaten up pretty badly over his awful prison albums though.

Opeth is much more dear to my heart than Burzum. Opeth cut me deep. This guy... Whatever. He can keep making his prison keyboard tunes for all I care.

Wise words, Frenchie.

@Kyle: I totally agree. I was never a fan of old Burzum, either.

Don't really feel like going in-depth on my thoughts about Burzum vs Mayhem and Varg. However, I will say that Varg wrote some great guitar and had some great atmosphere on his early albums and his after-prison metal albums weren't too shabby either.

imo it's hard to deny the influence of blues on any rock or metal or really anything using an electric guitar. Sorta like how Shakespeare has influenced everyone who writes in English whether they've read him or not.

I feel like the hate for Opeth's change is that their music is still similar to what they used to play, but with certain key elements deemphasized or eliminated. Burzum's not-black metal is clearly a different thing, sort of like Damnation was, and people didn't complain about Damnation.

[quote]The vast majority of my favorite metal is divorced enough from pop/rock structures to the point where my position is that you just can't draw line from classic rock to it.[/quote]

Isn't there a fairly clear line from blues>early rock>rock>Sabbath>NWOBHM>thrash>early black metal>black metal>weirdo black metal? There's a couple steps but it's still a line. I don't know if divorcing yourself from the typical song structures is enough to say there's no influence.

Wasn't the truly revolutionary and essential element of popular music the song structures though? It appears more important to me than one instrument which can be used for very different purposes now than it initially was.

The thing about Opeth is that Damnation was pretty good to great, and I praised it from the day I heard it. Opeth's newer material continues to underwhelm me though.

I guess with Varg is he had that period in prison where he could only use keyboards so for some reason I assumed his burst of metal releases post prison would end and he would go in a different direction. He has gone in this (silly) direction for inexplicable reasons, but with Opeth my assumption has always been that Akerfeldt moved away from metal towards rock because he had pretensions to greater popularity. That might be having the opposite effect though...

Thank you, noodles. Every generation of bands has added new elements to the music which has changed it's structure to a certain extent. But as I said before, that doesn't negate the chain of influence that led to a sub-genre's existence in the first place. NFH listed several doom bands (well, one man bands at least) who make a conscious effort not to adhere to any one specific genre. Despite this effort, even Monolithe main man Sylvain Begot admits there is a still a possible subconscious influence from other bands past and present who play a role in the shaping of their music.

NFH, I realize this is not a perfect, all-inclusive theory but it is applicable towards a large portion of our metal history. The doom guys seem to be the ones purposefully bucking the trends more often than not now and I see a lot of their opinions in music mirroring your own. I respect their creative integrity but I don't really gravitate towards the more avant-garde stuff. It's a little too high brow for my taste as I'm mostly a meat-and-potatoes thrash guy. Call it simplistic if you like, but I enjoy metal a lot more when it lacks artistic pretense and just goes out and tries to kick your ass.

As for the musical change from Vikernes, he's given the "Aryan music" explanation as his primary reason for leaving metal but his true intentions are probably less sensational. More likely he's just bored with it and wants to try something different. He's obviously not a fan of certain sections of society but it's hard to determine whether he's being truly honest or mostly "winding people up" like Zad said. I was tired and a little mentally drained from work when I wrote my reply to this last week, so my apologies for the scattered, stream-of-thought explanation.