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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Daudi Baldrs, December 6, 1999
This is a new muscial vein I am going into. I've listened to Aske, and found the music interesting but at the same time, unprovoking. As I use music as an escape from my woes, Aske didn't provide it. With Daudi Baldrs, this is what I want to hear. it is such a departure and much more inspiring and provoking. The keyboards create haunting sounds and images for the mind of olden Norwegian times. Some may not be able to get past his beliefs and past acts, as I find it is hard to do myself. It's hard to separate the man from the music. But, focusing on the music is the point, and this is where Burzum is at his best. I do not see the world as a bleak place and find solace in his work, but I listen to his music to broaden myself and encompass different things. This is one of them and it is a beautiful thing.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sometimes moving, oftimes cheesy, December 15, 2004
I will preface this review by saying that I love all the previous Burzum albums and that Varg, psychotic behavior notwithstanding, is a powerfully expressive musician. And I happen to like his electronic works quite a bit. For example the 14 plus minute long electronic/ambient composition Tomhet on the Hvis Lyset Tar Oss album is among my favorite Burzum pieces. So I was looking forward to this all electronic keyboard release, but unfortunately Daudi Baldrs is not a success. There's a haunting, deep sadness to Vargs best ambient work that simply isn't present for much of Daudi Baldrs. Perhaps its the choice of synth timbres. A digital imitation of a sax or violin simply sounds cheesy when compared to the real thing and the synth drums and piano are obnoxiously false sounding. We're talking cheap Casio here. A lot of Daudi Baldrs sounds badly dated. But its also true that many of these compositions lack the hypnotic atmosphere that Burzums previous, repetitious, ambient compositions engendered. Much of this album sounds amateurish, pretentious and ill concieved. There are exceptions such as the beautiful Moti Ragnargkum and the second composition Hermodr A Helferd, possibly the best work on the album despite its 3 minute length. But most of this album is weak, the atmospheric and emotional subtlties of his best work are missing. Perhaps Varg was unfamiliar with or limited by the tools he was using, perhaps he was just due for a dud. I imagine composing in prison isn't the easiest task either and to be fair this is the first release where he attempted an entirely electronic/digital approach. In any case I find this release to be more of a curiosity than genuinely enjoyable. Its not original and previous Burzum releases are vastly superior. I'd avoid this and get Burzum's earlier works or the last album Hlldskjalf which is also electronic but much much better.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Repetitive, but still has some redeeming qualities, September 1, 2004
You know those albums by artists you love which are evidencing of the fact that the artist is slipping, and you're not sure if they'll be able to balance themselves out again? This is exactly what this album is like for Burzum. This makes me think around the lines of `Ouch...err...I don't know if they'll be able to recover from this one.' I wish I could say otherwise, because I love Burzum and the idea of Varg having made a mediocre album doesn't fascinate me. Never the less, it's true - this full-fledged keyboards album is rather mediocre.
I don't mind minimalism at all, because I happen to love the "Hlidskjalf" album; but if you're going to go down the path of a minimalist, then you need variety! Most of the songs are VERY repetitive and don't transform or have any interesting direction; it just keeps a basic rhythm pattern and repeats it over and over again. There are some interesting lead key parts thrown in, but UGH, the rhythm rarely changes! Songs like "Balferd Baldrs" keep the same rhythm all the way through, occasionally playing that same rhythm with a different sound...so it's fairly boring for a six-minute song. The up side to this album is that it's rather alarming and sometimes even disturbing.
Yeah, the over consistencies may annoy you at times, but the mood is so gloomy and sad that it's almost creepy. I don't know anything of the story of Baldrs, but since Varg portrays it as a very melancholic and pessimistic tale, I can imagine the general gist of it. The entire album is in midi form, so it's rather sloven, tempestuous, and rugged in sound; it's not clear and tidy like the follow-up of this album. There aren't that many complexities in the songs, but some are rather intriguing ("Moti Ragnarokum" and "Illa Tidandi" are my personal favorites) with their lonely sound, as if it's alone in a dark forest and looking for shelter. Good, but yet again, the perpetuity is too much.
I feel that most of the song lengths could easily be cut in half, or a quarter at least and still manage to deliver a powerful performance; because when the listener becomes irritated due to over extensive song length, that's when you've messed up. In all honesty, I would have enjoyed this very much if Varg had either shortened the songs or would have added more variety of elements in his songs; preferably the latter. I get the feeling that Varg tried with this album, but somewhere along the lines he got lost, forgot he'd gotten lost, and decided to declare the album done. This album is highly repetitive, but still okay for an occasional listen...although, don't get your hopes up too high for something really cool. In my opinion, this isn't worthy of being called Burzum...but it's not a complete stain to the name by any means.
The good: creepy atmosphere, decent musicianship.
The bad: too repetitive and drawn out.
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