Customer Reviews

Daudi Baldrs

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First of all, I want to make it clear that I am reviewing Hvis Lyset Tar Oss. For some reason, the reviews for Daudi Baldrs appear instead of reviews for Hvis Lyset Tar Oss.

Varg Vikernes said in an interview awhile back that he considers this album his best. As much as I like Filosofem, I may have to agree with him. Hvis Lyset Tar Oss contains four longer pieces of music, all of them strong, three buzzing metal pieces and one dark ambient. In my opinion, the strongest works are the longest: the opener "Det Som En Gang Var," and the ambient closer, "Tomhet." Both of these tracks clock in at just over fourteen minutes each. This is powerful stuff: aggressive, mesmerizing, disturbing, uplifting. Burzum is my favorite metal band (albeit a one-man band), and Hvis Lyset Tar Oss is one of the finest reasons why.

This album surpasses all metal and has not been matched since. Four lengthy songs in a symphonic ambient black metal style takes metal to its highest point in evolution and beyond.

This one-man band orchestrates with a thematic narrative that puts the listener into a dreamlike state. Simple riffs are layered to create epic structures and are ambient in tone resulting in a range of moods while maintaining a trancelike effect. Shifting harmonies throughout these themes creates a journey of intense emotion and heavy realizations. Each track varies in speed and style but are all strongly connected like a classical movement. Ideological impact is the key to this albums power as songs drive forth with outstanding passion and sincerity. The subtlety is so deep that each listen will evoke feelings of wonder and majesty no matter how many times visited. It is an epic poetic story that is mystical yet symbolic to reality - it literally awakens your soul with a vision of eternal order through chaos. The album ends with an ambient keyboard track that is minimal and allows heavy reflection and resolution after the severe intensity and whirlwind of emotion from the first three tracks.

The result is an experience like no other album of modern times. Its power is immense and makes us contemplate the deepest questions of our very existence. In the age of our moribund civilisation this album is the ultimate warcry against the stupidity of the modern world.

Really dark and haunting, Daudi Baldrs utilizes rather atonal yet melodic passages, with no real tonal center yet still emotional and moving. A real hard album to get into, it sounds very out-of-the-box. A reccommended album if you like any of Varg's earlier electronic songs. The album art really captures the feeling of Daudi Baldrs, too.

Daudi Baldrs is generally seen as the least accomplished of Vikernes' works. That being said, it lacks many of the hooks and all of the aggression of his first few albums, and takes a totally ambient, Casio-keyboard based approach (he wrote and performed it in prison). While the melodies are sometimes repeatative, Varg really makes the most out of what he has, and creates an excellent classically-based ambient album which is totally unique from his other work.

If you're considering buying, remember - no black metal here!

The death of Baldr in Norse mythology is here melodramatized into a blend of midi-instrumental and repetetive, amateur piano passages. If you're really into old RPG music (of the 16-bit SNES like) or a diehard fan of Norse mythology no matter the context, you might like this. (Heck, I love some RPG music in the games, but I don't listen to them on CD). If that's not quite the case, you might still find this, like me, hilariously funny. As far as the story of Baldr in Norse mythology is concerned, I don't quite see the relevance of this dark ambient, melodramatic midi composition to the actual story, which is largely due to the absence of lyrics (not to mention absence of credible mood in the music). Some of this material reminds me of Anton Lavey's midi compositions, which have approximately the same entertainment value. The other main association I get is Arthur from Six Feet Under (God bless), which should give you some implication as to what treat you're in for.

Taken into consideration the context in which this music was produced adds even more brisk humour to the pudding; Varg Vikernes being imprisoned for murder, and his past of hardcore proto-Black Metal music, Satanism, Church arson and NeoNazism, is - ladies and gentlemen - the historical framework in which this masterpiece was composed.(Note that down for future historians). And the guy doesn't even have the slightest sense of self-irony, which of course makes this opus even more fun.

If you're in for a laugh, download this, don't waste the money unless you can't get your eyes off the cover artwork.

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.