Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Man this is dark..., January 17, 2003
Those of you looking for some very dark music should look here. Det Som Engang Var is just about the darkest you can get. Upon listening to this the first impression one gets is that of someone pouring their soul into a recording. I don't approve of murder, church burning or rascist neo-nazism, but I'm reviewing the man's music, not his life or beliefs.The music is very simple but also atmospheric. Much of the music is actually surprisingly slow. There is some speed in places much it is played at a mid-paced tempo. There is a dark feeling about the whole album. One of my favourite tracks is in fact Han Som Reiste, a very ambient keyboard piece that, despite its crude sound and simplicity (it sounds like a midi file), sends shivers down my spine every time. The vocals are very harsh. Mostly non-rythmic screaming, they take a very brash, harsh and emotional tone that is hard to ignore. While many extreme metal vocals are easily passed off by many as noise, I think that for many people (even though they wouldn't admit it) these may catch their ears much more. I would say that this album is well recommended for anyone with an open mind looking to find some dark, haunting and emotional extreme-metal-based music. This isn't for everyone, even those into extreme metal, but it is something different, even compared to other black metal I've heard.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
As it once was..., May 7, 2000
This is my favorite Burzum album, it also was the first one I bought which may have led to that. After hearing about Varg's church burnings and his general hatred against churches as most of them are build on the sites of former pagan holy places, I decided this was a band I had to like.The music surprised me, Varg's tortured screams combined with strange harmonics and dissonants give this whole album a haunted sound. This would be the ideal soundtrack to a horror movie if it was to be unnerving, haunting and slightly paranoid. If you like the dark rawness of this album, you may also like Troll's drep de kristne (murder the christian). Although less raw Troll manages to create the same atmosphere of depression and darkness.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Burzum's second best album., July 13, 2005
From the opening rumbles of "Den Onde Kysten," it should be clear that this album will not be light listening. "Det Som Engang Var" -- like all of Burzum's albums, really -- requires the listener's full attention and has no mercy for those who fail to provide it and subsequently get lost in the album's volatile mix of brutality, ambience, and sorrow. This album was a marked improvement over its predecessors "Burzum" and "Aske" in that it further eschewed the standard chorus-verse-chorus-verse song structuring that was common even among black metal bands at the time and instead developed a structural reliance on movements and variations. This had the effect of creating a more sophisticated kind of metal that opened doors for other bands and showed outsiders that metal had the ability to be something more than head-banging party music. Accordingly, those seeking such music would be ill-served to look here for it. This is a textured album, deep in sound and meaning, and it is best heard alone. Certain prominent individuals in the metal community would recommend personal chemical enhancement to heighten the experience of this album, but I would say this album calls for sober thinking and full concentration on (at least) the first few separate listens. "Det Som Engang Var" comes highly recommended to anyone who is even remotely interested in black metal music and stands out as one of the best that genre ever produced as well as Burzum's second best album (top honors go to "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss," which interestingly features a song called "Det Som Engang Var" whereas this one does not).
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