Hvis Lyset Tar Oss [Import]

???? | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• ASIN: B00005627L
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #354,716 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The album that ended black metal (One of the best, ever), January 24, 2003

By 

death metal and black metal "death metal and ... (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hvis Lyset Tar Oss (Audio CD)

I bought this one back at Wild Rags in the early 1990s and was not immediately enchanted with it. I heard mostly noise and very simple riffs with keyboards. After becoming acquainted with some classical music in short forms, I realized what the Burzum trip is: themes are developed in very simple riffs, leading to a complex establishment of harmony in which a final motif is proclaimed which removes the anger from the perception of this music and replaces it with a graceful, yet bittersweet sad, revelation of the pessimism and desire for change in herent in life for a thinking person at this time. It's not Beethoven's fifth, but it is as distinctive.

Opening with the lengthy "Det Som Engang Var" the album races through two majestic but basic tracks, then drifts into a simple and repetitive ambient keyboard track with the allure of creating and holding a mood despite its somewhat traditional ambient aesthetics. Tracks use complex structures made of riffs that use the simplest possible musical shapes for the greatest effects, putting together five three-note riffs into ambient metal of resonant sensation. Keyboards drum and guitar use sparse patterns in coincidence for great effect.

This album destroyed black metal by taking the music one dimension higher, toward what earlier black metal had explored but completely detached from the standard rock song form, suggesting a type of "symphonic" metal that is designed to be lengthy, narrative music like a classical symphony, but doesn't use the same breadth of instrumentation. It is one of the handful of best the genre produced, and perhaps its most visionary work.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A forever milestone in the Metal of the North, February 27, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Hvis Lyset Tar Oss (Audio CD)

Burzum's "Hvis Lysset Tar Oss" is an opus unmatched. It is standing out like a tower, its painful and agonising atmosphere is incredible. Just listen to "Det Som Engang Var" (=what once was), a 14 minute infernal suffering - you feel the flames of Hell indeed when you hear this song. And "Tomhet" (=emptiness) is like dancing swirling lights in the eternal cold void of the universe, truly emptiness. This masterpiece is, together with Emperor's "In the Nightside Eclipse", the absolute root and solid ground of Black Metal. Listen to it, undescribable! Another tip: If you like Burzum, listen to Nargaroth "Herbstleyd", a CD difficult to find, but very Burzumish atmosphere...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect Burzum Album, August 24, 2009

By 

Inamis (Somewhereselse, US) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hvis Lyset Tar Oss (Audio CD)

I am a pretty big Burzum fan. All of his albums are amazing but I always feel incomplete after listening to his other albums (especially Filosofem). Like there are songs missing. Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, however, is the perfect album. From the music down to the mechanics of arrangement (track order is more important than most realize). First 3 songs are Black Metal and the last is Ambient (and good ambient at that). It gives you a chance to take in the music before giving the album another spin. Det Som En Gang Var is also the song that got me into Burzum.

It cost an arm and leg but was well worth it to me. Hell, I'd even say having the cover was worth the price. This is a good cd to start off with if you are trying to decide on a Burzum album to buy.