Customer Reviews

Hvis Lyset Tar Oss

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This album is commonly (and, in my opinion, justly) cited as Black Metal's defining moment. However, considering the kind of music that passes for black metal these days, I can imagine this assertion causing no end of confusion among fans of today's "symphonic black metal" bands. Most likely such fans, upon listening to Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, will be left scratching their oh-so-evil little heads and asking themselves, "Where are the gothic melodies? Where are the tempo changes? Where is the evil satanic imagery? And why do none of these songs have choruses that I can sing along and play air-guitar to?"

The fact is that this album is called "definitive" for the very reason that it strips away all of these preconceived aesthetic notions of what black metal *should* be, and focuses instead on the basic compositional and ideological foundations underlying the original Black Metal movement. This extremely purified approach looks back way beyond the birth of the Corpse-Paint-And-Satan movement, to a time when music was experienced as a direct expression of emmotion, before such developments as formalised musical theory, stylistic divisions, "scenes" and mass-media started teaching us how music ought to sound. That Burzum manages to communicate such a universal message within the confines of such a limited genre as Norwegian Black Metal (and whlie espousing a particularly elitist philosophy - see any interview with him) is the true measure of his talent. This album is by no means only for the "hardcore" or the "true BlackMetalers" or any such rubbish; on the contrary, I would say that Burzum is readily accessible to anyone willing to step out of his comfort zone and accept it on its own terms. To these people, I give this CD the highest possible recommendation. Just don't expect to "get" it right away, as it may take a while to figure out where Varg is coming from before you can start to see where he's taking you.

With this album, Burzum ups the ante with this strikingly epic album of emotional atmosphere. Not concerned with time, these songs slowly develop and guide you through the stages of fear, mortality, and eventual death. These riffs are fairly simple, but its in its composition and frighteninly painful vocals that no band in the black metal scene has matched. The album title translates to "When the light takes us", a take on the christian religion ( or light ) assimilating the norse traditions. 8 yrs later, this album is still at the top of black metal, and with the way black metal is plunging these days, will likely continue to be.

For the record, Varg Vikernes is a fool. I can't stand him or his beliefs. Luckily, it's his music under examination on here, and not him. He's locked away in a safe place now, and no matter how many times he tells his mother he plans to flee, he can't do it anymore.

This album gets five stars. One for each track, and one for the cover. "Det Som Engang Var" is a 15-minute work of artistic genius. A majestic epic of melody and wonder, with riffs that can only be described as grim. And the the tortured screams over top? Oh, God...what an effective way of scaring someone off to church to confess! Varg was a unique vocalist, to say the least, who has been imitated to no end to this day. No one will ever match his voice's power or the immense pinnacle of this track. The title track and "Inn I Slottet Fra Droemmen" are minimalist semi-epics, working off a framework of repeating a few riffs or tones at high speed for droning periods to create a hypnotic effect, much akin to minimalist classical music, i.e. Philip Glass. "Tomhet" is an epic electronic track which mixes the sweep of "Det Som..." and the simpkistic hypnotism of the second and third tracks.

The album cover is one of the most geniunely chilling pieces of art to ever adorn an album cover. A lonely path curves around a bend where a corpse lays. The crows once pecking at its decaying flesh are scattered. A closer look proves the ingenuity of the cover. The crows are flying away from something, seemingly from some...creature or whatnot which has appeared. The view is from the eyes of what has arrived and spooked the crows. That is art right there. It sums up the mood of the album so exactly it's quite ridiculous.

How could one man conceive such a concept and a work of music? I suppose now the world may never know. Regardless of his political/philosophical silliness, arson, and cold murder. The man sure could create art...

from the confines of the insane's mind, feelings of misanthropy and hostility towards mankind spew forth in all their blunt... honesty.
we all 'see' images and visions in our head and we all have experienced how frustrating it is, not to be able to transfer them faithfully onto canvas or tape, most of the times.
the greatness of this album lies in its power to conjure BACK into the mind of the listener, that primal feeling of rejection of modern society and all the bounds it has put on Man. the music, slow paced, repetitive and hypnotic, evokes images embedded in our collective unconcious, of times forgotten, when Man was free from all conceivable bounds. What once was...
Hvis lyset tar oss, is a shriek of horror at what we have become, because maybe, it's too late now that we try to be free again.
This music succeeds in reversing the roles, by suppressing the conscious mind and awakening the unconscious, resulting in a nearly undescribable experience of having travelled to and returned from some very distant level of existence.
The mind wakes up again, numb, at the sound of a sad, dirgy keyboard instrumental, bringing the voyage to its closure.

Whether one views him as an intentional genius, an idiot savant or even a media whore, it is hard to deny the creative legacy of Varg Vikernes and his artistic outlet, Burzum. Like a looming mountain range, shrouded in mist and legend, he has cast a dark and forboding shadow across the face, not only of black metal, but all subsequent extreme music. And, among those mountains, "Hvis lyset tar oss" stands as Everest, towering above all that came before it and dwarfing all that has passed since.

Metal, as a genre, has excelled beyond all modern forms of music in its passion for transcendence and its embrace of the epic spirit of the glorious past. But where most metal found the epic in grandiose gestures, pomp and circumstance, "Hvis lyset tar oss" wraps itself in the mystery of the Void, becoming metal's most sublime expression by reaching inward, into dream and memory, to find both eternal sorrow and joy in that which has been lost.

"Hvis lyset tar oss" is the suspension of time set to music. It is that simple. It is that complex. The infinite past is reimagined as the eternal future; the future is the endless present that never was. Nothing is hurried, nothing is forced. Four songs are stretched across 44 minutes, and while none lingers too long, all echo through the imagination long after they are finished, each unfolding naturally, in its own time. This is an album that entrances with through sheer grace; driven by deceptively simple, but gloriously beautiful melodies and harmonies whose motion is the purest of elegance, themes evolving so subtly that even the attentive listener is quickly enveloped without ever discovering quite why.

But the magic of "Hvis lyset tar oss" is as much about the space between sound as sound itself. The album opens with the dreamspace echoes of the intro to "Det som engang var," perhaps the greatest single masterpiece of metal ever produced, a song built of the controlled but explosive energy of longing and the almost unbearable weight of eternity condensed into its many contemplative pauses. It closes with the fading heartbeat and forlorn keyboard melody of "Tomhet," a prayer offered up to the darkness within, the very essence of its sound hinting at the crushing silence of the void without. In between, the title track and "Inn i slottet fra drømmen" seethe with rage against a world that has turned away from the beauty of its past and burn with hope for a rebirth of ancient wisdom.

Always, "Hvis lyset tar oss" is locked in struggle. Between silence and sound, despair and hope, defeat and victory. Struggles that do not and cannot end, but form the very basis of any life worth living or universe worth living in. This is its genius, and its curse, to pose the questions and wrestle with answers that never quite come.

Burzum. The one man band created by Varg Vikernes, one of black metal's gods. Hvis Lyset Tar Oss is probably one of black metal's most important and true albums. This is the true style, this is up there with Darkthrone's "Transilvanian Hunger". By the way, Varg also wrote the lyrics for tracks five through eight on that album. Anyway, This album is simplistic and short but that is not something that makes it any less good. This album has Varg's tortured misanthropic vocals with the buzz saw guitars and blast beat drums. The guitar is very much the highlight of this album, the sound chills you to the core and makes you wince like true black metal should. The four songs are listed below:


1.) Det Som En Gang Var: Very cold and harsh, a great opener (5/5)

2.) Hvis Lyset Tar Oss: Very good and very true style, I think its too simple though (4/5)

3.) Inn I Slottet Fra Droemmen: The best on the album, a hauntingly beautiful melodic guitar riff towards to end. The rest is cold and harsh black metal. (10/5)

4.) Tomhet: Superb. This track displays Varg's pain and the cold music he creates (5/5)

1. Det Som En Gang Var - What Once Was
2. Hvis Lyset Tar Oss - Before The Light Took Us
3. Im I Slottet Fra Droemmen - Into The Castle Of Dreams
4. Tomhet - [Into] Emptiness

This album, like most of his work is completely misunderstood. The album plays out like a war cry, faithfully expressing Varg's vision of what's happened to, what he considers, the superior Aryan race and the transformation of ideals and ethics over the years. It expresses his lust for a return to the purity of ancient times. It also expresses his pain in dealing with the apparent fact that this purity will never again exist, among other issues such as the effect of Christian values on the pagan soul. Like all of his work, this is very abstract. The best way to describe it is: unpredictable and unconventional. The music is unique and the concept is brilliant.

Burzum has definitely made some name for himself back in the day. Some people may be turned off by Varg, b/c though he does have some genuine intentions, it's the violently extreme means he goes about solving what he sees as problems which cause lots of metal fans to not take that Burzum step. Being my first album from him I was pretty much ready for what it was going to throw at me, and I'll definitely say I'm very pleased with it.
Varg takes us into his mind through this extreme atmospheric form of black metal, by means of archaic sadness and blackened pleasure w/ this 4 song 45 minute journey. The music isn't the verse/chorus structure we're all used to, nor is it the progressive non-verse/chorus structure we're all used to. The music flows through by its own accord, uncaring about ending or giving way to expectancy or mercy until it wants to.
the album kicks off great w/ "Dot Som En Gang Var," which opens w/ a static-like dirty guitar in a slow rhythm, along w/ a smooth, dramatic and desolate keyboard melody giving way and repeats for about a minute over the guitar. the simple and angry chord progression kicks in and what flows next is a 14 minute track of pleasure and pain. Varg painfully passionate screams don't follow a real structure but seem to kick in when he feels it is appropriate. The repetiveness of the keyboard melody hypnotizes you slowly into Varg's dark universe, and if you're open enough to go in w/o calling Varg on being non-creative (which he is, creative i mean) by repeating the same line over and over, you'll reap great benefits. Later on the song gives way to a different keyboard melody but guitars stay similar. There is a lot of repeating lines somewhat like in the vain of Ministry, but not anywhere near its mainstream sound.
The second track starts quick w/ a pummeling drum beat and simple 2 chord guitar line. the tempo is faster and more violent than the first. this simple drum/guitar progression repeats for pretty much the entire song (about 9 or so minutes, i think)but soon the percussion changes beats and a second guitar is heard, underneath the first, w/ rasping melodies like a rusted razor, as well as keyboard hums beneath. The drum beats once again hypnotizes as do Varg's screams. the music layering on this song reminded me of Nine Inch Nails' same layering formulas, but much,MUCH more raw and violent. Probably the song I like least on the album.. but still like it, a lot.
"Im I Slottet Fra Droemmen" follows and is similar to track 2, but w/ a slower pummelling guitar line. Later in the track an amazing and once again razor sharp guitar melody, or shall I say aura, takes lead and drags your ears into their own violent intentions - pictures of dark and medieval grand evil castles and dark Lords come to mind. Those progressions just suck you in like nothing else. Awesome song.
The ender "Tomhet" is somewhere w/in the 12-15 minute length (i honestly don't know, the song is too hypnotizing and beautiful for me to even care) and is basically all arranged w/ keyboards. the opening melody is simple and sounds like 2 keyboards playing together, the first is laying the sad atmospheric foundation while the other is expressing a certain "happiness" or "peace." This repeats over for about 5 or 6 minutes. The mood changes as keyboards become somewhat more "cutsy" (dont knoww if that's the right word) sounding. this is a song so peaceful it could easily put you to sleep.
This album seems to take the listener into some kind of journey through sadness, despair, pain, death and eventual peace. The music is unlike anything you're ever going to hear. It is simple yet complex, painful yet pleasureable, chaotic yet peaceful, forceful yet saddened. This isn't the type of drive-in-your-car-to album, but more one you need to experience alone w/ a clear, OPEN mind. most people will throw this aways as being unbearable noise (as some of it is a lot of "noise") but only the most accepting will be rewarded it's pleasures. if there is one thing that bothered me the most about the record, it had to be its length, I only wish the songs were longer in some cases (tracks 1 and 3). Track 2 being a great song, could only gain from some much needed diversity, so it's not perfect, thus the 4.5 star review. Still though, this is a fantastic atmospheric album that any fan of dark music could appreciate.

Simply put this is one of the best black metal albums ever made. Heck, it's one of the best metal albums ever made. The music is very simple and repetitive, the point being to put the listener into a trance-like state. The music is paradoxically dissonant and beautiful. The opening segment of Det Som En Gang Var is a perfect example of this. You have this simple beautiful keyboard line hovering over very dissonant droning distorted guitar chords. The two halves of the album mirror each other, the first and last track are both about 14 minutes long and are divided into two fairly equal sections. The second and third tracks are around 8 minutes apiece and are very similar in sound/style. The first and last track however while very similar in mood are quite different in instrumentation (the opener involves vocals, guitars, bass, drums and keyboards; the closer is pure keyboards). Simply put the music on this album is some of the most hypnotic and achingly beautiful you will find within the black metal genre. Get it.

This is one of the best black metal albums made in the early days of the Norwegian scene: when black metal was new, when the rules hadn't been fully codified, when it was more of a folk music or art form rather than commercial consideration, when few guys in the country played it. This music is dark, elegiac and hypnotic: odd harmonics and melodies are buried deep within the music either created by slowly shifting guitar or electronics. Its dense, minimal, cold, angry and sad, sometimes all at once.

Hvis Lyset Tar Oss sounds raw and unpolished, and is some of the most atmospheric and emotional black metal ever made. The first song "Det Som Engang Var" (What Once Was) starts out with fuzzed out distorted guitar and synth and sets a tone of bleakness unlike any I've ever heard. Its just frozen cold. The last song Tomhet (Emptyness) is a slow and repetitive electronic intrumental, but despite its 14 minute length it doesn't get boring. Rather it takes you away because of its icy emotive, visual nature. Its actually beautiful (and grim) The other two songs are excellent as well. Vargs voice throughout the album sounds as though the words are being ripped out under torture, which some people might not like. I however find his "singing" expressive and an integral part of the music.

Varg Vikernes is a psychopath, murderer, an extreme person and now a racist political philosopher with a feeble grasp on reality, but one should pay attention to the music rather than the man. The music of Burzum reflects his emotional intensity and commitment to his art. That Varg plays all the instruments is incredible. In my opinion Burzum is one of the best and certainly the most original band of early period of Norwegian black metal and "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss" (If the Light Takes Us) is one of Burzum's best albums.