Filosofem

Artist: Burzum
Label: Caroline Distributio
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 615906666023
EAN: 0615906666023
ASIN: B000000F6K

Release Date: 1997-04-23

Related Categories:

Industrial

Norway

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Tracks:

Dunkelheit
Jesus Tod
Erblicket Die Tochter Des Firmaments
Gebrechlichkeit I
Rundgang Um Die Transzendentale Saule Der Singularitat
Gebrechlichkeit II

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Customer Reviews:

..........2006-07-09

Well, what should I begin with? First of all, I've never really looked into Black Metal and I've never cared about the genre much, but I still feel a need for reviewing this album.
Filosofem a 1996 release made by a Norwegian church-burning nazi-heathen murderer and Tolkien geek called Varg Vikernes under the name of Burzum.
So what kind of album could you possibly expect from a person this overtly evil? Frankly, I expected some primitive two-chord Death-Metal-type music (not saying death metal is necessarily primitive) with laughable "epic" lyrics littered with exaggerated nationalist images and tales of brave Norse warriors and Odin and the like.
But fortunately, this album didn't meet any of my expectations. Primitive? Cerebral! Two-chord? Not a bit! Cheesy lyrics? Nope, sir!
The album starts out with a track called Dunkelheit, which kinda sets the tone for the album. Slow-moving washed layers of high-pitched guitar, minimal, gothic keyboards and equally minimal drumming. In short, sheer dark beauty. The song is about 8 minutes long and builds up a dense and dark (but not bleak) atmosphere for about 3 minutes before the vocals come in. Vikernes basically screams through a distortion device and the whole thing is very low in the mix, which means that the aforementioned atmosphere isn't destroyed by brute force. The vocals really weave into the layered guitars almost magically, and they're actually very sparse. What destroys it though is when Vikernes attempts a "clean" spoken-word rendition of the lyrics sometime later. In my opinion, his pidgin English should be screamed and distorted and kept in the back row. It sounds laughable when spoken.
Track two, called Jesu Tod (Jesus' Tod is gramatically incorrect)is of a similar kind, but with some fast drumbeats this time and no keyboards. It's also the only ideological song on this album, and depicts Jesus as "a shadow of the forces of evil". But it still remains rather abstract, lyrically. Which also leads me to the albums' other lyrics. Well, they're dark, and abstract yet atmospheric, and in combination with the music, gives you the feel of walking through a Norwegian forest at night, but surprisingly enough, the imagery that's set doesn't contain the least bit of overblow nationalism. Instead, it seems serious and honest to God (or rather Odin). To be honest, I had to look the lyrics up though. It's not easy to understand what Vikernes is actually singing most of the time, the vocals being so distorted and low in the mix. And the language isn't clear at times, especially in Jesu Tod.
Erblicket Die Töchter Des Firmaments uses keyboards again, although very sparsely, but has far more vocals than any other track on this album. Gebrechlichkeit I is really heavy on the keyboards though and is softer and more ambient than the tracks before it. Still, it manages to be dark and brooding.
But then follows the absolute lowpoint of this otherwise excellent album. A piece called Rundgang Um Die Transzendentale Säule Der Singularität that sounds like those little instrumental fillers Black Sabbath used to have. Except it's 25 minutes long. A three-note keyboard riff and a bit of bass, that's it. Sabbath knew why they kept theirs short, I guess.
The album closes with an instrumental rendition of Gebrechlichkeit I.
In short: The first four tracks are essential, the last two (that make up about half of the whole album) aren't. But it still more than deserves four stars, since the first half is so damn great!
Despite what kind of sick, perverted and misguided personality Varg Vikernes may be, it appears that he knows how to make good music and how to keep the sociapathic stuff out of it.

Very Moody and Very Eerrie and... very long..........2006-06-22

This is an amazing album! listening to this masterpiece almost puts tears to my eyes because of its very emotional and atmospheric sound. varg definetely know how to make black metal sound like its supposed to. dark, sad, angry, emotional, and of coarse grim. one complaint about this album is the 25 minute song its good dont get me wrong but it does seem to drag out for an awefully long time. but hey thats what makes burzum the one of a kind black metal band they are or should i say he is.

Perhaps, the most significant black metal album of all time.......2006-02-25

When it comes to black metal what is really relevant? There are so many bands that suck. There are so many bands imitating the old greats - Immortal, Mayhem, Emperor, and especially Darkthrone. Out of all black metal, I believe Burzum is the only trve band. I mean, that Varg actually BELIEVED in what he was doing. He was not doing it for a scene, he actually believed in the ideologies he was setting forth. And yeah, sometimes his infamous crimes overshadow his music, but then you realize just how serious this music is... It is not the joke and parody black metal seems to be nowadays. It is dead serious. This is music from a man who hates our contemporary times, who would like to see them torn asunder and replaced. For one thing, Varg calls for the complete abolishment of Christianity - a religion that had been forced upon the European people. He wants it replaced with the religion that was there before Christianity, which makes sense, but not many people care about these issues nowadays... No one REALLY cares about culture and tradition; it is just about shiny cars and money. With that in mind, it is easy to see why Varg is regarded as an enemy of society, because he really is one. He doesn't dress up in corpse paint, walk around, and wallow in self-inflicted misery like most black metallers seem to do nowadays. Now that doesn't mean I condone murder, because I firmly believe some of his potential went down the drain because of it.

This album shows that Varg had a lot of capability. Perhaps, it was inevitable for someone with this kind of extreme mindset to go to prison. However, for the time being it produced some great, aesthetically pleasing transcendental black metal. And of course, this music was incredibly innovative for its time. It had never been done before....

And it will probably never be done again with the same spirit and intentions.

Not Varg's best..........2004-09-01

...but still great!

Whenever you're feeling angry or depressed, do you ever wish you could either burn the world to the ground, or just create your own world for yourself? I know that is how I feel sometimes, and by the sound of this album, Varg possesses the same desire on occasion. After all, the world isn't exactly all fun and loving, but at the same time it isn't always as cruel or as cold as some make it out to be. In times such as this, it's not too hard to understand what draws people into viewing the world from a misanthropic perspective. Yet again, Varg captures his emotions and transmutes them into some vivid and intense music.

I would definitely say it takes a different kind of listener to appreciate this kind of music, instead of the average gr1m and n3kr0 black metal fan. The only parallel this album holds to any other works of Varg's is probably "Hlidskjalf" (in the sense that even though it`s minimalism is obvious, it still captivates); even then that is calling it close. The guitars are heavily distorted, loud and crispy in sound, which gives the over all sound kind of a passive chaotic feel to it. This isn't the kind of angry that smashes you in the face, but more or less dwells right in front of you; bubbling and waiting to explode against anyone who crosses it's path. The steady and tranquil drums only help to reinforce and escalate the feeling of bitter and unbridled dejected misanthropy.

Varg approaches with some chilly keyboard melodies, which send shivers to every corner of the body. It's so cold and passively angry that it's almost creepy. This is the soundtrack for the concept of the evil demon that dwells in us all - the one that wants to come out, but our mind blocks it out. Much like Hlidskjalf, this is pretty abstract. The vocals are still raspy and shrieking, but on this album they are distorted and electronic.

There is a twenty-five minute instrumental on this album, and as much as I like the gloomy, forbidding, and cold sound it gives off, it is way too long in length. Varg could have easily conveyed the emotion of this song in less than twenty-five minutes; this just feels like a giant filler. Yes, the music is great, but almost half an hour is excessive for a minimalist and repetitive instrumental. Ten or fifteen minutes would have been enough time to get the point across without completely lulling the listener to sleep. Oh yeah, where the Hell is the bass on this album?

Either it's just very hard to hear, or Varg removed it all together. At this point in time, this isn't like all of Varg's other work; it's much more abstract and contrived from deep thought and emotion, rather than just creating an album that would appeal to people. Also, it was around this time that Varg began to become disgusted with most metal in general, so it's no real surprise that he began to change his own music. Not a bad album, it's not my favorite, but still an excellent piece of work on behalf of the Count. If you are a person who likes their music to step into the boundaries of being theoretical, then you'll probably enjoy this.

...........2003-01-11

long and boring since songs drag through 10-20 minutes each of ambience and slow emotional passages. Recommended only for die hard burzum fans.

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