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Burzum


jnurp

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I think that's the one. Radically different from the more hypnotic Burzum I'd heard previously. This album is going to be high on my winter priority list.
That's the only song on that album that sounds like that. The rest is the same kind of black metal they played pre-Det Som Engang Var. Great album though. 7BHYAjCX6n8
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The poster above said his grandparents were Nazis, not his parents. I remember reading something about a relative of his name Qvisling who was affiliated with the Nazi party that Varg looked up to, and adopted his name. Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2
The link to Vidkun Quisling (the Norwegian politician who allied with the nazi party and brought Norway into the Axis forces - in name at least) was one that the media decided to run with during his trial when he was baiting the papers to write more scandalous stuff...as i recall he is a descendent from someone with the surname "Qisling" but again with no link to Vidkun Quisling. Equally as far as i'm aware Varg (much like the guys in Mayhem and Emperor who also took part) has stated he doesn't believe in burning churches anymore as the state just rebuild them out of tax money. In general he's a piece of shit and his racism isn't limited to just other races there's an interview i saw somewhere were he states people with brown hair and/or brown eyes are second class white people for instance...but that said his music's pretty good.
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Yes, Varg REALLY is racist and an antisemite. I've been a fan of his music since about '94. I've read shitloads of interviews with him, I've read his books and all the stuff on his websites. He is definitely a %100 BIG TIME racist and an antisemite. Although, he is not a Nazi in that he is not at all socialist, and Nazism is a combination of nationalism and socialism. Varg is only nationalist. I love his music but I think he is personally a horrendous person.

You know there is such a thing as right wing anti-Capitalism correct?

Read something other than Jonah Goldberg before you give us all our next history lesson.

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You know there is such a thing as right wing anti-Capitalism correct?

Read something other than Jonah Goldberg before you give us all our next history lesson.

Guess what, assclown, I don't know who Jonah Goldberg is, let alone reading anything he wrote. Varg has never mentioned "right wing anti-capitalism." What are you saying anyway? Can you tell me what part of my post is incorrect, correct it, then give a source?

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Sorry about calling you an assclown. I was riled after reading you post and did something I don't like to do, id est personally insulting someone I'm debating. Seriously though, who is this Goldberg and why did you make this wild assumption that I read his stuff and that's where I'm coming from? I have heard of "right wing anti-capitalism" but I have read nearly everything Varg wrote, as well as shit loads of interviews with him, and I really don't think he ever mentioned RW anti-Capitalism. For that matter I don't recall seeing that turn of phrase in Mein Kampf, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, or in Fascism: Comparison and Definition. I guess my problem is that your post is short, cryptic, and I don't really get your point. Please cite a good book to read about RW anti -C, as I have heard about it but don't know much about it. If I seem ignorant, please enlighten me and give me some sources to read, I am always open to learning more.

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  • 10 months later...

Ha, Mustaine is a contender for sure. And Benton.

And Anselmo for that matter. And the guy from Malevolent Creation who told Obama to 'go back to Islam'.

But yeah, Varg might win. What a headcase.

Still fond of his early albums though - Burzum/Aske, Det Som Engang Var, Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, Filosofem.

I interviewed him once upon a time actually, for a fanzine...

57c4cc17e799f_BurzumInterview.jpg.5a1a5f

 

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On 01/10/2016 at 4:50 AM, BlutAusNerd said:

His new stuff is alright, but it's missing that depth of emotion that made his early albums special.

Sent from my HTC6535LVW using Tapatalk

This is definitely true. Apart from the fact that the glory days are over, his voice is nothing like it used to be. His vocals on the old albums are some of the best performances in metal. 

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tbh, I almost wish Burzum wasn't as good as it is. My father's family is Jewish, and some of my extended family was apparently exterminated during the holocaust. I spent almost 3 years working in West Africa, and the people I worked with there mean a lot to me. Varg stands for pretty much everything I'm against.

 

I'm not against his anti-Christian/Odinist stance. If anything, I sort of agree with it. He sees Christianity almost the same way many people see colonialism, as something that had negative effects on Northern European culture. The Roman Empire certainly seems to have distorted Christianity from a "religion of the poor" to an authoritarian control mechanism, and unfortunately that imperialist distortion is still the version of Christianity that's most popular around the world. Nature-based religions, including European forms of paganism, do seem somehow psychologically healthier, if only because they don't promote internal guilt and they emphasize life rather than death/the promise of an afterlife. That said, the churches he and his friends burned down were historical landmarks, so I disagree with him destroying them.

 

Varg is a white supremacist, and this appears to have intensified during his time in prison. He seems to have a strange, Tolkien-infuenced way of looking at race and culture. His writings are filled with nasty racial epithets against just about anyone non-white. He's really gone off the deep end with all this, and in his YouTube videos you can see how he's progressed to a doomsday survivalist. He seems to have a childish, moronic, fantasy-inspired worldview, and it makes me think his time in prison stunted his emotional development.

 

Some people have said that we should ignore him and stop empowering such a racist, but this ignores how great those early Burzum records are. They're some of the best, most powerful records ever made in extreme metal. They're beautiful, depressing, and melancholy. They seem to effortlessly achieve what so many bands desperately try and fail to do. I speculate that the entire "blackgaze" genre owes a lot to early Burzum.

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3 hours ago, Amebix said:

tbh, I almost wish Burzum wasn't as good as it is. My father's family is Jewish, and some of my extended family was apparently exterminated during the holocaust. I spent almost 3 years working in West Africa, and the people I worked with there mean a lot to me. Varg stands for pretty much everything I'm against.

 

I'm not against his anti-Christian/Odinist stance. If anything, I sort of agree with it. He sees Christianity almost the same way many people see colonialism, as something that had negative effects on Northern European culture. The Roman Empire certainly seems to have distorted Christianity from a "religion of the poor" to an authoritarian control mechanism, and unfortunately that imperialist distortion is still the version of Christianity that's most popular around the world. Nature-based religions, including European forms of paganism, do seem somehow psychologically healthier, if only because they don't promote internal guilt and they emphasize life rather than death/the promise of an afterlife. That said, the churches he and his friends burned down were historical landmarks, so I disagree with him destroying them.

 

Varg is a white supremacist, and this appears to have intensified during his time in prison. He seems to have a strange, Tolkien-infuenced way of looking at race and culture. His writings are filled with nasty racial epithets against just about anyone non-white. He's really gone off the deep end with all this, and in his YouTube videos you can see how he's progressed to a doomsday survivalist. He seems to have a childish, moronic, fantasy-inspired worldview, and it makes me think his time in prison stunted his emotional development.

 

Some people have said that we should ignore him and stop empowering such a racist, but this ignores how great those early Burzum records are. They're some of the best, most powerful records ever made in extreme metal. They're beautiful, depressing, and melancholy. They seem to effortlessly achieve what so many bands desperately try and fail to do. I speculate that the entire "blackgaze" genre owes a lot to early Burzum.

You make some awesome points here, and I agree with you for the most part, although I think in our current epoch of the cult of self and road rage, a little recognition of personal sin and humility may not be a bad thing. 

Anyway, the thing about Burzum's early albums, though, is that they were created generally before the whole white supremacist thing caught on for him. The lyrics, for instance on 'Burzum' through to 'Filosofem' don't have anything to do with race hate (as far as I can remember). Compared with, say, Graveland, where the music is actually a vehicle for the racial sentiment, I think with Varg it's more his non-music personality that has gone off the rails. 

Cold comfort, perhaps, but it could be one way to look at it? 

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  • 5 months later...

I thought that I would start a thread for discussion of Burzum's music.  What are your favorite/least favorite albums and songs?  Why do you think Burzum was so influential?

Personally, I think the Filosofem album is the best, and I like songs such as "Beholding the Daughters of the Firmament" and "The Crying Orc."

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Good old Burzum. Well, I first heard Burzum's music in 1995 or 1996 when the heat was on regarding the crimes and everyone was going stark raving mad for it. In the small country town in Australia where I grew up these events in Norway were about as exotic and foreign as things could get, and I was transfixed, like most people I knew. I still sort of look on Mayhem today the way kids looked at Kiss in the 70s - larger than life. So I can still sense that feeling I had back then with Burzum. 

Regarding the music, certainly the first four albums are all genre classics and some of my personal favourites. 'Filosofem' is close to my favourite due to the almighty 'Dunkelheit', although the 'Hvis Lyset Tar Oss' album is also close. Varg's vocals were simply astounding. I also bought 'Daudi Baldrs' when it came out, and I really like that keyboard album too. The atmosphere and cheapness sounds great to my ears. 

As for the post-prison albums, 'Belus' was really good, but 'Fallen' and 'Umskiptar' aren't great, especially the latter which is actually annoying to listen to. I haven't bothered with anything after that - I think there's an album or two out including the foolishly titled 'The Ways of Yore'. 

I also really like the one man band approach, which in the context of the Norwegian scene at the time was fresh and cool. 

 

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^I agree with you except in that I did like Fallen. Belus was better as it seemed like a natural successor to Filosofem. When I first got into Burzum my favourites were Hvis Lyset Tar Oss and Filosofem but now prefer the first two, although it is tough to beat ambient songs like Tomhet or Rundtgaing...  

I don't mind Daudi Baldrs as I like the cheap synth sound and dungeon synth too but I like Hlidskjalf more. I've got Umpskitar but I don't remember anything about it as I probably only listened to it once.  

Simply said, I think Burzum was influential because Varg wasn't really a metalhead and so he brought in many outside influences to his music thus producing something unique. Most importantly he also possessed trve, redeemable kvlt cred that not too many people in the scene had and was affixed centre to all of the controversy. 

 

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The first album I heard was Burzum/Aske, in '95, when a friend bought it and played it to me. The first cut is often the deepest, and that might be my number one.

Hvis Lyset Tar Oss would probably be number two, not least because I could sit and stare at the cover all day long.

At the number three spot... Filosofem came to me second, in '96. I was writing for fanzines at the time, and was sent the CD for review. Dunkelheit in particular blew me away, and I actually ended up interviewing Varg:

Burzum_Interview.jpg

Det Som Engang Var would be next, another classic.

Then Belus, which I think is an excellent album in spite of all the looping.

I'm not really familiar enough with the others to rank them, but it would probably go something like:

6. Umskiptar

7. Fallen

8. Sôl Austan, Mâni Vestan

9. Hliðskjálf

10. The Ways of Yore

11. Dauði Baldrs

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In terms of why Burzum has been so influential:

1. Great music. I'm not into black metal, but those early Burzum albums were something really special.

2. Cult of personality. Whatever awful shit Varg is saying or doing, he still manages to be quite captivating.

3. Underdog syndrome. As mentioned above, Varg has done some bad things. But at the same time, he's consistently been painted in what could be considered an unfair light - he was given the maximum sentence for murder, but by most accounts there was at least an element of self-defense involved; he was branded a satanist for being anti-christian; he was branded a terrorist for being racist and owning weapons...

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