Burzum - Filosofem

'Why is this masterpiece not on the Morsay list' you ask. After Phantom's Divine Necromancy and Bathory's Under the Sign of the Black Mark, this is the album I get questioned the most about. Now, to get one thing out of the way, Filosofem is one hell of a black metal album, not to mention extremely influential - often imitated, never equaled. Yet, it is unlike the first three Burzum albums, as it is flawed.

Ambient song structures, where a circular pattern gains variant details in each iteration, are incorporated to the narrative and epic structures of the masterpiece Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, and most notably in the dark and melancholic atmospheres contained within these less. Both evolving in conciseness and devolving to popular music song structures, Burzum produces a troublingly atmospheric work. The result is both the most easily grasped Burzum album and one that falls short on much of the promise of this band.

The first three songs have come to define the 'Odinpop' format so heavily plagiarized and which makes this album a fan favourite, even amongst non-metal audiences: verse/chorus, with a long bridging deviation heavy on harmonic detail and sonic variations, brought along through a simple progression of riffs, creating an enveloping sound of heavy atmosphere and contemplative mood.

Burzum has stated that each Burzum composition is meant as a 'spell' to put the listener into a trance. Filosofem does just that. The problem is that unlike previous Burzum efforts, it does little else. That's why this album falls just short of legendary. Despite the hype, this album is a step down from Hvis Lyset Tar Os and even Det Som Engang Var.

Back to Burzum