Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss

The album that simply killed black metal, by raising the bar so high no other band could ever hope of matching or surpassing it, Hvis Lyset Tar Oss is a masterpiece amongst masterpieces. Indeed, even amongst Burzum's legendary discography, Hvis Lyset Tar Oss stands alone, far above the band's otherwise brilliant work Det Som Engang Var and Filosofem.

On Hvis Lyset Tar Oss Burzum evolves to a unified soundscape of harmonic and rhythmic communication under a dark atmosphere suspended in the ambient tones of distorted guitar, but re-introduces the linear song progression - as opposed to the cyclic style of popular music that was in vogue at the time of this release - and thematic narration of bands like Phantom to make the album that raised the bar for black metal so much that it forced other bands back toward less ambitious works. In that sense, Hvis Lyset Tar Oss is almost beyond black metal, into the realm of the classical music of Mozart, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.

Different iterations of scale fragments balance a nihilism of tonal progression with a chaotic will to melody, building each composition from progressions of simple riffs that emphasize a pulsing atmosphere over mere music. Hvis Lyset Tar Oss operates in an excellent limbo between atmospheric black metal, narrative death metal and contemplative ambient music. Widely regarded as the best black metal album ever recorded, despite having only four songs, this third Burzum album is a must-own for all fans of black metal, and music in general.

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