Burzum "Philosophem" Misantrophy Records (1996)

When one creates a masterpiece, it doesn't mean it will be seen by everyone as such, but it will be realised by anyone that listens to it as something different, far from everything the artist has already done. This is clearly the case of Filosofem, since the feeling passed by this particular album is something elsewhere still unfelt. Burzum release this album January 1st, 1996 across the Misanthrophy Records but this double vinyl 12" are reissue by the same label.

While Varg Vikernes would, in his previous releases, try to the utmost to provoke darkness and fear with very heavy songs, Filosofem would have a rather enlightening and astonishing sound made over minimalism, living up to the album title, "Filosofem", a Norwegian word meaning "philosopheme", a succinct philosophic argument, emphasising Burzum's philosophic style. This specific album is about the duality between the Sun and the Moon, light and darkness, day and night, illustrated by the wonderful Nordic mythology, that sees the Sun (the goddess Sol) and the Moon (the god Mani) as brother and sister.

The track list is: 

Side A:

1.     Burzum

2. Jesu død

3. Beholding the Daughters of the Firmament

Side B:

4. Decrepitude I

5. Rundtgåing av den transcendentale egenhetens støtte (Instrumental)

6. Decrepitude II

As soon as you have the album on your hands and you see such a cold and desolate cover, you can start having a feeling of what you will be listening to. This impression is strengthened after you open it and see the amazing art, both on the CD and on the inside. If you get the album phisically, I highly recommend you to open the booklet, take a look at the amazing art inside, beholding it while you listen to the album. If you understand Norwegian (or have spare time enough to translate it), you should take a look at the texts as well, and you'll understand more easily the concepts behind the music.

The guitars overall are destructive, they interact in some kind of organised chaos, since the purposely low-budget effects used made them at the same time chaotically distorted and clear, while previous guitars in Burzum would be more "natural", as in with less effects, however, rawer, hence not as clear as in Filosofem. Another instrumental point that was sharply defected in this album was the presence of keyboards and synthesisers. While these had little to no importance in the previous albums, they would give a last touch in the high end of the guitar sounds. The songs where this characteristic goes stronger are "Burzum" and "Rundtgåing Av Den Transcendentale Egenhetens Støtte", both with keyboards getting contrastingly mixed with the rhythm guitars, that play basically the same melody.

However, the accompanying section, formed by the drums and the bass, seems to be much weaker in this album, for a good reason though, since this album had a much greater focus on the melody. The bass is barely heard overall while the drums play an entrancing rhythm. The result of such a strong melody with such a simple accompaniment is the trance caused by the captivation of the song by the listener, the great Filosofem-feeling.

In the songs Burzum (the oldest one ever recorded to the project but previously unreleased), Jesu Død and Beholding the Daughters of the Firmament, to cause such a feeling, Varg would use some heavy distortion and many chaotic sound effects on beautiful and interesting melodies led by clear guitars and keyboards. This contrast involves the listener in such a way that it's impossible not to feel mesmerised by their result. I call attention for the self-titled song. Since "Burzum" is, in the Lord of the Rings series, a Black Speech word for the Mordor evil and the lyrics quite resemble the concept on the books, our first thought is that it's the sole meaning of this song. However, we can see Varg creating a parallel. Here, the night that falls would be the Dark Ages, while the darkness would be the horror the Catholic Church installed, or maybe even the "darkness" Varg sees religion to causes in a religious mind.

In the later recorded songs "Jesu Død" and "Beholding the Daughters of the Firmament", Varg creates another kind of atmosphere, making a much heavier and more serious sound, without stopping from being thought inducing as the first track though. Both songs use ice cold melodies all along the structure. Jesu Død is played with a destructive riff, with lyrics that contrast the sacred and the unholy antithetically, at the same time drawing a parallel to Nietzsche's famous sentence "God is dead", while the song's title means "Jesus's death". That could be because of the criticism of direction and rationalism used by both Varg and Nietzsche. "Beholding the Daughters of Firmament", though, are the thoughts of a dying man beholding the duality between the night and the sun, the main concept of the album (as we can see on the chart).

Meanwhile, the long instrumental tracks "Decrepitude II" and "Rundtgåing Av Den Transcendentale Egenhetens Støtte" are around the minimalist essence of the album, are both well written and, despite being big, are not tiring at all. Decrepitude II has a strong structure and is focused basically on the guitar, letting one just trip on their distorted raucously played power chords. Its falling structure makes it the perfect closing song for such an album.

Summarising my text, it's a simply amazing thing to see how, as in everything ever made through Burzum, everything fits in this album. Each note, each centimeter of art, each word of the texts. That's the best example of how a genius Varg Vikernes is. Both his big though recent fame and his polemic acts and declarations may have outshined his supreme talent, but there's no other word that could describe him but genius. Hail Varg Vikernes!!! Hail Burzum!!! 

Varg Vikenres "Count Grishnackh"