Worst to Best: Burzum - a controversial Norwegian black metal legacy [opinion]

[@emilbaranowski2385]

Hi Mr. Jerry Glad that you make one like that. I started listening BURZUM around 1994 and of course for me the three first albums are the best.

[@RautaMetal]

Great. Around the same years for me too. Maybe 1995?

[@ANQ187]

Burzum is the gateway to Black Metal. Many of us had started there. What it doesn't mean that were just "racist" for liking music.

[@RautaMetal]

Exactly

[@jonirissanen3038]

I first find darkthrone, after that I listening burzum first time. So that gateway theory is for some people, some not. Darkthrone did black metal album before burzum.

[@ANQ187]

@@jonirissanen3038 It relates to however you discovered it first in due time comrade, Darkthrone was another suggestion pitched forth my way back then too, fell in love with the ferocity and the aggressive drum style of Fenriz

[@martinm.6459]

Off-topic : Thanks Jerry for your work (over the years)...Your recommendations and reviews are awesome !!!👍 ... I don't find Varg's non-metal stuff boring...but such is life we don't have to like the same stuff !

[@RautaMetal]

Thanks, sir! Tomorrow Rauta 5 years special video.

[@karlhaikara1629]

Big respect for picking Burzum to discuss! I am actually a really really big fan of Dauði Baldurs and Hliðskjálf but I'm not too big of a fan of his newest ambient music, i think those newer ones are pretty terrible so they would be bottom on my list where the first 6 Burzum albums including the ambient ones are my top ones probably topped by Hvist Lysett Tarr Os or Det Some Engang Var

[@shane7092]

I love hvist lysetr tarr os, det some engang var ...and hlidskjalf. Hlidskjalf is an AMAZING ambient album and I will always love the droning of his key work on that.

[@arpagius]

I expect a video like this about Gorgoroth, Immortal , Marduk cause Dark Funeral I recall you gone through it. Definitely the first three albums are very good , Belus is the real deal after those ambients records. A fantastic material , Fallen also is good but after this one I lost the interest for Varg's music. Anyways , I was never a big fan of Burzum but I've got face it , the dud had talent. Too bad he wasted , but yeah it is what it is. Cheers!

[@RautaMetal]

Thanks for the comment. Regarding those bands, I will not do those just yet since they are active bands and probably will do more albums.

[@redfogwhitefrost2583]

I have to agree with your top 3 list. I first got introduced to the idea of black metal with dimmu borgir and cradle of filth. (it was around 2003-2004) But burzum was the first band that actually got me into black metal. Those albums before he went to prison are absolutely legendary.

[@luciferianilluminations]

Totally agree Jerry, I put *Hvis Lyset Tar Oss* at the top of Burzum's album, one of the greatest albums ever made. *Filosofem* and *Belus* stand at second and third places for me. But I would say *Glemselens Elv* from *Belus* is the best song made by Varg and one of the best songs I have listened in any type of music. It reminds me of the great works of classical music. One more point is that Burzum stopped at exactly the right time when he didn't really have new ideas for making top-notch music, in contrast to some of other so-called Norwegian big-shots which are make shitty garbage music one after another and never stop. Anyway, thanks for the video. You should contact him and ask him for an interview. It would be phenomenal if happens.

[@RautaMetal]

Thanks. Well, If I some day have trip going to France with a camera crew I will definitely ask him.

[@dimifisher]

I used to watch Vikernes Channel, he had some very interesting things to talk about, is there any other medium that uses nowdays?

[@RautaMetal]

Twitter at least. He used some other video channels too but I don't follow him so dunno.

[@Baltimore_Hood_Vines_2014]

That thumbnail will never be topped. 10/10

[@RautaMetal]

😀

[@phillipjordan3013]

All Burzums albums are great. Even those shitty prison ambient albums can grow on one. I actually liked Vargs view on Christianity and his church barbecues. Those things made me appreciate the music even more. Varg also wrote some interesting books on paganism. I'm not a fan of Roleplaying games but I even enjoyed the books he wrote for those games. Varg is very talented and intelligent

[@RautaMetal]

I still can't enjoy those prison plim plom albums. They just bore the shit out of me. Dark ambient then again is haunting. Compared to those, Burzums music is like kindergarten music 😎

[@Weltschmerz1523]

My order would be; - Hvis lyset tar oss - Filosofem - Det som engang var - Burzum/Aske The rest goes same as your order I would say but I must admit I don't go back to prison and post-prison albums as much as I listen to first four albums although Fallen and Belus are good. Regardless which album you listen it still sounds like Burzum. I respect the man and Burzum.

[@Xbuster6]

Maybe he would do an interview one day idk tho lol

[@RautaMetal]

It would be fucking interesting.

[@goatmoonwarmaster4641]

Totally agree with your ranking

[@RautaMetal]

Wow! Nice.

[@chaosintheabyss3398]

Moti Ragnarokum (last track of Daudi Baldrs) is perhaps his most emotional and deepest cutting song.

[@RautaMetal]

:O

[@danielwieten8617]

Agreed on Hvis Lyset Tar Oss. The opening track scared the shit out of me back in the day. So haunting. The most perfect atmosphere of any black metal ever. I would play that and stare at the pictures in that Kerrang black metal special magazine about the church burnings and just marvel at the mystery of it all. Really disappointing seeing the person Varg turned out to be, but none of us should’ve expected any different lol.

[@RautaMetal]

Thanks for the comment! Yep, one can only wish he decided to abandon his current self and dive back to the waters of HLTO era.

[@magnusbruce4051]

For me, my ranking would look extremely different. Umskiptar is right up in the top for me and "Sol Austen"/"Ways of Yore" are pretty high up for me. And for me Daudi Baldrs ranks a bit higher than Hliðskjálf but neither are particularly great imo. Belus is certainly an iconic album with the second half Glemselns Elv being possibly the greatest thing Burzum ever put out. Filosofem was the first Burzum album I listened to and the first black metal album I bought. I would be lying if I said it doesn't have a permanent impact to the way I view black metal and the way I write and record black metal. It is the archetype of atmospheric black metal.

[@Potbellypugilist]

The first four albums are essential without a doubt, not that bothered with his later post prison albums (or the prison albums either) although I didn't mind "The depths of darkness" re recorded tracks album. Hvis lset tar oss is my favorite Black metal album of all-time.

[@kapriizais8278]

1)Hvis Lyset Tar Oss 10/10 2)Det Som Engang Var 9.5/10 3)Filosofem 9.5/10 4)Belus 9/10 5)Burzum 8/10 6)Fallen 7/10 7)Umskiptar 6.5/10 The rest belongs exactly where you said it belongs

[@mordechaifrizis7231]

My list: 1) Filosofem 2) Hvis Lyset Tar Oss 3) Det Som Engang Var 4) Burzum/Aske 5) Belus 6) Fallen 7) Umskiptar The other albums are not of my taste. Also my video about his first albums: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oqPVpYyCqcplp8U

[@dominichowell6896]

Good point about Thorns being sabotaged too

[@RautaMetal]

Cheers!

[@pauleiwalsh]

Thanks for doing this, agree 100 percent with your scoring.

[@RautaMetal]

Nice!

[@Daakkon]

That thumbnail. 👍

[@RautaMetal]

Thanks to ChrisC who understands my humor. 😎

[@martinm.6459]

😀👍💯%

[@bluewinter6660]

Mine are 5. Belus 4. Filosofem 3. Hvis Lyset tar oss 2. Debut 1. Det Som Engang var

[@sozhran]

1. Burzum & Hvis Lyset Tar Oss 2. Aske 3. Det Som En Gang Var 4. Filosofem 5. Belus 6. Valen 7. ...Hlidskjalf? 8. Whatever, with Daudi Baldrs dead last Burzum has this charm of "my very first album, full of assorted ideas", which I love sooo much. I kinda wish Varg re-recorded it completely in Aske times though, with this kind of sound and confidence in playing it would be absolutely unbeatable. Filosofem has a great side A, and a WTF side B (yep, Rundgang sucks, and having another track with guitars after 25 minutes is even weirder). DSEGV is kinda fractured in quality, too, but I probably prefer it over Filosofem a bit because nicer sound and better flow.

[@DahmerJ17]

1: Hvis Lyset Tar oss 2: Filosifem 3: Det Som Engang Var That is my top 3, Great video as always! Cheers! For me music is not politics... CHEERS!

[@RautaMetal]

Agreed! Cheers!

[@carlostorrecillasmunoz4]

I agree, Daudi Baldrs is ugly af in my opinion, But Hildskjalf in the other hand is haunting, very ritualistic, and way well produced. Vikernes's forte is a pack of monotonous yet catchy riffs and melodies. One of the best in that aspect, however his career is a big time hit or miss

[@martinm.6459]

We can agree that Daudi Baldrs is the weakest Burzum album (for obvious reasons)...but ugly as f@@@ ?! ☹...for example this is a very good track : kzbin.info/www/bejne/mWi6pJp_e5J3hNU... Am I a Burzum fanboy ??? LET'S FIND OUT !!! ☝😀 Greetings from Hungary !!! 🇭🇺

[@ryanpaul1403]

None of the albums with him on keyboard are listenable.

[@pablogats4627]

@@ryanpaul1403 ways of yore is a masterpiece

[@RautaMetal]

For me it's Ways of Bore

[@ryanpaul1403]

@@RautaMetal Hails

[@JSTNtheWZRD]

Worst to best? With burzum it's more like time periods, the life of the man, his history, his life makes up the change of style on each album. Besides the ones done in prison and the current ones about his role playing game are minimal and ambient for a reason. You could also argue that when he got out and dropped the couple regular albums before going completely electric - it looks like he was running with the same "kinds of groups" or he went completely nutty and started to believe the history he promotes, which is more of an idea based on hearsay - since history has little fact - you can make it as you see it and bits and pieces come together to form your ideal world etc....

[@renanurday9957]

Excellents words!!!

[@RautaMetal]

Thanks.

[@svartframtid5539]

The early Burzum is flawless, the first 4 albums are immortal monuments of darkness. The prison ambient is good enough. The later metal albums are underrated. 'Belus' is near flawless for me. The late ambient albums are mediocre, no surprise they became the last.

[@wilaim8549]

The prison records are decent background music, not exactly the most stimulating stuff. Could imagine them working as good background music for a DnD sesh. I don't actually mind Daudi Baldrs, think if the songs were structured better it'd have fared a lot better as some of the melodies are kinda infectious but they are drilled into your head wayyy too hard with how repetitive it is.

[@RautaMetal]

Background music, sure,but for f&d sessions etc there are so much better and more fitting music available imo.

[@wilaim8549]

@@RautaMetal Yeah for sure, i think the prison records just suffer from poor song structure tbh, most ambient and dungeon synth isn't even THAT repetitive.

[@RautaMetal]

Indeed. These are mediocre ones.

[@lexbeltran1354]

Varg never let his supposedly "racist" views into his music. I was never a huge Burzum fan but his first 3 albums are some of the best Norwegian Black Metal ever

[@ryanpaul1403]

Nah the best Norsk BM is "Under a Funeral Moon", Kvist, Strid and the first Immortal. Burzum isn't really playing anything significant.

[@angelomerz_2]

@@ryanpaul1403 you are listening to fucking shit

[@containternet9290]

Burzum first 3 records are okay even though Varg's vocals are pathetic, but the rest of Burzum discography is pretty much garbage. Also, I can't see any relevant black metal band tributing Burzum or Varg, no one really wants to be associated with Varg after he murdered Euronymous. I mean, the black metal community sided with Euronymous and Mayhem and sidelined Varg completely, even back then you can see that Varg relied on Euronymous to be accepted within the scene and promote his stuff so I would say Euronymous was Varg's only friend at the time. He would even sleep over at Euronymous's Helvete in order to fit in. Even Snorre who drove Varg to Euro's apartment the day he murdered Euro can't stand the sight of Varg.

[@RautaMetal]

At Inferno fest 2004 I did a survey among audience between Varg and Euro. Varg beat him like 20-10 of so.

[@containternet9290]

@@RautaMetal Within the traditional black metal community Varg and Burzum are almost non existent. Varg only shows up when people start talking about Euronymous or the arsons, but musically he doesn't exist. It's funny, Euronymous left a lot of friends and pupils within the scene and acquaintances worldwide. Varg, in his turn, has no friend from that time so this fact leads me to think that Euro must have been Varg's only friend back in the day.

[@satanicboxer562]

I gotta admit I’m no fan of this music even though I have 6 or so of burzums albums.2 electronic ones too.Grisnackhs vocals are like fingernails down a blackboard.The music generally drones on and I basically lose interest.I bought the albums 20 odd years ago because I felt I had to because I was still learning about blackmetal.It’s ok but I think darkthrone or immortal were doing better stuff around that time.

[@RautaMetal]

I understand and for that reason I love his vocals. For me, Darkthrone the best bm band ever.

[@satanicboxer562]

Yep Nocturno culto probably has the best blackmetal vocals in my opinion and yes I agree there’s not too many bands that measure up to 90s and early 2000 darkthrone.Unfortunately I can’t include anything after the cult is alive era.I don’t necessarily dislike vargs vocals it’s just that they grate after awhile because there’s not much variation.Although Burzums later stuff has a different vocal style.My favourite probably is the Burzum /Aske albums .No one can seriously say those electronic albums he made in prison are worth listening to.Sort of thing they had on as background noise at Christmas when I was a boy.I think he’s a caricature of himself these days and basically living of the notoriety off murdering euronymous(pretty obvious).

[@endlessvoyagexofficial3746]

Never got the appeal tbh. I’d say from what I do like it’s a tie between Hvis Lyset Tar Oss and the debut. I feel like Hvis is better as a whole album but the debut has much better individual tracks. Although the title track from Hvis is probably his best track imo.

[@Sinvist]

Fun fact: "Et Hvitt Lys Over Skogen" was originally intended to be on "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss", but was exchanged for "Tomhet". By the way, my order: 1) Belus (sweet memories of a certain time in my life, and the first Burzum album i listened to when it was released) 2) Det Som Engang Var (i disliked it for 18 years, but in 2020 i noticed it is the album i listened the least to, so i played it on heavy rotation and it grew on me [same with the non-Ozzy/non-Dio albums by Black Sabbath]) 3) Filosofem (because of the first three songs - "TRVE KVLT"!)

[@stephanfischer8239]

I like of course all the stuff from the early 90es this was remarkable all his strange behaviour and his right wing things i can't support but his music stand for itself and is outstanding

[@RautaMetal]

music > ideological rants

[@stephanfischer8239]

@@RautaMetal i don't think He is a maron and i share his opinion about Christianisy. And also that the northern folks have Oden or in germany we call him Wotan are Our based culture but in the last years He supported to much this conspiracy Things in my opinion. But He is an extreme human and i accept his way. We lost a lot of wisdom aspecially that the priest burn down or wrecked Our holy places and also a lot of christ celebrations are based on pagan Things or replaced

[@RautaMetal]

Sure. Pagan ancestry is one thing but those conspiracy things. Boring.

[@libredevenir12345]

The best black metal band

[@HazyOddMan]

15:18 i laughed too hard at this

[@RautaMetal]

😀

[@darkhymnsfromthecoldnorth]

Filosofem is definitely my favorite.

[@hrorm]

Ahaha yes synths totally age horribly,the quacking has deep implications hahaha. Burzums music is genious, the man himself is surprisingly the oposite. I guess all his intelligence was spendt on the music part of his brain lol. Now he is reduced to being a russian propaganda machine and he is completley brainwashed. Will always love his music. I like all of it, thulean mysteries is great for Elden RIng RPG btw , Hails from Bergen

[@RautaMetal]

Hails!

[@jonirissanen3038]

I support arsons, what he did. Albums what he made before prison, is great. Ambient albums sucks. Albums after prison, is ok..but the murder of euronymous...and lies about he told, and it is varg, who made police target black metal inner sircle..and many get prison time...faust get 14 years, samoth, jorn, etc get prison time..if varg have not go to press..how many people have not got prison time...varg desyroy so much...and my opinion ,what is best norwegian black metal album..i must say, it is in my opinion,darkthrone: under A funeral moon!!

[@ANQ187]

Varg got mixed up with some very bad people

[@RautaMetal]

Yep. Teens wirh bad people etc = shit happens

[@Xbuster6]

Varg says it was Oystein’s idea to go to press and get publicity for the shop then he got scared and closed the shop and Varg was like tf you told me to do that dude

[@jonirissanen3038]

@@Xbuster6 yep ,varg says what he says.

[@eldr4362]

@@jonirissanen3038 dead men tell no tales

[@SKvldlf]

For me I actually like fallen better than Belus. The songs are more hit and miss for me on Belus. Glemselens elv is an amazing song and if there were more tracks equally as good as this song or close I would prefer Belus. Hvis Lyset Tar Oss is my favorite album of all time from anyone. Det som engang var is second for me. Then Burzum and then filosofem. I don't mind the non metal albums but I only really listen to the metal albums.