burzum

i'd go with filosofem, philip, and then maybe hvis lyset tar oss - but real black metal people seem to prefer the 1st two. filosofem is difficult due to the long ambient keyboard passages, but the good stuff is amazing. contains, "jesus tod", one of my favorite rock songs of any kind, ever. sounds like the munsters attempting to negotiate a mountain road, in the darkness, at 90 mph. keyboards are better integrated on hvis lystet, though.

the deed is done.

never did find the pink penguins, hoos

found penguin :DDD

t/s: buying burzum albums (1 murder, bad politics) vs. paying taxes (tens of thousands of murders, less bad politics)

t/s: Murdering people vs. listening to Burzum.

(Burzum just came up on shuffle!)

This is an interesting discussion - despite my reservations, I actually dowloaded Filosofem earlier in the year as part of my excursions into black metal and was/am considering buying a physical copy because it's such a good record and the distinction being talked about here has weighed on my mind a bit.
Re: Wagner I have to admit that I'd feel less guilty about buying music by someone no longer alive - I realise that you'd still be contributing to their popularity in the general scheme of things, allowing the artist (and by extension whatever baggage comes with them) to 'live on' but I suppose with them not being around to feed off any of it the act feels less harmful. Of course there might well be other people with abhorrent views who might be heartened by it so it's not like the work loses all its ideological associations once its creator passes on.

Am listening to filosofem right now, but how do you guys feel about Laibach or Whitehouse as musical substitutes?

laibach aren't fascists, though. they're an arts collective who use the iconography/idea of fascism to criticize pop culture. and whitehouse are just horrible twits who like saying bad words. plus i don't think either band is anywhere near as musically interesting/satisfying as burzum.

whabbout Death in June?

^^^ that's closer to the point.

Are there a lot of black metal bands to choose from or only a few? Are there black metal bands who have been influenced by burzum - who even bite their styles and rip them off - that don't promote a nazi ideology?

look up the other black metal threads, it's been talked about a lot iirc

Well, but they've been talking about it here all afternoon as far as I can tell. The point being, if you want to listen to bm, you are not wanting for options.

"laibach aren't fascists, though."
That's what i mean -- is it critical to have them be sincere? I can't think of anything more humiliating for race-hate groups than to have the weird als of fascism be considered the vanguard of their genre.

i dunno. do neo-nazis get behind laibach? i'd be surprised, but then again, i often am. if they have a significant neo-nazi following, then their "playful ambiguity" becomes a problem. but this is all make-believe until i hear different.

dunno whether varg's sincerity is at issue. we can't ever really know, right? he presents himself as sincere and is accepted as sincere by others, to the point where he's an important figure in nsbm circles. that's the important part.

I will both buy the album and go see him.

I give him props for being an innovator but I'd rather listen to Marblebog.

Unless I'm after some hot synth saxophone and then I go straight for Daudi Baldrs.

love it

Preorders up at plastichead

http://www.plastichead.com/catalogue.asp?ex=fitem&verb=F&target=BOBV215LP

Tracklist:

Lukans Renkespill
Belus' Død
Glemselens Elv
Kaimadalthas' Nedstigning
Besøk Til Kelio
Alvenes Dans
Alvegavene
Sverddans
Keliohesten
Morgenrøde
Belus' Tilbakekomst

The Return of Burzum
It's been 11 long years and now the world will see the return of Burzum. The highly anticipated new album is entitled "Belus" after the name of the ancient European solar deity of light and innocence. "Belus" is not a religious album or an anti-religious album, nor is it a political one, but an attempt to explore the myths about Belus and unveil the oldest roots of our cultural heritage. The album deals with the death of Belus, his sombre journey through the realm of death and his magnificent return. In essence the album and the story of Belus is meant to be an entertaining story about something that once upon a time played a major role in the forming and shaping of Europe.

"The album has been made according to my heart and spirit, and not to fit into any particular genre or category, or to live up to anyone's obvious expectations". The music can best be compared to the music of some of the old Burzum albums; in particular the ground breaking "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss" and the atmospheric brilliances of "Filosofem", only the ambient parts present on these albums has been almost completely left out on "Belus". "There is no special reason for this, other than coincidence and the fact that I have for some time made more and better music on the guitar rather than on the keyboard".

"Inspiration for the album has come from a variety of sources, and I find my inspiration from fairy tales and myths, from classical music, from memories of what once was, from traditional music, from fantasy, from the wind and weather, from deep forests and running water, from the sky and the sunset, from misty mountains and from yellow leaves falling from age old trees".

"My ambition with "Belus" is to create something I - and hopefully others too - can listen to for years and years to come without ever growing tired of it, and at the same time to share with my audience the experience of getting to know Belus, as he might have been perceived by the ancient Europeans". The combination of lyrics and music makes this a fairy tale different from most others, and should appeal to all those who like transcendental music and love to see different things from a different perspective. "If I can make you dream when listening to this album, I believe I have done a good job".

"I am aware of the black metal association with the name Burzum, and I have no real and serious problem with that, but I personally see no reason to place "Belus" in any category. I think "Belus" musically transcends all existing categories, but if I have to choose one - and for the sake of simplicity - I will simply place it in the metal category".

"Belus" will be released worldwide on Byelobog Productions on the 8th March 2010.

I bet most of us download it to check it out but dont wanna buy it to give the prick any money.

I never heard any album in full til a year or 2 ago cuz he is a nazi prick, but there's no denying that those albums were quite something. But its not something i could play much because of his views, even if not referenced in the music and i could never buy.

when I bought a vinyl copy of Filosofem a few years back, I was under the impression that he wasn't getting money from the sales of the older records. am I mixing this up with some other Norwegian black metal court case?

He owes ridiculous amounts of money for those churches he burned, but I'm not sure if any of his income is funneled directly into paying that off.
There was an article in one of the papers last year, where he complained about receiving a bill from Oslo municipality once a month for the amount of 18 million kroner (roughly 3,1 million US dollars), though I believe his full debt is more than twice that.

So uh, yeah, I'm not sure what happens with your shopping money.

Yeah I heard the royalties go to the church as well, no idea if it's true.

why would anyone want to help him pay off his criminal debts?

so that the victims actually get some money? I mean, I received victim's comp once and the guys who beat me up never paid it. I don't think this is the same as "helping" since he is clearly never gonna pay that $$ off by himself.

I agree that this is somewhat of a moral grey area, though, and don't intend on buying any more now that ILM has taught me more about this dude than I knew five years ago. I would like to know more about how the escrow or whatever works.

"there's no denying that those albums were quite something"

I can deny it! (Kind of relieved I wasn't blown away while listening to streaming mp3 of filosofem at work, to be honest)

It's a real pisser when you hear something that sounds good only to find out they're racist fuckwits, even if it's not actually part of the music.
Funnily enough most of the people I know who like Burzum are all left of centre (and not all white either). Their response is if we didn't listen to music because of the bands personal views/actions then they couldnt listen to hip hop or reggae or bowie or wagner ,james brown or rick james or whoever. But I just cant hang with that view. I will not give money to racist pricks.

i don't really feel any guilt for buying or enjoying Filosem, but i thought the story was that he got super into white supremacy and bad ambient music after going to prison?

He was always a supremacist, but his views narrowed and hardened in prison. I have no ethical problem giving money to this racist prick who is unfortunately a musical genius, for his musical output.

i am wearing my "coming soon to a church near you" shirt right now

why IS varg the line in the sand on this?

Better known than Graveland.

is Graveland even as blatant and outspoken about his views as Varg is?

i peed on a church last night and thought of varg

i was gonna say, is it because he's up front about the white power stuff? i don't see how that makes a difference in the "supporting financially" dept.

up-frontness vs. relative concealment i mean

I guess people wd argue that they don't want to knowingly support Bad People even tho they're aware that most days of the week they unknowingly support Bad People. I don't buy that as an argument personally but it makes some sense.

i don't really care about "bad". i just find the whole concept of racial supremacy to be ignorant and backwards. i can't relate to it, and knowing an artist is operating from that ideology taints my experience of enjoying that person's artistic expression.

tbh i am not losing a lot by taking that stance, since i was never a rabid burzum fan to begin with.

gonna buy this twice. once for me, once for the haters.

is filosofem not the best one? i'm willing to give it another shot if he's got a better album, but if this is the pinnacle of what racehate music offers, I might just give up the genre altogether.

it's not racehate music iirc!!

well, it kinda is - I mean, is in only that during the moments when somebody's saying racist crap? imo no, read "vargsmal," dude is what he is

yeah, have read it, have read everything he has ever written, and while i know and understand that he is a staunch racist and that racism is bad, i do not agree that burzum should be described as "racehate music".

anyway, when there are lyrics, most of the time he is talking about 1. nothing or 2. lord of the rings

When is Belus going to leak? Amazon has clips, says release date is March 8. Thought I found it on SLSK but it turned out to be Dimmu Borgir. MAJOR BUMMER.

I would be pretty surprised if they were sending out promos, and that's how stuff leaks. My guess is that you'll hear it on March 8th.

Amazon clips

Well, that's definitely black metal, anyway.