Hvis lyset tar oss

Hvis lyset tar oss
Studio album from Burzum
Publication (s)	1994
admission	September 1992
Label (s)	Misanthropy Records
Format (s)	CD, LP
Genre (s)	Black metal , dark ambient
Title (number)	4th
running time	44 min 32 s
occupation	Count Grishnackh ( Varg Vikernes ): All instruments
production	Count Grishnackh and Pytten
Studio (s)	Grieghallen Lydstudio
chronology Det som engang var (1993) Hvis lyset tar oss Filosofem (1996)

Hvis lyset tar oss (Eng. "When the light takes us") is the third album of the music project Burzum . It was recorded in 1992 and released in 1994.

Emergence

Hvis lyset tar oss was recorded in September 1992 in the Grieghallen Lydstudio. It was produced by Varg Vikernes himself and Eirik "Pytten" Hundvin, the owner of the Grieghallen studio. Vikernes himself claims that he only needed twenty to thirty hours to record and recorded everything except the drum track for the track Hvis lyset tar oss in the first take .

On the promo sent to fan magazines before the actual release in 1994, the title Et hvitt lys over skogen was included instead of Tomhet . The album was released as the first release by Misanthropy Records (AMAZON 001) in England and the second release by Vikernes' own label Cymophane Productions (EYE 002) in Norway. The year of publication is given on the back cover as 1993. Et hvitt lys over skogen appeared in 1998 on the compilation Presumed Guilty by Misanthropy Records and various bootlegs .

style

The pieces contained are consistently monotonous, with no tempo and only a few riff variations. Tomhet is a pure synthesizer piece.

Det som en gang var begins with soft keyboard sounds and soft guitar lines, with the keyboard dominating. After some time the set toms and the "characteristic guitar work Varg" one. The monotonous style is sustained for about fifteen minutes, with the guitar sound getting louder and sharper after about seven minutes, and creates a depressing atmosphere that is underlined by Vikernes' singing after nine minutes. This dominates the piece together with the keyboard over the guitar.

Hvis lyset tar oss and Inn i slottet fra drømmen "stand for the raw, more aggressive side of BURZUM, mostly fast rumbling drums, sawing BURZUMesque guitars and of course THE vocals that also ennoble these two Nordic gems". Hvis lyset tar oss begins chaotically, before a melodic, heavily distorted guitar line sets in. The singing sounds increasingly desperate, and the piece eventually becomes chaotic again. Singing, guitar and the fast drumming at Inn i slottet fra drømmen seem disorganized until another guitar line kicks in, which is basically a modularized drone and creates a melodic theme.

layout

Fattigmannen by Theodor Kittelsen

Pesta i trappen by Theodor Kittelsen

On the front cover is a trimmed version of the illustration Fattigmannen ('The poor man') by the Norwegian draftsman Theodor Kittelsen (1857–1914), completed in 1895 , the inside is the graphic Pesta i trappen ('The plague on the steps', 1896) reproduced by the same artist. Below is a dedication to Gylve "Fenriz" Nagell from Darkthrone and Harald "Demonaz" Nævdal from Immortal , with whom he played at Old Funeral . Vikernes describes them as his brothers ("mine broedre") as well as the Nordic skalds and keepers of the brown lamp ("Nordens Skalder, foelg den brune lampe og dens Hofding!"). Vikernes justified the dedication with the fact that Fenriz and Demonaz had supported Burzum and Cymophane Productions. Olve "Abbath" Eikemo , who plays with Immortal as well as Demonaz, was asked about the meaning of the dedication in an interview with Maelstrom , but replied that he was not sure what she had to say. Abbath also played for Old Funeral and was the one who introduced Vikernes to the scene, but distanced himself from him after the events of 1993; When asked by Guitar World magazine about Vikernes, Abbath replied: “ Fuck Varg!” Vikernes said in the A-blaze that he regretted the dedication to Demonaz and described him as a “rat”.

The texts of the first three pieces are printed both in Norwegian and in German translation, the fourth piece is instrumental. English translations can also be found on burzum.org.

reception

Hvis lyset tar oss was described in reviews as a black metal classic and a milestone, the opener Det som en gang var as a black metal epic.

Vikernes himself stated that the album was his favorite among the Burzum albums: "This album is the first album I played music, instead of just playing different instruments ..." ( Varg Vikernes : in an interview with Chris Mitchell from Metal Crypt E'Zine, 2005) For him it represents the “ spiritual black death ”, which he disparagingly describes as “Judaeo-Christianity”: “I used art from Kittelsen's BLACK DEATH collection on the" Hvis lyset tar oss "album, as that album is about the SPIRITUAL BLACK DEATH, commonly known as Judeo-Christianity (note that the "Black Death" is the name the Norwegians gave to the plague which swept away almost half the Norse population back in the 1350s). ”( Varg Vikernes in an interview with Tolis Yiovanitis from Metal Hammer Greece, 1997 )

After the German-language rock-hard magazine Burzum had ignored "Euronymous" Aarseth for years due to Vikernes' ideology and the murder of Øystein , it chose the album in 2009 in fifth place of the "25 most important black metal albums of all time". Editor Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann described the song Det som engang var as "the saddest, most lost, misanthropic, most hopeless Black Metal epic of all time" and the album as "(involuntary) pioneer of so-called Suicidal Black Metal [s] " .

Track list

1. Det som en gang var - 14:21
2. Hvis lyset tar oss - 8:05
3. Inn i slottet from drømmen - 7:52
4. Tomhet - 14:12

Web links

• Information about Hvis lyset tar oss on the official Burzum homepage

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Burzum "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss" 1994 Misanthropy Records / Cymophane Productions. Retrieved December 19, 2009 . 
2. ↑ Varg Vikernes: A Burzum Story: Part VI - The Music. July 2005, accessed December 19, 2009 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Björn Springorum: METALGLORY Magazine - Reviews - Burzum Hvis Lyset Tar Oss CD. January 18, 2002, accessed December 21, 2009 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Piero Scaruffi : The History of Rock Music. Mayhem: biography, discography, reviews, links. 2003, accessed December 21, 2009 . 
5. ^ Antoinette Flynn: Interview with Burzum (Deprived Zine). 1995, accessed December 21, 2009 . 
6. ↑ ^{a b} Roberto Martinelli: Interview with IMMORTAL :: Maelstrom :: Issue No 8. (No longer available online.) In: Maelstrom # 8. 2004, archived from the original on June 4, 2011 ; accessed on December 21, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ^ Brad Angle: Immortal: The Brothers Grim. In: Guitar World . 2007, accessed January 29, 2010 . 
8. ↑ Interview with Varg Vikernes .
9. ↑ Channing Freeman: Burzum Hvis Lyset Tar Oss. December 17, 2006, accessed December 21, 2009 . 
10. ↑ CD review: Burzum - Hvis Lyset tar oss. (No longer available online.) In: Metal1.info. Archived from the original on October 30, 2012 ; Retrieved December 21, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
11. ↑ ^{a b} Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann: Burzum . Hvis Lyset Tar Oss. In: Rock Hard . No. 269 , October 2009, ISSN  1437-8140 , p. 97 .
12. ↑ Interview with Varg Vikernes (May 10, 2005), by Chris Mitchell. May 10, 2005, accessed December 19, 2009 . 
13. ↑ BURZUM INTERVIEW (METAL HAMMER, HELLAS, AUTUMN 1997). (No longer available online.) 1997, archived from the original on January 12, 2010 ; Retrieved December 19, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.