I say this is an atmospheric album because it creates a really powerful ambience, evocative and intense, through fast metal patterns. No technical ornaments, no easy rhythm changes, no catchy melody lines. “Hvis lyset tar oss” features four songs lasting for 44 minutes, so everything is already said. Songs are quite long, each one has four or five different notes/chords sequences, that aren´t repeated in a strict or typical manner, but flowing naturally, in harmony with the steadily undisputed pace of the overall album. Track structures are rather rocky, without giving technical skills a meaning by themselves, evidently there was no interest in underline the musical abilities, so that the songs achieve their own personality and spell, reflecting the author´s visions in a way far more successful than the previous albums. If “Burzum” or “Det som engang var” were very good albums, with those details and odd things here and there, “Hvis lyset tar oss” sets the foundations of the Burzum true style conforming a consistent and very innovative musical purpose. The way music is mingled with Varg´s “trademark” shrieks, as if his throat was a bunch of distorted human strings, is absolutely mesmerizing. The harmonies created through long guitar chords, with notes often reverbed like voices of people thrown to a deep chasm, synthesizers and simple note phrases, manage to give life to an eerie, abstract dimension that the creator pretends to paint with his music. And using the plastic of the CD/vynil as the canvas for this artistic expression.

Hateful, unfriendly, ambient under the metal dress, originating scenarios rarely experienced, “Hvis lyset tar oss” is definitely the best Burzum album. And I´d add “the last true Burzum album”. Is anybody out there that believes “Filosofem” and the later computer-based CDs deserve any attention? Perhaps “Hlidskjalf” is more or less interesting; anyway, Burzum ended along with Varg´s freedom. The prison crippled the progression.

written by Fjordi

Playing time: 44.32