BORKNAGAR The Olden Domain (1997-2015) CD

Before progressive black metal was a genre anyone was putting on Spotify playlists, Borknagar were in Norway doing something almost no one else had thought to try: making black metal that breathed. The Olden Domain, their second album from 1997, is where that vision locked in.

This is Garm's last full record with the band before he went back to Ulver, and it shows, his voice pulling the whole thing toward something almost folky and transcendent while the guitars hold a frost line beneath it. Øystein Brun had assembled an absurd roster for the time, ICS Vortex, Garm, Infernus of Gorgoroth on guitar, the whole Norwegian underground converging on one album. The result sounds like standing on a fjord in a blizzard and thinking it's actually quite beautiful. The 2015 reissue adds bonus material and cleaner packaging for the record collection you're still building.

CD. 2015 reissue of the 1997 original. Progressive black metal, folk metal. Recorded in Norway.

Fans of: Arcturus, Emperor, Ihsahn, Enslaved, Vintersorg, Ulver