BURZUM Filosofem (2LP)

Recorded in 1993, released in 1996 after its creator was already in prison, Filosofem is the record where Norwegian black metal dissolves into something closer to a waking nightmare. Deliberately lo-fi, deliberately alienating, and genuinely unlike anything else in the canon.

Where the rest of the second-wave scene was pushing tremolo riffs and blast beats to their extremes, Varg Vikernes pulled in the opposite direction, burying the guitars under layers of static and letting the ambient passages breathe until they become suffocating. The controversy surrounding Burzum is well-documented and inseparable from the music's history, a history that belongs to black metal's darkest chapter in every sense. Filosofem is not an easy listen. It is, however, an important one for anyone serious about understanding where the genre went and why. On double LP, the long drone sections earn their runtime.

Double LP. Norway. Ambient/Black Metal.

Fans of: Taake, Immortal, Emperor, Satyricon, Darkthrone, Mayhem, Ulver, 1349, Marduk, Bathory, Carpathian Forest