I've never been that keen on this record. Varg's writing at this point is yet to be refined. Returning to it decades later highlights the dissatisfaction yet also illuminates my lack of appreciation for the vision. Spell Of Destruction's mental break down consisting of enduring wretched screams and similarly Feeble Scream From Forests Unknown's slip into blurry dissonance and hurtful cries, created ugly sticky points I never got past.
Burzum encapsulates the raw rebellious ideology but lacks a finesse to character the essence of inspirations. A bulk of its lengthy tracks are pegged into a corner, pairing sloppy blast beats with endless strings of guitar riffs that entirely dictate the musical vision. Varg has the sense to shuffle percussive rhythms to aid the shifting moods of his power chord expressions. Twisted and woven throughout, iterations on the chords own structure play with dissonant melody to birth a fantastical sense of earthly darkness, devoid of cheese, frothing with cold suffering and tormenting loneliness.
Between these retroactively embryonic incarnations, we hear swaths of the maturity to come. Channeling lends its ear to the mystic tones discovered in classic Korg synths, laying the foundations for Dungeon Synth to emerge. Dungeons Of Darkness ends the record with a stroke of Black Ambient genius. A slow brooding suspense of ambiguous noise builds up a rumble of terror for what sounds like anguished souls to cry out in the depths of its foreboding visit. The Crying Orc showcases Varg's ear for Middle Earth inspiring melody, something to be developed on the next full length.
Then we have War. Fun and goofy, it plays like a Venom cover, or tribute to the first wave of Black Metal, its ending guitar solos reminiscent of Bathory's Heavy Metal energy. It showcases Varg's metallic prowess and yields to a new strain of dark anger. Before the records guitar driven presence concludes, A Lost Forgotten Spirit plays, another lengthy stint of primitive Black Metal ideology that will be immediately rectified on the next release. We hear glimmers of the genius yet to unfold, the difference between the two highlights a musicians growth, as aesthetic construct and tempo shifts arrive raw and unrefined, dispelling some of its enchanting and strange magic.
So there you have it, a mixed bag of ideas yet to settle into something concrete but taking us to a bewildered setting. Interestingly much of his music was written around this 91/92 era. What follows these songs will later be unimaginable in such crude and coarse form. Revisiting it again, a better understanding yet it has not grown on me.
Rating: 6/10