Band:	Borknagar
Album:	Universal
Style:	Melodic black metal, Progressive black metal
Release date:	February 22, 2010
A review by:	Daniell

Disc I
01. Havoc
02. Reason
03. The Stir Of Seasons
04. For A Thousand Years To Come
05. Abrasion Tide
06. Fleshflower
07. Worldwide
08. My Domain [feat. I.C.S Vortex]
09. Coalition Of The Elements [limited edition bonus]
10. Loci [limited edition bonus]

Disc II [limited edition DVD]
01. Making Of Universal [documentary]
+ Desktop images
+ MP3 version of the album
+ Digital Booklet

Borknagar is a peculiar band. Their music is too symphonic, multi-layered and ambitious to be black metal enough for the horde of tr00 kvlt kiddies. At the same time, they're too aggressive, occasionally fast-paced and noisy to be recognized by people educated enough to appreciate Borknagar's ambitious music. As a result, the band hovers somewhere in between those two groups of listeners, enjoying some popularity, but much less of it than they actually deserve, being a damn great band indeed.

Universal is another solid release in the string of albums this band leaves behind it, minus the all-acoustic Origin which, whereas not bad in itself, automatically stands apart from other releases due to its unusual provenance and will be quietly circumvented in my humble analysis.

So what do we have here? On one hand, it's another generous helping of omnipresent keyboards (especially good in "Worldwide" and "Fleshflower"), pseudo choirs ("Havoc"), acoustic passages (very effective in "The Stir of Seasons"), clean vocals (basically in every track) - the progressive elements in Borknagar's music are lush, textured, inventive, and, on top of it all, magnificently implemented. On the other hand, there's plenty of aggression and good old black metal anger in quite a few songs - "For A Thousand Years To Come", or "Worldwide" to name just a couple. The harsh, black-ish passages are seamlessly alloyed into the rich and progressive body of the album, forming a very convincing whole. The songs sting hard when they're supposed to, but they also lull and caress you with seductive keyboard work and acoustic interludes.

Unfortunately, there is something that prevents me from giving Universal a higher mark. As controversial as it may sound to many Borknagar fans, I think that Vintersorg should stick to harsh vocals exclusively. His clean singing is, occasionally, adequate at best, but downright annoying most of the time. His voice is poor and flat, and he doesn't have too many ideas about how to use this limited resource effectively. I'm not suggesting that I.C.S. Vortex is infinitely better, but "My Domain", the only track on Universal where he sings, is vocally the best composition on the album. Change the singer, and the sky will be the limit guys. Before that happens, have an 8 from me.