Burzum - Belus review
| Band: | Burzum |
| Album: | Belus |
| Style: | Black metal |
| Release date: | March 08, 2010 |
| A review by: | Lucas |
01. Leukes Renkespill (Introduksjon)
02. Belus' Død
03. Glemselens Elv
04. Kaimadalthas' Nedstigning
05. Sverddans
06. Keliohesten
07. Morgenrøde
08. Belus' Tilbakekomst
Let's not waste too much time squabbling over Vargs crazy antics. It's already surreal enough that there's a new Burzum out, let's not overload our poor brains. Belus, or the White God, has enough of Varg's magical touch to cause controversy from the very first second it was announced, with Varg playing his favourite part as innocent Manuel "I know noooothing". Ah, good times.
After majestic albums such as Det Som Engang Var, Hvis Lyset Tar Oss and Filosofem, a return to Black metal as promised by Varg left half of the Burzum-camp excited and the other half sceptical. For all of them, there's really only one question and that is: will Varg piss on his own legacy or not? Well, for all those that hate cliffhangers (I'm one of you): yes. Ok, his legacy may not be drenched in urine, but it definitely needs a change of underwear.
Belus aims to hypnotize the listener, but it fails due to too much fluctuation in songwriting quality, a lacklustre production and a general feeling of "we've heard this all before". Unfortunately for Varg, the tidal wave of bedroom depressive Black metal bands he inspired are the reason why Belus fails to impress.
As stated before, the songs vary too much in quality. While a few songs achieve the desired drony trance ("Glemselens Elv", "Belus' Tillbakekomst (Konklusjon)"), others sound too dull and bland to deserve a place in Burzum's discography ("Belus' Død"). With his monotone and repetitive style he takes a risk with each single riff, it absolutely has to be great to deserve endless repetition, and he just swings-and-misses too often. He should've taken another five years.
"Sverddans" and "Keliohesten", tracks five and six respectively, also do the album no good with their faster pace and hateful nature. Although decent songs in their own merit, they break the hypnotic cycle (which already tends to collapse on itself due the weak building bricks a.k.a. riffs incorporated in the structure). And that the most memorable riff in "Keliohesten" is a typical De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas-riff, that is just pure ironic gold.
However, by far the most disappointing element of Belus are the vocals. Varg has lost it. His wolf-esque howls have been replaced with mediocre, wholly unimpressive run-off-the-mill shrieks. You'd figure that after so many years of prison his shrieks would have entered a new dimension of pain ("pick up the soap, Mr. Arsonist"), but they have only grown tame and lame. He seems to have noticed this too, as he utilizes them less than before, often opting for clean vocals instead. These clean vocals are nice surprise - he does them with verve - but they cannot salvage the vocal performance as a whole.
In conclusion, Belus is a disappointment. It's not incredibly bad, it has its moments, but it ultimately fails to impress. You'd expect this from a beginning, potentially decent depressive Black metal band, but from Varg? No. Unfortunately for him, his legacy and his devotees have surpassed him. If this did not have Burzum written on the cover, nobody would have given a crap.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 7 |
| Songwriting: | 6 |
| Originality: | 6 |
| Production: | 6 |
 | Written on 28.02.2010 by If you're interested in extreme, often emotional and underground music, check out my reviews. I retired from reviewing, but I really used to be into that stuff. |
Comments page 3 / 3
| Slayer666 Posts: 2466  |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 09.03.2010 at 18:05 When you said it was a website, I Googled it and found... well, something best described as an oxymoron. Nihilist society? I thought nihilists don't care about anything, why make societies then? Assholes? Or anuses? Oh, my... I'm shocked and disgusted.  I though you of all people should hate Darkthrone's new "let's make a complete parody of everything good we did so far, and do it with the cheapest, simplest, most repetetive music we can possibly make" approach to music. Mayhem is debatable, it's something fresh (and most likely good) indeed, but I'm just not diggin' it.
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374  |
Written by Slayer666 on 09.03.2010 at 20:09 Weird, we had that discussion before, so I was aware that you already knew that I love both the old and new albums by Darkthrone.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Slayer666 Posts: 2466 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 09.03.2010 at 21:58 We did? Hmm.... Must have slipped my mind. Well, now I know for certian.
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by Slayer666 on 09.03.2010 at 23:22 I didn't get the whole "I though you of all people should hate Darkthrone's new style" Why me? XD
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287  |
I believe said discussion took place in my review of their latest... not that it has much place in a Burzum review.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
This new one is just as shit as all hisn older shit,
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| Lucas Mr. Noise Elite Posts: 13427  |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 10.03.2010 at 00:10 No, his old stuff is good.  This is terrible generic. 
---- SLUDGE. DOOM. DEATH. Wait, what?  "The reason I'm running for president is because I can't be Bruce Springsteen." - Barack Obama
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| Ellrohir Heaven Knight Posts: 8669  |
This is shit, old burzum is shit and like it anyway
---- My rest seems now calm and deep Finally I got my dead man sleep 
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| Slayer666 Posts: 2466 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 09.03.2010 at 23:25 Getting way off-topic here. Because of the other bands and music you like. I mean, you like certian complexity, diversity and style in music. What Darkthrone does now is pretty much what most mainstram pop wankers do, only dirtier and uglier. Recycling the same stuff over and over again, completely soulless and devoid of any feeling.
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by Slayer666 on 11.03.2010 at 15:03 Well my friend, you got it wrong. I like complexity and diversity in my music but it seems like we disagree in the concept of style. And the work that Darkthrone has done this latest years has actitude and style. It's another kind of underground music that don't have anything to do with Black Metal but I feel the passion in their music, they just want to play music and enjoy themselves and I respect them for that and enjoy their [b]uncompromising[b] music... Oh... and there's some stuff I like when there's no real complexity, because hey... we are in this Burzum thread. You say "recycling", but I could say the same thing about Dark Funeral, it's the same stuff that many other bands do but I fail to see any feeling on their music. Just evil for the sake of being evil and scare your grandmother... Posing like "a maisntream pop wanker"
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Slayer666 Posts: 2466 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 11.03.2010 at 17:44 You say uncompromising, I say a total fail. C'mon. When I listen to "Dark Thrones and Black Flags", I don't hear any passion. I hear a "fuck, I'm so bored! Let's jerk the guitar around a little, see what happens. We can put it in the next album, too". DT are just as poserish as Dark Funeral. You've read their statements about the new album, I hope. If you didn't, read it, and you'll know what I mean. Burzum is (was) complex in atmosphere. Dunno about you, but DF is pretty evil to me.... Not that I would call them very mature or deep, but after a listen of "Atera Totus Sanctus", I feel like I've just came back from a trip to Hell, kickin' angel ass or something. I know it's kinda stupid, but there.
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by Slayer666 on 11.03.2010 at 18:23 You know when you fail? When you are discussing and questioning things that are impossible to discuss because they are as subjective as I like blue and my friend likes red. C'mon. I wasn't trying to mock DF, I was trying to make you get the fact that your arguments were as stupid as mine. I have my own music tastes and definition of complexity, styles, originality, you name it. You have your own standards too, try to understand that there's a line between people's different tastes and that no one is right/wrong and no one has the right to question someones tastes. I hope you'll understand and follow this advice. I won't discuss this with you anymore, it seems to be useless by the fact that there's nothing more to discuss due to the points I already explained.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Lord_Regnier Posts: 1469  |
Written by Slayer666 on 11.03.2010 at 15:03 Agreed.
---- "Why would we fear death, when life is so much more frightening?"
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| Got Mayhem? Posts: 767  |
I don't think that it is quite that disappointing. I'll need to give it a few more listens though. Definitely not a masterpiece, but not a massive pit hole either.
---- 
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| LASTBREATH Posts: 2  |
Just to give a Heads up (I'm sure alot of you guys already know) Belus was released on a limited edition "White" vinyl of suposably 2000 copies,the rest are regular "Black" vinyl. There are MANY sellers on "Auction" sites that are selling the album sealed claiming that it is the "White" version,however it is imposiable to tell wether the album is White or Black vinyl without opening it. ALL OF THE ALBUMS,WHITE OR BLACK VINYL,HAVE "LIMITED EDITION COLOURED VINYL" WRITTEN ON THE BACK OF THE ALBUM.
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| JohnWayneGacy666 Posts: 86  |
I'm a burzum fan, have most of the albums i heard this was coming out is it ok? i won't buy something thats not a headbanging album if this is crap varg's probably been signed by the mainstream conformist crap like nuclear blast, roadrunner etc.. just like the sell out fagots from immortal
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| Metalhead2 Skinhead1 Posts: 271  |
This is an excellent review, Belus really sucks, to be honest
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| Dominator Posts: 2 |
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| Destructo Posts: 198  |
Rather repetitive stuff. But compared to the new album "Fallen", this is definitely much better. Fallens just sucks so bad. 
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| wormdrink414 Elite Posts: 1295  |
I'm definitely beginning to like this album more. There are clunker tracks that definitely detract from the trance-inducement but, imo, Belus' Doed and Glemselens make up for them.
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by [user id=111774] on 01.05.2011 at 09:36 I wouldn't call his first 4 albums as average though. I also don't believe that those albums got the hype they got just because of the murder. We like it or not they were/are highly influential. Hopefully this doesn't sound like it came from a fanboy, I'm just making an observation.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| RavenKing Posts: 1941  |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 01.05.2011 at 16:14 I would not even call them average. Mediocre would be a more fitting word.
---- They shake your hand and they smile and they buy you a drink They say we'll be your friends we'll stick with you till the end But everybody's only looking out for themselves And you say who can you trust I'll tell you nobody
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by [user id=111774] on 01.05.2011 at 21:32 I won't put that into question, I have to agree.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| BetulaObscura Posts: 209  |
Written by Dominator on 05.12.2010 at 20:55 *** Very true! This is really good album, not worse than older classical Burzum releases! I don't think that time has stopped for Varg in prison though. At least not entirely... Norwegian prisons are not like Russian prisons (for example).  In my opinion after Varg was released he wanted to (re)create some older BM mood. I think this is amazing that after all those dark years he has created BM album - no matter what malcontent say! Results are very interesting, I would say! There are very nice riffs here, catchy melodies, rawness and darkness, some melancholic mood as well. In one word: classical Burzum, isn't it? Ha! I guess living in prison without possibility to play music or rehearsing, no instruments, make you almost stop to create (or change the ways of creation) but not to think and imagine. After those years all ideas in your head need to be released and formed. This album is the result of it. Respect! My rating: 10/10
---- "Inspired by the future of the past"
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