February 2020 Feature Release - The North Edition

It's now February which of course means that we'll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we're asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. Ben & I will certainly be contributing & we look forward to hearing your thoughts too.     

This month's feature release for The North is 1996's classic fourth album from controversial Norwegian black metal act Burzum entitled "Filosofem". A lot has been written about the heinous acts committed by Burzum mastermind Varg Vikernes over the years however there can be little doubt that he managed to create some the most important & influential examples of the more atmospheric side of black metal with this one being arguably his most celebrated. Is "Filosofem" worthy of all of the hype its received over the years? Let's find out what YOU think.

Wow! You've really gone for some big hitters this month Daniel!

Well I noticed that some of the more highly celebrated releases I've included over the last two months have been new & exciting for some of our members so I thought I'd include some of the elite releases each month mixed in with some not so well known ones.

After Hvis Lyset Tar Oss this is probably my next favourite Burzum release.  It blended the lo-fi elements perfectly for the first time and still retained that harrowing and cold fury throughout.  I won't go as far as to say his last good record as I do get on with so many of his later releases but it was certainly his last great album.  Heinous prick that he is, his music is interwoven into my metal development and my excursions into dark ambient and noise also.

I wanted to make my review of Filosofem a longer and more thought out review as it is one of the most important reviews a Black Metal fan can write at this point, and I'm happy with what I produced. 

I've always had a hard time giving this one a high rating, and only after writing this review did I bump it up to a 4 out of 5. 

I wanted to have a more unique opinion on this one and after a few days of thinking I finally found my talking point. As lame as it sounds, Filosofem is just an incredibly lucky and fortunate album. Being as repetitive as it is, it basically had to do everything right to create the sinister and raw atmosphere that it's known for. If anything was out of place it would have completely ruined the experience, but somehow it never missed a beat. The album is still a completely slog to get through casually, which is why I claimed towards the end of my review that this one is much more interesting as an essay topic rather than an album, since I find myself only going back to it once or twice a year. 

It's just a fascinating album to talk about and I'm glad that I took the time to write a more extensive review on the album page itself. 

I just read your review & found it to be a really interesting take on the album Xephyr. For me "Filosofem" is one of only a few perfect records ever to be recorded (in fact I regard it as my second favourite metal album ever behind Slayer's "Reign In Blood") but I can still appreciate an open-minded & thought-provoking criticism that provides a contrasting point of view. Well done!

Finally got around to my review of this.  The proof of what a great record it is comes from me being able to review whilst playing it in my head, like it is transcribed in my memory.  Need to hunt down a decent physical copy.