Burzum - Dauði Baldrs (1997)^{Release ID: 10326}

A perfect example of a man failing to recognise defeat when it surrounds him. Not worthy of the Burzum name!

(Cue dramatic music) “Previously on Burzum: Norwegian Psycho…”, geeky teenager Kristian Vikernes spends his days barracking for the bad guys in Tolkien’s trilogy, playing role playing games with friends and running through the forests imagining he was a Viking warrior. After performing in a couple of local groups, Kristian (using the pseudonym Count Grishnackh) forms his own band called Burzum, for which he begins the process of creating magical “spells” in the style of atmospheric black metal. Fuelled by extraordinary inspiration, Count Grishnackh records four albums and an EP in less than two years, creating his own label Cymophane along the way. During this time, not satisfied with merely creating black metal music, The Count takes the fight to Christianity directly by burning down some of the famous churches of Norway, before an interview with a local newspaper brings him to the attention of the police. With his anonymity destroyed, Kristian drops the pseudonym and officially changes his name to Varg Vikernes. In August 1993, Varg is arrested and imprisoned for the murder of scene legend Øystein Aarseth (aka Euronymous), with two recorded Burzum albums still yet to be released. Tiziana Stupia starts Misanthropy records with the sole intention of releasing these albums, with the classic Hvis Lyset Tar Oss released in May 1994. It’s at this stage that we join our incarcerated protagonist, and the next chapter of his story begins… (Dramatic music fades).

While it is difficult to feel sorry for Varg and the situation he found himself in back in 1994, there’s no doubt that being imprisoned made it next to impossible for him to continue the journey of Burzum. As incredible as it may seem, Varg had composed many more tracks than the ones he recorded during the golden years of Burzum (92/93), yet he now found himself in a position where he had no way to put them to use. There was no way he was going to be allowed to access the instruments, nor the recording equipment required to produce a black metal album, for the entirety of his time in prison, so it seemed all but certain that Varg (and his fans) would simply have to wait out the twenty-one-year sentencing. When there’s a will there’s a way however, and when Varg could play around with a synthesizer for a few months in late 1994, he set about attempting to produce some of his unused Burzum material in purely electronic form. Given the very effective and lengthy keyboard-based instrumentals found on previous Burzum albums (such as Tomhet and Rundgang um die transzendentale Säule der Singularität), there didn’t seem any real reason in theory why he wouldn’t be successful in this task. Yet, the MIDI Casio Keyboard he was using, combined with the recording technique (he used a standard tape recorder), meant that it was always going to be challenging to produce something worthy of the Burzum name.

There’s nothing technically wrong with using MIDI to produce an electronic based album. After all, there are stacks of fantastic releases out there that were created using only MIDI controlled samples, with no real instruments to speak of. The problem Varg faced was that the keyboard he had was obviously a cheap one, and the samples it contained were not at all convincing. Many have noted the similarities between the music Varg created using this technique with computer game music found on consoles such as Super Nintendo. I too get a sort of nostalgic feeling when listening to it, but it unquestionably has more to do with the inorganic sound of the instruments, rather than the compositions themselves. The equipment available to Varg may have been limited, but his ambition certainly was not. He decided that the first non-metal Burzum album would essentially be a soundtrack to the story of Baldr. He intended for the album to be called Baldrs Død (which translates as Baldr’s Death) and each track would tell a part of the story, with lyrics included in the package to help the listener associate the emotional effect of each track with the section of the tale it represents. Quite a tale it is too, with Baldr (aka Balder or Baldur) being the second son of Odin in Norse mythology, and whose death is seen as the first in the chain of events that lead to the destruction of the gods at Ragnarök.

As the story goes, Baldr had a dream of his own death, and when his mother Frigg had the same dream, she made every object on earth vow never to hurt him. Only mistletoe had not made this vow and as it seemed so young and relatively harmless, Frigg did not demand it did so. When Loki found this out, he created a magical spear of mistletoe and gave it to Baldr’s blind brother Höðr, who inadvertently killed Baldr with it. In response, Odin and the giantess Rindr gave birth to Váli, who grew to adulthood in just one day and then killed Höðr. Baldr’s funeral took place on his ship Hringhorni, where his wife Nanna threw herself onto the funeral fire with grief. The ship was pushed out to sea (with great force that shook the earth) by the wolf-riding giantess Hyrrokin. Frigg, quite clearly distraught at the loss of her son, convinced Hel (with the help of Hermod who undertook the journey) to release Baldr from the underworld, but only if all objects alive and dead would weep for him. Once again, all but one object agreed to do so, with the giantess Þökk refusing to mourn, causing Baldr to remain in the underworld until Ragnarök arrived. It soon became apparent that Þökk had in fact been Loki in disguise, so the gods hunted him down and bound him to three rocks where he was subjected to poison dripping on his face. His wife Sigyn attempted to catch the poison in a bowl and did so long enough for Loki to free himself, in time to attack the gods at Ragnarök.

It’s a grand and complex tale indeed, but surely a difficult one to attempt to convey through music alone. The question is, did Varg manage to pull it off? Opener and title track Dauði Baldrs (The Death of Baldr) covers a lot of ground from a story point of view. From Baldr first dreaming of death right through to his brother Höðr being tricked into killing him, you’d expect to find numerous shifts in emotional expression in the music. It starts with a suitably grand, perhaps medieval tone, with horns and drums backed by an ominous melody that’s effective if not particularly impressive. However, apart from a mid-track addition of tinkles to the same tune, Dauði Baldrs continues for nearly nine minutes with no changes whatsoever. I’m bored within three or four minutes and must force my way through the rest while holding off the temptation to press skip. Second track Hermoðr á Helferð (Hermóðr on a Journey to Hel) concentrates on a far shorter period in the story, covering Hermod’s journey into the underworld in search of Baldr. You’d think this environment would demand a dark atmosphere, but instead Varg produced the most pleasant and, dare I say it, buoyant section of the whole album, including some nice piano and strings (all fake of course). It really is quite enjoyable though and the fact that it doesn’t overstay its welcome, being under three minutes in length, shows what could have been achieved overall if Varg had utilised just a little bit of moderation.

Track three is titled Bálferð Baldrs (Baldr’s Burning) which unsurprisingly covers the funeral of Baldr on his magnificent ship. While I think that this track is one of the better ones when it comes to conveying an appropriate tone to match the subject matter, it’s unfortunately the lowest point of Dauði Baldrs in my opinion. It’s simplistic and tedious, and the repetition of what is a very ineffective melody, make the six-minute running time seem a bit like Hel itself. That’s why I was so surprised to read that Bálferð Baldrs is a reworking of the main riff from the awesome Jesu Død, which appeared on the Filosofem album (which it’s worth pointing out had not been released yet). I went back to have a listen to that black metal classic and the resemblance is surprisingly obvious. The main thing this comparison showed me is how much better Varg’s ideas function in the form of black metal, and it really rammed home just how far Dauði Baldrs is from his normal work. Thankfully track four is another short one (at two minutes), which portrays the conversation that took place between Hel and Hermod, with Hel explaining that Baldr will only be released from the underworld if all living and dead objects weep for him. It’s a majestic sounding piece that is unfortunately tarnished by the truly awful metallic drum sound that was used. It’s far from terrible overall though and once again reminds of how much more successful this sort of music is in small portions.

Small is not a word I’d use to describe fifth track Illa tiðandi (Ill Tidings), which depicts Hermod’s return to Asgard, along with Loki’s trickery that results in Baldr remaining in Hel. The melancholic tone may be meant to represent the tears that Hel demanded from all objects, but I can’t say this track conveys any of the emotions that would describe this part of the tale in full. It’s by far the most minimal part of the album though, with only two slightly varied piano melodies repeated for over ten minutes. Apparently an alternate version of Decrepitude I (once again off Filosofem), there’s no doubt that Ill Tidings is the most moving piece of music on the album, and one that benefits from not including any of the phony sounding horns or drums that pop up throughout the rest, but it’s length and minimalism once again result in boredom after just a few minutes. Finally, Dauði Baldrs closes with Móti Ragnarokum (Towards Ragnarök), which supposedly describes the battle of Ragnarök, where many of the gods were defeated, including Odin, Thor, Týr, Heimdall and Loki. I really can’t see how a recurring tender piano melody could possibly depict such a monumental encounter, even if it does contain some epic toned classical elements throughout. It’s no surprise to find Dauði Baldrs finishing off the album in such an indistinct and uneventful way, as is the anticlimactic nature of the release in general.

I’m sure you’ve gathered by now that I’m not that impressed with Varg’s first attempt to record an album from within his prison cell. He’d have another stab at it before the millennium ended, but it was quickly becoming obvious that even Varg Vikernes, whom I have immense admiration for when it comes to musical talent, was simply not going to be able to overcome the obstacles that imprisonment had placed upon him. This album is not a complete disaster as some would suggest, but it is so inferior to the preceding Burzum material, that it just can’t justify the name on the cover. Speaking of the cover, as a final aside before I move on from this album once and for all, it’s worth pointing out that Misanthropy stuffed up the release of Dauði Baldrs in a couple of ways that have caused some confusion ever since. As mentioned earlier, Varg had always intended for the album to be called Baldrs Død, and this name adorns the initial copies of the release, but somewhere along the line it was changed to Dauði Baldrs. More surprisingly given label owner Tiziana Stupia’s love of all things Burzum, some copies of the album were unforgivably released with the band name BURZU on the cover. In the end it wasn’t Misanthropy that made Dauði Baldrs such a disappointment. It was a combination of unfortunate circumstances and the failure of a man to accept defeat when its presence was evidently all around him.