Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Burzum - Filosofem (1996)

Varg's last recording before imprisonment is an unrivalled success in an at times patchy and inconsistent discography (during and post-imprisonment most definitely).  By no means an easy listen, the album is as vast as it is inaccessible, as raw as it is mechanised and as simplistic as it is emotionally intense.  The album strikes a very dark chord in me that sort of lures me in and captivates my full attention from the off.  There's no half measures here in my experience, I am either in it for the full duration of the record or I needn't bother.  The almost trance-like state that it induces demands my whole attention, craves it almost.

The minimalism of the delivery is striking.  The rawness of the sound, although abrasive, feels ritualistic and shrouded in some mythical practice that is centuries old.  Oddly the overarching memory I have of Filosofem is that the record chimes to me, each chime being the point in time whereby I was dragged deeper into the bleak and denuded soundscape, stripped of all my wares and left to drown in the misery that floats thick in the air.

I find the mechanical character of the guitar equally as captivating.  More immediate than the rest of the component parts around it, there's a perfect juxtapose to the raw energy it exudes that absorbs into the more ambient atmospheres that form around around it.  The riffs drive the intensity of the album whilst the other instrumentation measures it and blends peril and outright threat into the mix to produce an almost anxiety inducing level of consistency.  The repetition almost acts to soothe over time.

There's no low point for me on here, hence the full marks the record gets.  As I mention earlier on in my review, it is not an album that makes for good background or driving music.  You need a dark room and an open mind so you can just sit there and let it unfold the madness in you.