Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Borknagar - The Olden Domain (1997)

Borknagar’s sophomore release isn’t an easy listen.  Certainly not for the likes of me anyways.  I tend to flirt with the more progressive elements of metal, finding it difficult to commit to much in the way of releases for any great length of time.  The thing with The Olden Domain that kept me coming back was really its overall brilliance.  Yes, the vocals are a challenge and the arrangement can be difficult to compute at first sitting, but the moment when the collective brilliance of the whole album clicked with me was akin to more than a few quids worth of pennies dropping.

You see there’s layers here that require careful peeling back and patient contemplation of the contents beneath each one.  I struggled for a while with Maelstrom's vocals as they initially came across as near drunk ramblings with a grandiosity that didn’t befit the capability of the vocalist.  Like when your mate gets hammered and thinks they are a legend at karaoke even though wild animals crawl to their feet begging them to to please stop.  The thing is though, this is storytelling.  Brun’s tales that he so brilliantly pens across the eight tracks here need that rustic and garrulous delivery to authenticate their stories.  If this were a standard black metal release these stories might be lost and so once that connection between the vocal style and the music itself is made it all just seems so logical.

Musically though there’s a lot to take in and again the time a listener spends with the record unlocks more and more rewards with each visit.  There’s symphonic keys, soaring riffs and folk-tinged passages throughout the album; all delivered by capable and talented musicians who can easily realise the true vision of the blueprint handed to them.  Ivar’s keys are subtle yet notable, Grim’s drums underpin superbly the structure of each track and Brun’s guitar work is varied and memorable.

Despite my obvious enjoyment of it, I still can’t push the rating to a full 5 stars as there are a couple of occasions that it does still lose me.   Overall though an incredibly rewarding album.