Burzum is a Norwegian music project whose sole member and leader is Varg Vikernes. Over the project's 25+ year history, Varg has released 12 studio albums, some of which have forever changed the face of the heavy metal scene.
It was this man who stood at the origins of the black metal genre, which continues to be popular to this day.
At the same time, Varg Vikernes became famous not only as a talented musician, but also as a person of very radical views. Over a long career, he managed to serve time in prison for murder, take part in the arson of several churches. And also write a book about his pagan ideology.
The beginning of the creative path Burzum
Varg Vikernes began to get involved in music three years before the creation of Burzum. In 1988, he played guitar in a local death metal band called Old Funeral. It included future members of another legendary band, Immortal.
Varg Vikernes, striving to realize her own creative ideas, decided to start a solo career.
The one-man group was named Burzum, which takes its origins from the classic fantasy The Lord of the Rings. The name is part of a verse written on the Ring of Omnipotence. The name literally means darkness.
Since then, Varg began an active creative activity, releasing demos of his own production. The young talent quickly managed to find like-minded people, with whom he created an underground school of Norwegian black metal.
First Burzum recordings
The leader of the new metal movement was the founder of another black metal formation Mayhem, nicknamed Euronymous. It was he who owned the independent label Deathlike Silence Productions, which allowed many aspiring musicians to release their first albums.
Varg Vikernes became the best friend of Euronymous, whose views he shared. Their ideology was dominated by hatred of the Christian church, which the musicians opposed to Satanism. The collaboration resulted in Burzum's self-titled debut album, which became the starting point.
According to Varg Vikernes, the album was deliberately recorded with a poorer sound. The "raw" sound has become a hallmark of Norwegian black metal, whose representatives were against commerce. Varg refused concert activity, preferring to limit himself to studio recordings.
Some time later, the Norwegian musician released his second album Det Som Engang Var. It was created in the same style as the debut. As before, Varg Vikernes used a "raw" sound, and personally performed all the vocal and instrumental parts.
Detention
The second entry was followed by a third. The album Hvis Lyset Tar Oss was notable for the song length of 15 minutes.
Now it is Hvis Lyset Tar Oss that has become the first album sustained in the genre of atmospheric black metal.
Despite his active creative activity, the life principles of Varg Vikernes were outside of music. His radical anti-Christian views led to accusations of burning several Norwegian churches.
But the real sensation was the accusation of murder. The victim of the musician was his own friend Euronymous, whom he stabbed to death on the landing.
The case received wide publicity, attracting everyone's attention. In 1994, Varg actively distributed interviews that turned the underground musician into a local star.
As a result of the trial, Varg received a maximum prison sentence of 21 years in prison.
prison creativity
Despite his imprisonment, Varg did not leave the Burzum project without attention. First, he did his best to get the next Filosofem album, recorded before his detention, out. Vikernes then proceeded to create two new albums, released in 1997 and 1998.
The work of Dauði Baldrs and Hliðskjálf was very different from the band's previous work. The albums were recorded in the dark ambient genre unusual for Vikernes.
Instead of an electric guitar and a drum set, there was a synthesizer, since all other instruments were not provided by the prison administration. Varg also managed to compose lyrics for four songs of colleagues from Darthrone, who continued to be active in freedom.
Release and subsequent creativity
Varg achieved his release only in 2009, after which he immediately announced the revival of the original Burzum. Given the rich past of the musician, the attention of the entire metal community was focused on him. This allowed Vikernes' first metal album to enjoy immense popularity all over the planet.
The disc was called Belus, which means "White God" in Russian. In the album, the musician returned to the original style, created by him in the early 1990s.
Despite the devotion to style, the artist recorded songs on better studio equipment, which significantly influenced the quality of the final material.
In the future, Varg continued his active musical activity, releasing a number of works. A year later, the eighth album of the Norwegian Fallen appeared on the shelves, which became a logical continuation of Belus. But this time the audience met the work of Vikernes less enthusiastically.
Then there were experimental Umskiptar, Sôl austan, Mâni vestan and The Ways of Yore. Burzum has returned to minimalist genres again. By the beginning of 2018, the creative search for the legendary musician was over. As a result, Varg Vikernes announced his farewell to the project.
We recommend to fans of the project Burzum official website.
Influence of creativity
Despite his notoriety, Varg left behind an impressive legacy that changed metal music around the world. It was he who contributed to the increase in the popularity of the black metal genre. And also brought into it such integral elements as screaming, blast-beat and "raw" sound.
Its unique "raw" sound made it possible to transfer the listener to a fantasy world, inextricably linked with ancient pagan mythology. To this day, Burzum's compositions arouse the interest of millions of listeners who are interested in extreme branches of metal.
