Burzum - The Fallen (2011)

As for the new album, what's up with the whisper-like vocals? Not digging that.

Imo, that's two things

- when he was younger I don't think he had an actual technique for screaming. The lack of which definitely shows now, and he did on Belus too. He needs to develop a technique, or a better one at least.

- secondly, having the vocals so clearly produced and high in the mix exposes said lack of technique


Anyway, moving on...



:kickass:
 
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I want another Feeble Screams From Forests Unknown, not some second grade Drudkh-ripoff. I think many people fool themselves to like this just because they like earlier releases from Burzum.

Or, you know... they actually think it sounds good. Just a thought.

EDIT: ^I love the guitar work in that song.
 
After about 12 repeated listens I gotta say I really enjoy the album. I understand a lot of peoples hatred towards the clean vocals but to me I find his voice although not technically great, quite soothing. Much better then Belus to me.
 
I can never understand the hate for Belus; it's not a perfect album or a black metal masterpiece but it's a very solid one and a very good continuation of what Varg left behind from Filosofem. Calling it outdated is absurd when it's not like Drudkh, Wolves in the Throne Room or Negura Bunget had advanced their sound vastly from what Varg had done before. This new album, on the other hand, has very strong non-black metal influences and I don't like the direction Varg is moving here. I am willing to bet that people here love it more than Belus because of the new album syndrome and overtime people will prefer Belus over it.
 
I thought Belus was awesome it had such a supple atmosphere even if it did have some of Burzum's most aggressive tracks. This album stomps all over it for one simple reason. The songs are much more memorable. I went about 6 months without hearing Belus and I had a hard time remembering how the songs actually went. Sure, I enjoyed it just as much about two weeks ago when I popped it back on but upon hearing Fallen for the first time I had a much more "memorable" experience... or maybe memory enabled.
 
I can never understand the hate for Belus; it's not a perfect album or a black metal masterpiece but it's a very solid one and a very good continuation of what Varg left behind from Filosofem. Calling it outdated is absurd when it's not like Drudkh, Wolves in the Throne Room or Negura Bunget had advanced their sound vastly from what Varg had done before. This new album, on the other hand, has very strong non-black metal influences and I don't like the direction Varg is moving here. I am willing to bet that people here love it more than Belus because of the new album syndrome and overtime people will prefer Belus over it.

I'm nitpicking here, but Burzum is not and never has been influenced by black metal musically. Varg has stated this himself. His work is more influenced by personal beliefs and philosophies, books and history than it is by actual music. So to say that the new album has non-Black Metal musical influences is invalid. He does not cite the same influences that many of the second wave bands did, perhaps with the exception of Bathory and occasional Celtic Frost.

I've noticed that it appears people are judging the album to be "lighter" largely due to the increase in clean vocals. However, when you listen carefully to the riffs it is far less dreamier than Belus and in fact considerably heavier. "Fallen" as someone else (and myself) previously mentioned, appears to be much more in the vein of heavy metal, as his earlier works tended to be. Compare the structures of Burzum s/t to Filosofem - very different. Burzum became less dynamic throughout the course of the first portion of its history.
 
I heard the first two tracks from it last night. The opening track I thought was a bit annoying thanks to the horrible clean vocal harmonies. It was really off putting.
The second track was fantastic though, even on a first listen.
 
atrocious production as usual. very annoying main riff in Jeg Faller. cringe worthy. clean vocals aren't that bad really.

Atrocious production? It's black metal, what are you looking for, Hysteria?
"Jeg Faller" was one of the tracks I heard last night and I do agree the main riff was irritating - the harmony vocals on the chorus (or "pop hooks" as someone called it on Rate Your Music) are also really out of place and detract from the song.
 
Listened to the 30-second samples on Amazon, since I'm gonna wait till the album's actually out before I check it out in full... here's what I gathered.

Fraverdenstreet: More interesting than the intro of the last album, at least.

Jeg faller: Fucking love this. Sounds very Belus-esque, and I'm digging the production. Varg has this newfound... melodicism, to his music now, that I'm honestly just loving.

Valen: Sounds the most promising of the bunch thus far. I love the clean harmony vocals in combination with the screams. Pretty cool.

Vanvidd: Love it musically, but the clean vocals ran through that... effect (flanger?), actually really bug me tbh.

Enhver til Sitt: I like it, a lot. Not very melodic at all but I like it. This is the sample that reminds me most of the Det Som Engang Var album the most thus far.

Budstikken: Interesting drum rhythms coming from Varg. Guitar-wise though, sounds a bit "been there done that", but still pretty good. Not complaining.

Til Hel og tilbake igjen: A nice ambient track, not really much else to say, although I hear middle-eastern or Asian tinges to it, which sorta makes it stick out from the rest of the samples. I'll wait till I hear the album before I pass judgment.​
 
Sure the production makes it sound like I am listening to the album through shitty ear buds even if it is blasting out my stereo in the living room but what do you expect? Pop hooks in the vocal melodies? Give me a fucking break. Rate Your Music is just full of punks who cannot detach themselves from popular music (this includes deathcore and metalcore or whatever the fuck is hot in America ATM) and try to find commonalities between all types of music. Popular music is not the only form of composition out there. Fuckers.
 
Reported.

Huh, point taken. Don't want to be banned. I totally wasn't going for trolling but that is how it came off didn't it. Quite embarrassing on my behalf especially looking back at it. But shit happens.

But to make myself more clear: I highly doubt Varg was in anyway going for any kind of vocal melody hooks. I would be led to believe that the last thing he would be looking for is a way to hook the listener into his music and would be more into creating music for the sake of creativity. This being much of what the sub-genres of metal have generally been for.

Personally I don't really hear any music hooks. As a matter of fact if you listen to the vocal melodies of the clean takes they sound as though they fall a little short and with a little more effort -- and if one was looking to extend to a hooking chorus -- they could have been progressed into full blown 1,2,1,3 patterned vocal melodies.

What would this have done for the music? What would this have done to the fans???
 
Huh, point taken. Don't want to be banned. I totally wasn't going for trolling but that is how it came off didn't it. Quite embarrassing on my behalf especially looking back at it. But shit happens.

But to make myself more clear: I highly doubt Varg was in anyway going for any kind of vocal melody hooks. I would be led to believe that the last thing he would be looking for is a way to hook the listener into his music and would be more into creating music for the sake of creativity. This being much of what the sub-genres of metal have generally been for.

Personally I don't really hear any music hooks. As a matter of fact if you listen to the vocal melodies of the clean takes they sound as though they fall a little short and with a little more effort -- and if one was looking to extend to a hooking chorus -- they could have been progressed into full blown 1,2,1,3 patterned vocal melodies.

What would this have done for the music? What would this have done to the fans???

Not you! There was another post that got deleted. Sorry for confusion.
 
The album is definitely better than Belus. Its no Hvis Lyset Tar Oss of Filosofem, but I like it better than the debut album.
 
this album could have been made by any of hundreds of tenth string bands at any point in the last 15 or so years. how people can act like this is in any way notable is amazing, but given the lack of standards of the metal community in general i guess not particularly surprising.
 
this album could have been made by any of hundreds of tenth string bands at any point in the last 15 or so years. how people can act like this is in any way notable is amazing, but given the lack of standards of the metal community in general i guess not particularly surprising.

Burzum gets overrated because of past masterpieces, but this album is still very good. The song Enhver Til Sitt shows Varg can still make the music he used to, why he doesnt do it more is beyond me. I guess he cant sustain the harsh vocals anymore, he is almost 40 afterall.