Since Varg Vikernes regained his freedom there has been a veritable flurry of activity from him. With plenty of time to formulate his ideas and reflect upon what he wanted to do but was constrained against doing due to obvious limitations this is no real surprise. The first couple of albums ‘Belus’ and ‘Fallen’ seemed to be a progressive continuation of the work he did pre and during captivity. The re-recording of old material was however a bit of a curveball and not everyone took to ‘From The Depths Of Darkness’ and many no doubt wished that this was exactly where it had stayed. It was the long worked upon book that really intrigued however and Varg’s treatise Sorcery And Religion In Ancient Scandinavia took a step beyond the music to explore some ideas that were certainly interesting and illuminating for anyone who decided to give them a try.
I have to admit that I was not expecting such a fast delivery of another album but Umskiptar was announced so I quickly downloaded and listened. On doing so came a lot more surprise as it was not what I was anticipating in the slightest. Described as a return to the roots with emphasis on the atmosphere what we get is a very stripped down Burzum. Emphasis is always placed on the trembling riffs and harmonic vocals here. The lyrics are taken from the Völuspá an old Norse Poetic Edda and is very much based around the ancient mythology which were translated into English in the text. So perhaps this could even be looked on as a companion piece to the book?
What we get is around 65 minutes of ‘Skaldic metal’ which flows around no less than 66 stanzas. It is not the sort of album to dissect with a track by track summary in the slightest. The moods and textures are oft repeated and musically it is a rich and mesmerising piece that is best taken as a whole. Often the riffs are enthralling and closing your eyes and letting them carry you off is the best way to take it all in. It mostly unravels at a dream laden pace that is not challenging but is completely involving. For example listening to a song like ‘Valgaldr-Song of the Fallen’ emphasis is placed on the Skaldic poeticism of the vocals along with a maudlin and simplistic guitar melody which trembles and shivers away in an unmistakable and oft imitated fashion. Calling this ‘metal’ would not really be right at all, if you were to go into it looking for the multi-layered attack of recent albums you are not going to get what you are looking for here. There is an occasional distempered cry of indignation but there is no real visceral attack behind the music. Songs are often long and can hit the 8-10 minute mark giving them plenty of time to work their fronds beneath the skin. The melody behind each and every number stays with you long after they have passed, they may well be quite simplistic but the musician behind them casts them very much like an ancient sorcerer embedding them in your psyche.
Whether you like this or dismiss it as a folly is probably an irrelevancy; this is either an album you will love and embrace or it will go completely over your head and have you playing the early albums and thinking Varg has lost it all and turned into a bit of a hippy. I am not sitting on the fence here as I absolutely loved Umskiptar, to me it really is an album that truly conveys a feeling of times gone past and bristles with folkloric mystery and imagination. The Skalds of bygone eras may not have had the instruments at their disposal that Varg has but he has created the essence of what they no doubt sang about around the camp fire in ancient times.
(8/10 Pete Woods)
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