It’s been just over a year since last album from Varg Vikernes dropped and ‘Sôl austan, Mâni vestan’ made his intentions quite clear that he has long moved away from the infamous black metal origins that along with his well-documented notoriety made him such a contentious figure within the early Norwegian scene. He is still never far from the public eye, spilling over into the mainstream media who look set upon waiting for the next act of infamy to occur and indeed in the last year the spotlight shone strongly again as he was arrested in his French homeland over suspected acts of terrorism and later charged with inciting racial hatred and glorifying war crimes; charges which appear to still be likely to go through the French courts in the immediate future
Studio album number 11 ‘The Ways Of Yore’ sees him continuing down a nostalgic path gazing at the historical human evolution in Europe and consolidating on past ideas in an ambient and reflective way. Some may hate the thought of this and long for times not so far back but for the majestic sprawling blackness he conjured up pre his previous incarnation but that is not going to be found here. This is an album that will only work for a listener who is willing to cast off the shackles and pre-conceived ideas of what they feel he should be doing and work within its frames, in doing so it may well be found to be both insightful and even illuminating. Before getting to the music, first talking point is no doubt going to be the artwork which is taken from Gustav Dore’s ‘Merlin and Vivien’ although any attention to it is centred around the choice of bordering frieze that has been used around the main frame.
The album starts with a couple of instrumental segments that take it very much into the mists of pagan times with traditional instruments, dulcimer, bells, hand beaten drums and then some retro keyboards all evoking a harmonic and somewhat haunting sound. It’s quite charming and has an almost Palaeolithic feel about it as though we have been transported centuries back. ‘Heill Odin’ (Freyja also gets a Heil) is a vocal ode to Odin as the title suggests and it is Varg’s vocal harmony here that takes central stage, female vocals and string strums are also present. It probably won’t be to all tastes but once past the first listen its call is difficult to shake. There is a fragmentary feel to the pieces found here but they do become more defined and ‘Lady Of The Lake’ for example builds around the repetitive melodies that Burzum are synonymous with, albeit with keyboards instead of any guitar. Tracks like this have spoken word parts, more poetic than anything more vocal and somewhat difficult to work out what is being said at the time as the production here has pushed everything quite loudly up in the mix. The atmosphere from the melody is excellent though and as things continue ‘haunting’ seems the perfect description as with the bard like vocals talking of sorcery and ice cold space laden sounds of the keyboards on numbers like ‘The Coming Of Ettins’ it really does sound as though the ghosts of civilisations past are being evoked. Incredibly reflective is ‘The Reckoning Of Man’ where Varg “remembers” all things from times past and it’s all very mystical and esoteric stuff somewhat annoyingly muffled in the mix making exact clarity difficult. This may well be focussed on the past but huge synth whooshes put an almost futuristic Krautrock touch on it compared to the rest of the music which simply babbles along like a slow trickling stream.
This is a highly minimalistic ambient work and it does creep up and mesmerise if you let it. It’s also despite some dark twists and tones a very chilled out experience and quite a soothing one too, although again that’s probably not what everyone is hungering to hear. Something that will be after the lush last strains of the acoustic closer ‘Autumn Leaves’ have fallen is that fact that Varg has been doing some archaeology of his own and has excavated a couple of numbers from the past. These seamlessly flow stylistically into instrumental ambient re-workings of classic track Tomhet from Hvis Lyset Tar Os and ‘Til Hel og tilbake igjen’ from the more recent Fallen and are completely involving sparkling with an enthralling earthy magic and sense of lunar grandiosity within them.
Nobody knows what is coming next with Varg and only time will tell but he certainly seems to be very prolific at the moment and has no shortage of ideas. Those that wish can no doubt follow but it does seem like he is embarking very much on a one man crusade and doing his own unique thing. Whether further work is curtailed is no doubt out of his hands at the moment but we certainly have not heard the last of him yet!
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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