Aside the thirteen audio tracks, there’s a bonus video included. It’s clear that it’s not even Burzum in the first place, but the audio to the recording sounds as muffled as the previous two recordings, it’s just minus the higher pitched static and other white noise issues.ĭraugen actually comes in a nice black slipcover that houses a traditional jewel case that features the same artwork. “Seven Harmonies of the Unknown Truth”, however, is a different story all together. In fact, the high pitch static that adorns the track is often very hard to look past, and will easily give you a migraine over the nine minute time span of the song.
The song itself sounds very hollow and often over-modulated, as well as comes off like it was transferred from a microphone to a speaker that was playing the song from whatever original source it came from. “Et Hvitt Lys Over Skogen” was originally recorded for a compilation, as outlined above, but one wouldn’t think it with the quality presented on this release. Outside the entertaining, but rather poor sounding demo tracks, there’s also he bootleg tracks from Svarte Dauen to listen to. It’s sad that the other two demos didn’t make the list, but it’s definitely interesting to sit down and hear this demo to see how far the band had progressed over the years, or how far back they were set in some people’s eyes. While the demo is fantastic to hear, it plays as if there is something wrong with the demo tape that they were taken from. The entire 1992 Burzum Demo I release is here, though not of the best quality. In the end, this track, as well as all better quality studio tracks, should have been lumped together like the rest of the rare tracks included instead of being scattered about at the start and end of the compilation, to help ensure a nice flow between one song to the next.īut, track order aside, most fans of Burzum will probably skip by those tracks for one reason or another, and head straight to the more rare songs. This would be a great move if this were a best of release and not a rarities compilation. “My Journey To the Stars” comes off the Burzum full-length, and appears much later on the compilation between the Ildjarn song “Seven Harmonies of the Unknown Truth”, and “Lost Wisdom”. Granted, it’s never a good idea to clip everything together in certain sections, such as songs from one album in the original track list order, followed by tracks from the next album in the same order, then the third, then the fourth, etc., however, in this case, it would have been a bit beneficial. One of the biggest issues for this compilation would simply be the track listing. But, of course, for any fans, it’s not a few tracks from previously available material that lures them to most compilations, but the more scarce material, like demos and b-sides, which is where Draugen shines, but not quite that bright a shine one would expect. Of course, the tracks that come off the Burzum full-length and Aske EP sound well composed and have a great production quality to them to begin with, and wind up being nice little additions to this compilation. Either way, Draugen makes for an enjoyable romp through some of the more lesser known or heard material from Burzum, and for the most part, the material sounds excellent. However, some of the material here clearly did not, such as “Et Hvitt Lus Over Skogen” and “Once Emperor”, both of which came from the bootleg version of Svarte Dauen, with “Et Hvitt Lys Over Skogen” originally composed for the 1998 compilation Presumed Guilty. This compilation takes material from a couple various sources, but mostly stem from official Burzum material, such as the out of print Burzum full-length, Aske EP, as well as the band’s self-titled first demo. It’s a good thing too, as this compilation, outside the aforementioned error, boasts some great material that either was never really made available to the general public, or has since been out of print, and for fans of Burzum, it becomes a nice treat. However, the band’s website lists it as an official Burzum release. The question about this release lies solely in the debate of the legitimacy of the release, which stems from one of the songs on this compilation, “Seven Harmonies of the Unknown Truth”, actually being a track by Ildjarn and not an actual Burzum song.
A simple compilation album that is draped in plenty of controversy in the Black Metal world.
0 kommentar(er)
