“If I can make you dream when listening to this album, I believe I have done a good job,” says Kristian. The music can best be compared to… Hvis Lyset tar Oss and Filosofem, so says the press release. I can forgive a lot of things, not much bothers me, but burning a stave church that predated the christians in Scandinavia I can’t forgive. An architect friend of mine went on a tour of all the stave churches in Norway just a week after Fantoft was burned and he brought back some charred wood. He was horrified when I told him the arsonist had been released. The idiot could have burned down many modern churches without attracting so much attention. Burzum is one of the few bands out there where it is impossible to separate the politics.

You could argue his music is awful uninspired drivel and you would be dead wrong, at least as far as his pre-conversion days, “some of the best black metal ever created,” and I’d agree, but post-conversion is another matter, and no matter what this album actually sounds like this album is bought for one of three reasons. 1. Varg is my idol, I wish I was as evil as him, in which case you have already ordered your copy. 2. Burzum is the very definition of true kult, I wish I had burned a priceless pagan church, murdered my friend and converted to Nazism, in which case you have already ordered you copy on vinyl. 3. Burzum is that overhyped one man project from Norway that produced three excellent albums and then got himself incarcerated for some reason, Norwegian Charles Manson or some such, and now he is out of prison so I am hoping for a return to form of pre-incarceration styled black metal, in which case you’ve probably already set the money aside to buy the album when it shows up at your local store.

It’s impossible for him to tarnish his image any more so it matters little if he continues to release ambient drone albums or he really comes through with his promised return to early black metal. What of the music of Belus though, for those out there not buying the disc automatically? Personally I can’t put the ipod on shuffle, have a Burzum song pre 1995 come up and not know it instantly, yes the first three discs are on the ipod permanently, and with Belus the initial immediate reaction is “that’s a Burzum song,” definitely identifiable as Burzum, quite readily so, and I won’t say the magic is gone, mush as I’d like to. There are a plethora of inspired moments but no inspiring ones. That is to say he has written some cool passages, he was inspired at the time of composition, but none of it inspires me.

It is definitely guitar driven, not keyboard, I thought he didn’t approve of stringed instruments anymore. The vocals are not the tortured wail. The dreamy distant clean vocals, NSBM pagan styled, if you will, are effective on “Glemselens Elv”. The blackened screams on “Kaimadalthas’ Nedstigning” are just not like the old days. There are also many spoken phrases and the dominate vocal style is the clean one. This song is also more keyboard centric. “Sverddans” is short and speedy with a happy bounce to the guitars and “Keliohesten” has a consistently harsh vocal style, buzz guitars and blastbeats, with an emphasis on rhythmic patterns. “Morgenrøde” drones on for nearly nine minutes. The idea was expressed in the first thirty seconds and the point was taken by four minutes. The nine minute concluding track, “Belus’ Tilbakekomst (Konklusjon),” takes up the above idea and extends it out on a parallel tangent. Bare bones guitar, minimal vocals, but not trance inducing drone. Instead it just fades into the background of my dreams, which sadly are unrelated to Belus, or Burzum.

Why rush this album out so soon after prison release? Take the time to do it right. It’s not like he was about to fade into obscurity off on some farm in the mountains north of Bergen. I will not call it ‘most disappointing’ or ‘worst of the year’ or any such thing because it is not bad and it does not disappoint because I had no expectations for it not to meet. I had already written off new Burzum as irrelevant. In all honesty come year end this album will just be forgotten. Not memorable is the tag. Varg says, “my ambition with Belus is to create something …[to] listen to for years without ever growing tired of it.”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Her er eventyret ute. It is time for Kristian to settle down and raise a Nazi family of his own, and to pick up Norske Folke Eventyr for a re-read.

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