Belus

This is not a review.

Finally the epic album is out and leaked into cyber space. Varg Vikernes's murder driven facist past and through various stages of ideological shifts, we have an album Belus - 'nicknamed' (as he says) as 'The White God' or the Nordic Baldur. Varg has always been fascinated with Balder's exploits and hence this album begins with the death of Baldur plotted by a certain Luken to the resurrection of Belus at the 'konklusjon'.

Musically it gives all old Burzum fans the shivers, though his vocal range has dimmer-ed. However without getting too critical and as a die-hard Burzumuzik fan, its a great album to spend some wonderful misanthropic time with. Also as I said earlier, this post is not a review - its rather a musical mouthpiece.

This is what Varg has mentioned on Belus in various press articles:

“The album has been made according to my heart and spirit, and not to fit into any particular genre or category, or to live up to anyone’s obvious expectations. The music can best be compared to the music of some of the old Burzum albums; in particular the ground breaking Hvis Lyset tar Oss and the atmospheric brilliances of Filosofem, only the ambient parts present on these albums has been almost completely left out on Belus. There is no special reason for this, other than coincidence and the fact that I have for some time made more and better music on the guitar rather than on the keyboard.”

“Inspiration for the album has come from a variety of sources, and I find my inspiration from fairy tales and myths, from classical music, from memories of what once was, from traditional music, from fantasy, from the wind and weather, from deep forests and running water, from the sky and the sunset, from misty mountains and from yellow leaves falling from age old trees.”

“My ambition with Belus is to create something I — and hopefully others too — can listen to for years and years to come without ever growing tired of it, and at the same time to share with my audience the experience of getting to know Belus, as he might have been perceived by the ancient Europeans.”

"The combination of lyrics and music makes this a fairy tale different from most others, and should appeal to all those who like transcendental music and love to see different things from a different perspective. “If I can make you dream when listening to this album, I believe I have done a good job.”

“I am aware of the black metal association with the name Burzum, and I have no real and serious problem with that, but I personally see no reason to place Belus in any category. I think Belus musically transcends all existing categories, but if I have to choose one — and for the sake of simplicity — I will simply place it in the metal category.”

And finally what Varg says on the controversial album name -

"When I used the name "The White God" for my next album I had no idea it would stir up so much fear and irrational emotions. To me this is just a nickname of Baldur, whom the album is all about. No ambiguity intended.

The title of the album is,"Belus", the so-called Indo-European name for Baldur/the White God. I could have used any European name for this deity, but I chose this one because it is the oldest known name and because it is pan-European."

Belus releases worldwide on 8th March 2010 on Byelobog Productions.

Belus' Doed (Belus' Death)

Metal: A Headbanger's Journey

On the advent of Sam Dunn's second film GLOBAL METAL: 7 Countries. 3 Continents. 1 Tribe, with now distintive self-styled filming of bands and fans, this repost would definitely try to arouse the mutual feeling of anticipation and and excitment for any metal fan across the world. Aptly subheaded as ONE TRIBE!




Finally the thing that I was waiting for, to take me off recipes. This movie is a tribute to metal; right from early classick roots to the genre-wise tracking of a sound growing heavier and intense each passing decade. A master documentary cut by the most original and real metal head I have ever come across - Samuel Dunn. An anthropologist by education, Dunn makes a likable companion in our journey through the metal underground, meeting some of the biggest stars of the genre on the way.


What makes things really exciting, is the fact that Dunn had chosen India amongst the countries to feature in his sophomore effort which is due. He was here to cover a few Indian metal bands as well as his old time favourites Iron Maiden headlining at Bangalore this year.



A head banger's journey starts off by examining Metal's roots with the long debate in regards to who was the first Metal band ever. Then, we are taken through an analysis of how metal sub-genres came to exist. Dunn also gives his thoughts about Metal's culture, viewpoints, religious standpoints, the fans and every other aspect of metal. Some of the veterans of the scene as well as some insightful outsiders give their interesting opinions to support the argument at hand. The film balances the serious aspects of Metal with some unintentional humor. Personalities like Alice Cooper, Bruce Dickinson, Alex Webster, Slipknot, Ghaal, Dee Snider, Doro, Ihsahn and many others offer their own individual thoughts in an intellectual way while bands like Mayhem make a fool out of themselves during a drunken interview.





The structure of the film follows life's most provocative subjects - Censorship, Sexuality, Death & Violence, and more. Each area is thoughtfully explored with comments from many musicians and some outside observers. From the calm commentary of Rob Zombie to the wry humour of Dio.



The most amazing moment of the film is when Dee Snider of Twisted Sister walks in the courtroom to testify; clad in hair apparent, torn jeans, ripped jacket in a room full of bureaucrats and beholders of moralistic jurisdicktion headed by Tipper Gore, wife of Al Gore, circa 1984. She had run a crusade against metal during those times. And Dee in sheer deliberation pulls out his "speech" of a testimonial reads out loud for the courtroon. It was politically neat and sent sarcastic pinches for Ms. Gore while the men in suits are visually shaken with uneasy tweaks and turns all around.


There are funny moments where Alice Cooper claims to be the first one, whose music was coined as the term Heavy Metal. Then further in the course of the film he reassures that it was shock rock!




The spine chilling and appalling moment for me was when Dunn interviews Gaahl from Gorgoroth. And this behemoth of a Black Metal frontman sips his wine, pauses and with a near statue-like gaze he says "Satan", with a deep drowning voice and goes ahead to support church burnings with stark contempt towards the church.

Dunn is a true metal head. The documentary is extremely entertaining and informative. It made me proud to be a metal head. It even made me give bands I'm not too fond of another chance. Bottom line is, if you're a Metal fan you'll enjoy this from beginning to end. If you're a curious outsider, here's your chance to understand our world better and get a more defined opinion of our music. And even if you don't, well to quote Dunn at the end: "We're doing just fine without you…"