More Black Metal Action! Review! Burzum: The Depths of Darkness

This actually came out a few m months ago but I was not aware of it being released at the time. Burzum is the name of a one man project by Varg Vikernes, a Norwegian black metal musician, white supremacist, and convicted murdered and arsonist. I took a look at some of his writings today. I suppose buried within his work you can find some kind of insight, and he certainly is not boring. However, I laughed out loud at somethings he wrote: for example, he complains about lawyers and jurors of his trial being Freemasons. I think the bigger issue in his going to prison was not the influence of Freemasonry but rather that he killed the guitarist for Mayhem and set a church on fire. This is just a suspicion I have. However, it is more often the case that culture is tame and offers no challenge to the way we live or think, and Varg Vikernes has given us culture which is not tame. Truthfully, he is a little full of himself. However, he isn't even the most disturbed person I've blogged on this week. Josh Powell killed himself and his two sons, and it was disclosed this week that he had over 400 images of cartoon porn, including images of popular cartoon characters engaging in acts of pedophilia and incest, and in particular Spongebob Squarepants porn. That's a kind of transgressive culture that I don't really like that much, symbols of childhood and familial relationships defiled through sexualization. Josh Powell to me must have existed in a real state of what the Catholics call spiritual death- Varg not as much, I'd say. The homicide in Norway Varg Veikrnes was convicted for may have been at least partially in self-defense. A Burzum album doesn't repulse and sadden me as much as Josh Powell's Spongebob Squarepants porn collection. However, I will admit I've read Varg Veikrnes try to explain why he is not a pyromaniac and laughed out loud at him. The book Lords of Chaos about the Norwegian black metal scene is a good read, I re-read that this summer. The documentary Until the Light Takes Us is okay, I wouldn't watch it a second time though. The Depths of Darkness is a newish album but is mostly re-recordings of older Burzum material, apparently largely from the first two Burzum albums from back in the early 90's. I'm sure hardened black metal fans will not be disappointed. After twenty years and a whole lot of prison time, Varg is still making some very raw black metal. The songs are very long and sort of repetitive, but Norwegian black metal has a nice grim quality like Joy Division has. These songs go on for a long time though. It's a good album. I could not be a Norwegian black metal purist. I think that would get tiresome quickly.