Origin : Norway
Genre : Black Metal / Ambient
Release : 1993
Album downloads only available to members
Album Info / Review
Burzum’s *Det Som Engang Var* (2008) is the kind of concept record that feels like a single, relentless memory carved into stone. It’s an album that follows in the same bleak, sparse aesthetic as *Hvis Lyset Tar Oss*, but it pushes further into the realm of ambient despair, making every tremolo-bearing second feel like a drip of light onto a long-shrouded graveyard.
### Sound & Production
From the first click of the laser harp, the production is unmistakably Burzum‑style: lo‑fi, half‑taped, with an everyday hiss that thins out the air around the edges of the mix. Vocal tracks sit in a distant, echo‑laden pocket, gliding past the guitars as if they’re whispered through a cavern. The guitars themselves—Nicholas Drake’s signatures, a skull‑topped 12‑string—behave like a single monolithic choir. The tremolo picking is tight, the pitch bending subtle but decisive. The bass line is almost non‑existent, a ghostly undercurrent that keeps the low end from feeling void. On the drums, the story is one of simplicity; drum kit cymbals defer to the underlying triplet tremor, rarely catching the eye but always cementing the rhythmic foundation. The overall mix feels intentionally warm and rudimentary, slipping into a degree of rawness the band and fans crave. The term ‘lozenge’ fits; the production never tries to be slick.
### Atmosphere & Theme
If the album were a landscape, it would be an endless hillside under a bruised orange sky, with mist drifting across.
Atop the soprane of the ever‑repeating guitar, chants rise through a thread of white vocalization, furbishing a sense of mycelial dread. The thematic mesh is evenly stitched around the idea of the past as a paradigm, forming a mental museum of cherished memories. What’s more, the haunting lullabies never feel sentimental. The guitars become anatomical, with long drawn notes suggestive of a god turned to stone. The driving drums #2 track your breath but feel far bigger than mere rhythm, pushing the sound forward as if it’s breaking a thick, silent rind.
### Riffs & Composition
This is not your “metal cliché” riff shop; the notes are crafted with precision and intent. Consider the opening track “Bore Mit Alt”. A quick-glitched fingerpicking owes little to the mainstream but it’s a dramatic curling line antedating the chords. Though the chords are essentially minor, they’re built with a depth and reverberation that elongate the tension. In a 90‑second track that appears to be a rest of a 19‑minute measure, the break is the pinnacle. The subdued drum break has a hallmark of ritual.
In “Jammeret”, we get a slow, accusative melody that is almost calm. And that running chord progression harnesses the feeling of descending waterfall turbulence, managing to increment the dread. The track feels like it’s stuck in the angle of your introspective camera, frowning around the edge.
As for the bravado enough for the old twenty‑second drum fill where the drums “explode” with the volcanic brain, the track turned into a highlight. Each riff is magnified and again it becomes. The “Breaking the Theme” that gives you a storm door with the moment you are about to break into a torrent track. The jazz reflective tribute of a thought. So something similar.
### Overall Impression
When you close the album you realize there’s a core intention that cannot simply be expressed on a pill: the thematics themselves. It’s an album that wants to list herself as an ancient piece of a broken current. Yet let’s not overemphasize the identity. The sound of the album is consistent regarding the themes and its composition. If you dig into it, many brand the top of the album as being engrossed in the black metal walls with that type of dull goodness. Even for someone unfamiliar with the genre, it’s a lot easier to have a strong sense of drama on that short chapter.
In short, *Det Som Engang Var* is an uncompromising study in simple yet profound mood‑setting. Survives an unsettling atmospheric proficiency that can break tied break of seemingly a goldenpod. It’s a potent notch that anyone who’s ever touched the love of doom‑in has to hear.
