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Borknagar: Empiricism
15/04/09 || The Duff
Listening to this disc, and I’m reminded that I’ve been exposing myself to Borknagar for about seven years; that is loco, puta madre. One of the first black metal bands I ever truly appreciated, I considered them quite tame and therefore easier to warm to, much like other “BM starter-pack bands” Dimmu Borgir and later-Emperor. The difference between these two and Borknagar is that I believe the latter are still widely appreciated by underground BM hordes, despite their venturing into accessible, symphonic terrain. Although “Quintessence” may well have been a good album, it was a step down from the majestic “The Archaic Course”, even if it was a shedding of the docility that may have had black metal fans shivering for all the wrong reasons – “Empiricism” sees one of the band’s finest discs, better in my mind than “The Archaic Course”, and leveling their classic first two opuses.
What’s different then? Less folk, less cheese, more melancholy and more black fucken metal. A reason for this transition may be due to Vortex’s departure, where we no longer get a woman sobbing about her first period, but instead a man with breasts lamenting about the physics of his asshole’s elasticity post-Viking legion rape in the form of Vintersorg. No, not really, but if you follow the man’s solo work, you’ll know he likes singing about maths and shit like that, and that his voice isn’t terribly manly; still a step up, though – a lot more level, lamenting and austere than the wavery, sugar-coated style of Vortex; his black metal shrieking isn’t much different (I would say less throaty, more palatable), so generally the music has been a good deal improved upon, the chief reason for which I consider this album to be kicking greater amounts of ass.
To summarize, this is still symphonic black metal, but so much darker, more depressing than “Quintessence”; the folk sections are more atmospheric, like tears gently landing on the guitar strings and not so much Camembert being violently thrown against your ear drums. Nah, I dig “Quintessence”, and I dig the vocalists on both albums too (jokes is jokes, yo), but a lot of the synth was really extravagant on the band’s 2000 effort – the synth on “Empiricism” comprises soothing chants, Arcturus-style keys and classical piano, amongst other things like orchestral instruments et al.; nothing too obtrusive, basically, and stuff that blends well. Combined with a more reserved standard of black metal, all considered the album is more accessible, but the music far richer, and so in short there is no doubt as to its status as a symphonic black metal staple.
9 sissy-girlie metal that should see you through two cold rainy November days in the year out of 10.
- Information
- Released: 2001
- Label: Century Media
- Website: www.borknagar.com
- Band
- Oystein G. Brun: guitars
- Jens F. Ryland: guitars
- Tyr: bass
- Lars A. Nedland: synth, vocals
- Asgeir Mickelson: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. The genuine pulse
- 02. Gods of my world
- 03. The black canvas
- 04. Matter and motion
- 05. Soul sphere
- 06. Inherit the Earth
- 07. The stellar dome
- 08. Four element synchronicity
- 09. Liberated
- 10. The view of everlast
