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Borknagar

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Poll Question: Which is your favourite?
Poll Choice Votes Poll Statistics
1 [25.00%]
2 [50.00%]
0 [0.00%]
0 [0.00%]
0 [0.00%]
0 [0.00%]
0 [0.00%]
0 [0.00%]
0 [0.00%]
1 [25.00%]
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adg211288 View Drop Down
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    Posted: 03 Mar 2017 at 7:33am


Borknagar is a Norwegian band who I was really into some years ago, but that I drifted away from for no apparent reason. I recently started to get back into them and I'm reminded of why I liked them so much in the first place. 

If you're familiar, then vote for your favourite album here (my current one is The Olden Domain but I need to revisit the later ones a lot, as I only heard them when I was drifting away from the band). If not, then hopefully this topic will serve as a little crash course for the band. 

One thing to consider about Borknagar, is that their work can be split up into four distinct eras based on who was their vocalist at the time. 

The first era consists of the band's first two albums Borknagar (1996) and The Olden Domain (1997). During this time they had none other than Ulver's Garm (Kristoffer Rygg) fronting the band and they played black/viking metal. Other early members included Ivar Bjørnson (Enslaved), Infernus (Gorgoroth) and the late Grim on drums.



The second era covers the third and fourth albums, The Archaic Course (1998) and Quintessence (2000). The vocalist is ICS Vortex (Simen Hestnæs). The band start getting more progressive metal based and use more clean singing, but still have a very blackened sound. 



The third and longest era is the Vintersorg (Andreas Hedlund) era and covers the next four albums starting with Empiricism (2001), which for a long time was the only one I actually owned. This is the era I know the least about as I was always more interested in the Garm/Vortex albums. It includes the neofolk album Origin (2006), but otherwise continues the blackened progressive metal of the previous era. Keyboards Lars A. Nedland also does some lead vocals starting with Origin. 



The fourth and current era is actually more like era 3.2 as Vinterosrg is still here, but ICS Vortex came back so the band now have two vocalists. Ninth album Urd (2012) was the album that started to get me back into Borknagar a few years ago and was the first time since I stopped regularly listening to them that a new Borknagar release really grabbed me. I have't spent much time with last year's Winter Thrice yet, but I do intend to change that as I work my way through their catalogue again. Garm also appeared as a guest vocalist on this album. 



Edited by adg211288 - 03 Mar 2017 at 11:30am
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TheHeavyMetalCat View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TheHeavyMetalCat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Mar 2017 at 12:38pm
Good band. I prefer Garm's era and the first two albums overall due to them being the most black metal based ones. I went with the debut for my vote - the most pure black metal release they ever did. The Olden Domain is also a five for me though and they have several 4.5's afterwards including the new one Winter Thrice which I only picked up last month. Quintessence is a very good one too. Colossus is a very epic track. He was wasted in Dimmu Borgir.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Nightfly Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Mar 2017 at 12:43pm
I really like Borknagar and have a couple of their albums but there's big gaps in my knowledge of their back catalogue. This is a good excuse for me to check out some of the other albums before I vote.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 666sharon666 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Mar 2017 at 1:56pm
The Olden Domain is my favourite, followed by Empiricism and Quintessence. Then Urd and then the rest. I know that most rate the debut quite high but its never been a favourite of mine. It does have my favourite artwork from them though. There's something about that picture that suits their music perfectly.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote adg211288 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Mar 2017 at 3:48pm
I went through the albums I didn't know so well this evening (up to Universal) and ended up liking them all more than I recalled. 

I agree about the debut's artwork, Nicole. I don't dislike their other artworks but they have a common style that the first one doesn't so it really stands out. It's a case of being simple yet very effective. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Alex Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Mar 2017 at 12:02pm
I'm a bit atypical when it comes to Borknagar. I know that most tend to prefer their early albums but due to my being not much of a black metal fan I tend to prefer their later progressive metal works. I especially like the three most recent albums: Universal, Urd and Winter Thrice. I voted for the last one.

I don't dislike the early ones either though. Olden Domain and Quintessence are both solid.
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