Phonebook Eater 6/10

"Det Som Engang Var" is one of the first and most successful Atmospheric Black Metal albums.

Burzum’s second effort is much more recognized than the first, obscure debut album. It is though an album loved by the fans, and is one that somehow contributed in reinventing the Black Metal genre, like the following albums. “Det Som Engang Var” has many hints of originality, and many of Burzum’s (aka Varg Vikernes) works are definitely an evolution of this album’s formula.

This sophomore LP is a stereotypical Black Metal album, to make it simple. But, It’s stereotypical today only because it used ideas that inspired many bands of the genre. These bands cited Burzum as a major inspiration. But in 1993, “Det Som Engang Var” was in theory pretty much revolutionary; Black Metal at the time wasn’t as experimental, varied, and atmospheric driven; Bands like Mayhem, Darkthrone, and Hellhammer were more focused on giving a brutal impact on the listener. Burzum shows here, with the use of keyboards and Dark Ambient tracks, that he intended on delivering an aura that the listener could immerge in. Other than that, there are the usual buzzing guitars, shriek vocals by Varg, and the extremely rough and lo-fi production.

Songs like “Key To The Gate”, “Snu Mikrokosmos Tegn”, or “Lost Wisdom” are typical BM songs that will however contribute massively in shaping and influencing further Burzum compositions. The ambient, keyboard driven songs like “Han Som Reiste” are also large contributors in the reaching of maturity on behalf of the musician.

“Det Som Engang Var” is a brave and original album for 1993. Although having some flaws in the songwriting, and being a bit immature, it is nevertheless an enjoyable experience that every Burzum fan must embark on.

Warthur Varg Vikernes had already slipped a little ambient music into Burzum's self-titled debut album, but on Det Som Engang Var - recorded a mere three months later - he turned this up a notch, creating what would prove to be a seminal blueprint for the atmospheric black metal subgenre. Mixing dark ambient tracks - the opening and closing tracks of the album, which are pretty good as far as dark ambient goes, and an interlude which tends a little too much towards the repetitive - with black metal tracks whose extended, buzzing, lo-fi guitar solos end up creating a kind of ambient effect all of their own, the album may not necessarily be very consistent, but the execution shows a step up from the more rudimentary debut album.

Varg's crackpot politics are largely kept safely out of the lyrics, though I don't blame anyone who finds Varg's rants, his clownish behaviour, or the fact that he murdered Euronymous to kind of spoil the album for them. Certainly, it's not as though there's a shortage of bands who don't have the same baggage who have not only taken the atmospheric black metal concept further, but also draw on sufficiently similar influences to Burzum as to make this rather inessential. You can see how it would have stood out in the early 1990s, but we have better options now.