New Burzum Album Releasing in 2010

Varg Vikernes, the Norwegian black metal musician and racist psycho who's as famous for murdering founding Mayhem guitarist Euronymous in 1993 as he is for his music as Burzum, has announced that he will be releasing a new album in 2010. Vikernes, who was released from prison this year, posted a lengthy message online from which the following is excerpted:


"Why more of Burzum? Well, I am what I am; a musician. Musicians produce music, when they can, and now I can; I am no longer imprisoned by the criminal anti-Norwegian regime in Norway. Will my music be any good? My guess is that if You like Burzum You like Burzum. If You don't You don't. I do try to change all the time, but most of the time I fail, and many appreciate that. Others don't.


"The coming album is called Den Hvite Guden (The White God) and is a musical and lyrical description of the the White God (alias Apollon, Baldr, Belenus, Belus, Bragi, Byelobog, Jarilo, et cetera) and the annual events of his life. I describe the stories of the myths like they could have been before they were myths, by presenting to You bits and pieces of the sorcery and religion of ancient Europe (more elaborately described in my unpublished book Trolldom og Religion i Oldtidens Skandinavia [Sorcery and Religion in Ancient Scandinavia]). It is not intended for play the 'low-brow metal' style, but instead I imagine a listener willing to sit down, ideally in solitude, and think for a minute, about the White God and our forebears, whether they were Picto-British, Finnish, Gallic, Greek, Roman, Scandinavian, Scytho-Slavic, Daco-Thrakian or whatever, and about their magnificent, intelligent, positive, beautiful, healthy and strong culture. I try to help You create an image of this with the help of Your own mind, by offering a few clues and guidelines. The album is political only in the way that it offers an alternative to the depravity offered to us by the intrusive popular culture and the commercial entertainment industry - and by modern so-called Black Metal, for that sake.


"The début album was intentionally anti-commercial and anti-Death Metal, the Det Som Engang Var album was experimental, the Hvis Lyset Tar Oss album was intentionally monotonous and ritual, the Filosofem album was intentionally different from the others, Dauði Baldrs was what I could do from a prison cell, and Hliðskjálf too, but they were all music that I liked. Den Hvite Guden will be no different in that respect, but I am older now, in fact twice as old as I was when I recorded the début album, and I am therefore different. The new album might differ from the old albums more than some might appreciate, but I hope not. Even if some of You might appreciate the old Burzum, I must be allowed to evolve, just like everybody else. Maybe You will like the new Burzum too. I will not do my best to copy and reproduce my old music, just to please somebody. I never did and I never will. If it sounds similar it is because it is made by the same person. If it sounds different it is because it is not the same music and because I have evolved.


"I can add that just like on the other metal albums (with the exception of Hvis Lyset Tar Oss) Den Hvite Guden features some very old Burzum tracks. Filosofem featured the "Burzum" track, from 1991, and Den Hvite Guden will feature the "Uruk-Hai" track, from 1988-1989, although the title and the lyrics have been changed to fit the new concept. It will also feature the original "Dauði Baldrs" metal track, from 1993. In a sense this album too will not be "new material", but just a collection of previously unpublished tracks; some new, some old. If some think my composing skills have disappeared altogether, then at least there will be some gems for them too."