Click to play audio sample | DUNKENLHEIT | TRACK 1 |

Varg Vikernes’s first band was known as Uruk-Hai, formed around 1988-89. In mid-1990 Varg took a one-year break, which he spent playing in Old Funeral, and later in Satanel, which he formed with Abbath Doom Occulta of Immortal.

In 1991, when Satanel disbanded, Vikernes revived his project, changing the name to Burzum (which translates to “darkness” in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Black Speech, which is spoken by orcs, uruk-hais and other creatures of Mordor). Handling all instruments and vocals by himself, he then proceeded to write and record albums at a frightening rate; five albums – the s/t through “Filosofem” – were recorded in the space of one year, even though most of them were released later. In addition to all that, he joined Mayhem on bass, as well.

In the wake of the notoriety surrounding the church burnings, and finally the murder of Mayhem’s leader Euronymous in 1993, Vikernes faced a trial and was sentenced to 21 years in prison (and 10 years additional confinement, a system that has since been changed). Not allowed to have a guitar in his cell, and proclaiming all rock and metal-based music to be culturally alien and non-Aryan in origin, he chose to continue Burzum in a keyboard-based, neoclassical/pagan ambient vein for the two albums that followed.

TRACKING:
CD:
1. Dunkelheit
2. Jesus’ Tod
3. Erblicket Die Tochter Des Firmaments
4. Gebrechlichkeit I
5. Rundgang Um Die Transzendentale Saule Der Singularitat
6. Gebrechlichkeit II (