Aranyak Atman: A Vedic Tribute to Burzum
For every thought an individual has, he sub consciously propagates a negative idea to that thought which varies in its influence over his psyche. The Norweigian black metal scene has always been that driving force that got many metalhead teenagers hooked on the creative side of their negative emotions. Mr. Varg Vikernes’ brainchild project Burzum is considered to be one of the first atmospheric black metal entities that emerged from the Scandinavian scene. His music was as morbid because of the simplicity of his experimentation and the Mayhem like arrangements which he executed in his own way.
Today, there are quite a few bands that are influenced to create music like Burzum’s but in their own way. With bands like Drudkh, Darkspace, Xasthur and Agalloch gallantly carrying the banner of experimental atmospheric black metal, there has been a more open audience for bands of this genre. Quite recently a ‘Vedic tribute to Burzum’ was released via Depressive Illusions records of the Ukraine metal scene. Aranyak Atman is a record in which once can see the ideas of a young Burzum, with its under-produced instruments and thorough darkness, and a morbid euphoria that sets in from the beginning.
A very stylish element here is the literary effort behind each song title. The words express a lost feeling that the album is trying to create here. Immurement – Dungeons of Darkness is where one begins this album, and the song takes its own time to develop from the deepest recesses of the listener’s consciousness, with dark winds blowing and an eerie haunting feeling of the supernatural. It’s not even an instrumental song but just drone noise that end to cue the classic organ tone of Scandinavia. It is probably this tone that sets the ambience, although one can complain that the keys sounds like a midi export of a guitar pro composition.
Demonos – Ea, Lord of the Depths is the classic, brutal Burzum sound revisited. The off-sounding drum tone and the accompanying traditional Darkthrone like guitars is only fitting with the most esoteric vocals that are on this song. Every black metal fan who has every bore witness to the Transylvanian Hunger record will relate to those wraith like vocals that Nocturno Culto so thoroughly expressed in the record. What follows is a downright Pagan Fear like chugging riffing but the vocals here are the shrieks that even blasphemous metallers fear.
Varg Vikernes is known to have created the early Burzum music with only synthesizers and lyrical influences from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and because of the experimental nature of its music he decided to keep this as his pet project even after his release from prison. Records like From the Depths of Darkness only fuelled the scene that Varg Vikernes’ popularity post his arrest generated, with fans of traditional black and extreme metal soon accepting the atmospheric black metal niche. Aranyak Atman celebrates this niche existence. The songs by Mrytu and Arsonic are witness to this altho h it can also be said that this record is witness to the stigma Burzum’s legacy will carry.
Anway Paramik
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