''Belus'' is the seventh full-length album by the Norwegian one-man band Burzum. Released on 8 March 2010 through Byelobog Productions, it is the first Burzum studio album to be recorded after a near 11-year hiatus.

Background

''Belus'' was the first album to be recorded and released after

Varg Vikernes Louis Cachet (born Kristian Vikernes; 11 February 1973), better known as Varg Vikernes (), is a Norwegian writer and retired musician best known for his early black metal albums and later crimes. His first five records, issued under the name Burz ...

' May 2009

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

from prison. He had served almost 16 years of a 21-year murder sentence. The album was originally called "The Return of Baldur", but Vikernes announced the album in November 2009 as ''Den Hvite Guden'' ("The White God" in

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

). In December 2009, he announced that the name was being changed to ''Belus'' because some in the media speculated that the album might have racist undertones. He stated that the former name had nothing to do with

skin colour Human skin color ranges from the darkest brown to the lightest hues. Differences in skin color among individuals is caused by variation in pigmentation, which is the result of genetics (inherited from one's biological parents and or individ ...

or racism, but that it was merely a common name for the Norse god Baldr. Vikernes suggests that ''Belus'' is the oldest known (

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo- ...

) name of the

life-death-rebirth deity A dying-and-rising, death-rebirth, or resurrection deity is a religious motif in which a god or goddess dies and is resurrected.Leeming, "Dying god" (2004)Miles 2009, 193 Examples of gods who die and later return to life are most often cited f ...

that is reflected in the Norse Baldr, the Greek

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...

, the Gaulish Belenus and the Slavic Belobog (itself meaning "White God"), among others. The other Proto-Indo-European theonyms used in the lyrics are "Lukan" (equivalent to the god Loki), "Kaimadalthas" (equivalent to the gods Heimdallr and

Hermóðr Hermóðr (Old Norse: , "war- spirit";Orchard (1997:83). anglicized as Hermod) is a figure in Norse mythology, a son of the god Odin and brother of Baldr. He is often considered the messenger of the gods. Attestations ''Prose Edda'' Hermóðr a ...

, which Vikernes believes were initially the same god, ''Haimaþellar'') and "Kelio" (equivalent to the underworld Hel).

Music

The album is just over 50 minutes long. It originally contained nine metal tracks (though this was later reduced to only six metal tracks) and an ambient intro and outro. The song names "Besøk til Kelio", "Alvenes dans" and "Alvegavene" were removed from the track list, as the original was only a "working track list". The album endeavours to explore the ancient European myths about Belus: his death, his journey through the

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underwor ...

and his return. Although he described modern black metal culture as a "tasteless, low-brow parody" of the early Norwegian black metal scene, Vikernes did not change the style of his music for ''Belus'' and likened it to '' Hvis lyset tar oss'' and '' Filosofem''. Nevertheless, he claimed to have "evolved" over time. ''Belus'' includes two reworked songs: "Total Destruction" from the unreleased ''Uruk-Hai'' from 1988–1989 (with lyrics and title changed to fit the album's theme), which became "Sverddans", and "Dauði Baldrs" (which appears on the album of the same name as an ambient song), which became "Belus' død". The album's lyrics are wholly in Norwegian and were uploaded to the official Burzum website.

Critical reception

The album garnered mainly mixed/average reviews.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

gave ''Belus'' 3.5 stars out of 5. The AllMusic reviewer noted that the album was "defiled by intentionally lo-fi production standards that still barely try to mask the sophisticated compositional foundations supporting excellent songs" and named "Glemselens elv" as a highlight.

Metal Storm Metal Storm Limited was a research and development company based in Brisbane, Australia, that specialized in electronically initiated superposed load weapons technology and owned the proprietary rights to the electronic ballistics technology ...

called ''Belus'' a "disappointment". While they praised the instrumentation, they heavily criticized Vikernes' change of vocal style when compared to earlier albums; "His wolf-esque howls have been replaced with mediocre, wholly unimpressive run-off-the-mill shrieks". They gave the album 6.9 out of 10.

Track listing

Credits

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

, bass, drums, mixing,

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

*Davide Bertolini – mixing *Tim Turan – mastering *

Pytten Eirik Hundvin (born 8 February 1950), also known as Pytten, is a Norwegian producer and recording engineer for many classic black metal albums, mainly by Norwegian bands, nearly all of which were recorded in the Grieg Hall in Bergen. Hundvin is ...

– production

Charts

References

{{Authority control Burzum albums 2010 albums Norwegian-language albums