Anthology＜Picture Vinyl＞

Next to gangsta rap, the music that probably inspired the most controversy in Western Europe in the '90s and 2000s was black metal -- and one of black metal's most controversial and notorious figures has been Norwegian singer/producer/multi-instrumentalist Kristian "Varg" Vikernes, aka Count Grishnackh, who was given a 21-year prison sentence for the 1993 murder of Mayhem guitarist Oystein Aarseth, aka Euronymous, and for arson attacks on Christian churches. But all the shocking headlines that have surrounded Vikernes haven't hurt the CD sales of his Burzum project; if anything, all that negative publicity has inspired morbid curiosity in some people who aren't necessarily big black metal fans and made them want to hear what his music sounds like -- sort of the way some people who aren't the least bit racist have bought albums by Prussian Blue (a female white supremacist vocal duo consisting of twin sisters) out of morbid curiosity, or the way people who aren't necessarily big gangsta rap fans went out and bought CDs by the late gangsta rapper Russell Tyrone Jones, akaOl' Dirty Bastard, every time he had a run-in with the law. Anthology, a collection of previously released Burzum recordings, will no doubt sell some copies due to morbid curiosity alone, but musically, the selections are generally solid regardless of the appalling things Vikernes has been convicted of. Burzum's music evolved radically in the '90s, and this 62-minute CD reflects that. Some of the older tracks exemplify the garage-like rawness that characterized black metal in the beginning; "Lost Wisdom," "Feeble Screams from Forests Unknown," and "Stemmen Fra Tarnet," for example, underscore black metal's roots in thrash metal/speed metal, hardcore, and old-school punk. But listen to "Gebrechichket" or "Balferd Baldrs" and you will hear a much different Burzum -- a nuanced, darkly atmospheric, keyboards-minded act that had become a lot more melodic and moved away from the primal rawness of early black metal. Anthology is certainly diverse, and it is the logical starting point if one is exploring Burzum's work for the first time. ~ Alex Henderson