thanks jonny boy, I'm getting it as we speak what did you think of it?

haven't dared to listen to it. yet. one has to be moody when it comes to burzum. not sure which mood though.

I'll save that experience to when I have the physical release.

His wife is French.

The album itself didn't come as disappointment. I was expecting mediocre, mediocre is what I got. There are a few great moments in a sea of otherwise fraudulous monotony. Don't get me wrong, I love monotony, and bleak reckless repetition, but I just feel it's not genuine here...
Whispered vocals and drum machine don't help.
But overall, I have to admit that if it's a painfully average Burzum album, it's a quite good epic, melancholic Black Metal album. Time will tell, then.

Listening to the new album right now - at least he made a "Burzum" album, whereas Darkthrone haven't made a "Darkthrone" album since 2004.

It sounds like he picked up where he left off at Filosofem, ... the production is fittingly under-produced, yet clear and simple, the songs repetitive and hypnotic.

There aren't many of the bands from the early BM era who still sound like themselves. I think it's pretty good.

I don't agree with the man or his politics, but I like his music.

Please sate my curiosity then: what defines a Darkthrone album?

something like rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrjrjrjrokrirnmhrirjmnmrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrnrnhnrbb rhn rbhr h rbrhrjhjhrhrhnhrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr maybe?

That's Varg Vikernes we're talking about, hehe.

Overall, while I think it's a decent album and a grower, I disagree with nearly every point you make, namely on that complexity issue: it is, after Filosofem, the simplest album he did. "Pre-1993" Burzum as you put it, was much, much more varied and if I daresay, technical.
But hey, it's the internet, and I'm not interested in arguing (I don't think this album is worth arguing over), so to each his own, I guess.

Good idea, I just couldn't resist. I will be glad to know what you think! I will buy the album as well to get the little extra sound quality which comes with a cd. Stephen O'Malley from sunn0))) has been going crazy about Burzum for years, and I know he was quite excited about the new album. He said that Burzum had created doom metal as he knows it. Interesting way to look at things! hehe.

Something that sounds like Darkthrone (1992-2004), not a bad Motorhead/Discharge cover band (2006-PRESENT). (I know, I'm continually ragging on the new Darkthrone sound, but I really hate punk/crust).

@Dimaension X

Did you like the spoken words/clean vocals approach on some of the songs? I thought this was very well-done and in Burzumian spirit, for instance on "Kaimadalthas' Nedstigning". I have the feeling that his new compositional structure goes in cycles. The riffs come and go and come back and go again, recycling themselves over and over, etc. It creates great dynamics inside the songs, in my opinion, and also the typically Burzumian 'drone effect'.

back @ Oliver ...

This is the first one with blast-beats, too ... he has changed things a bit, while retaining (but not ruining) the "Burzum" sound. His vocals are very different (no more "insane old lady shrieking"), much more of what has become more BM traditional, and the spoken vocals add a new dimension.

Then he goes into a more "rock" sounding riff, almost U2-ish.

It sounds like he has really embraced the newer technology with that odd "sample" that keeps repeating, and the drum machine programming, which still sounds okay and not too fake. It sounds like he's "sampled" the guitar riffs, too, which keep repeating.

Wonder what DAW and other equipment he's now using.

It's not a drum-machine he's using, he's actually playing the drums. On his website he said what he used on the album:

Peavey "Twenty-Three" guitar
Peavey 120 Watt 6505 amp and speaker
Customized bass of high quality
Old 1975 drum kit of unknown brand
High quality mics
Digital recording

Yeah I like the repeating-patterns, or cycles... You're much more knowledgeable than me about the recording techniques, etc. so I will take your word for the sampled guitar part. He must have worked for quite a while on these songs. 17 years in prison I guess, hehe. The odd spoken words pattern that keeps repeating, if you're talking about the fourth song, is this one:

Jeg reiser til Kelio. (second voice)
Jeg reiser til mørkets dyp der alt er dødt. (main voice)

Which translates to:

I travel to Kelio.
I travel to the depths of darkness where everything is dead.

Isn't this a circular answer?

"What does a Darkthrone album sound like?"
"It sounds like a Darkthrone album."

Hehe, maybe we should start a Darkthrone thread and try to define what Darkthrone is. For me Darkthrone is Goatlord, A Blaze in the Northern Sky, Under a Funeral Moon, Transylvanian Hunger and Panzerfaust. In my little universe, it's all Darkthrone is. To each his/her Darkthrone, I guess.

And is it just me, or Darkthrone now have a mascot? It's also on the Circle The Wagons' cover, like it was on F.O.A.D. and Dark Thrones and Black Flags.