Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss (Black Metal)

By far, Hvis Lyset Tar Oss is the best black metal release ever. Cold, dark, desolate, unrelenting, obscure, raw, traces of evil and sheer dominance, those are only a few of the ways to describe this masterpiece.

Not many black metal albums, or even metal albums, can surpass this one. Its strength in the song writing section is superior and everything flows absolutely perfectly. Amazing that only one person contributed to this release, the efficient Euro-slayer, count Grishnákh alias Varg Vikernes. But then again, so many great black metal releases are the work of a single individual: The Epilogue to Sanity, Fenrir Prowling, Hvis Lyset Tar Oss... it really makes you wonder.

Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, released in 1994, was a turning point for both Burzum and the black metal scene at large. It manages to do the unthinkable and surpass the brilliant Det Som Engang Var in both riffcraft and song writing abilities. It was the moment when Burzum stepped out of the Norwegian black metal scene once and for all and became a unique and epic legend in their own right.

This album will make your blood run faster not because of the stylistic mould it emerged from or the aesthetic choices the band made, but because Burzum crafts amazingly complex and fluent songs with the most important of black metal tools: riffs, atmosphere and superior song writing.

If you like heavy metal at all, you must own the masterpiece of darkness Hvis Lyset Tar Oss. There is no excuse.

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