Borknagar // Universal Rating: 3.5/5.0 — Very good, feels unfocused at times and its definitely a grower.. Label: Indie Recordings Websites: myspace.com/borknagar Release Dates: EU: 22.02.2010 | US. 03.02.2010
Borknagar is a class act and has been for a long time. Reaching all the way back to their first, self-titled release, this band has separated itself from the herd by being just plain more interesting and unique. Eventually they just separated themselves from the modern black metal scene altogether, heading towards more progressive pastures. Universal continues a trend away from the raw and simple towards the highly complex, dynamic and progressive—but the question is whether or not the band’s fans and general public will want to follow the band in this direction. Well, and whether or not where the band is leading is somewhere worth going.
Make no mistake about it Borknagar is a seriously talented and fantastic band. Even with the departure of longtime drummer Asgeir Mickelson, the band didn’t miss a beat (oh, hahahaha, I’m so funny) when they picked up American drummer David Kinkade who performs admirably while filling some of metal’s biggest drumming shoes. Vintersorg sounds fantastic as well, though he’s mixed quite far back on this record, more so than on previous albums. On a close listen, Universal is a record of incredible layers. All of the instruments are painting complex, elaborate, detailed and beautiful portraits which come together sometimes to create a grand tapestry of sound.
Unfortunately, all this epicness and detailed playing also leads to what I see as the biggest problem from which this record suffers: a lack of focus. While every song on the record has shining moments of beauty and clarity, Universal seems messy and hard to follow at times. Intros to tracks can feel like total non sequiturs when the verse actually starts, (see: “For AThousand Years to Come”) or sometimes the instruments seemingly clash with each other instead of working together to create beautiful chords and harmonies. Particularly in my normal speakers, I found myself just wandering off mentally when this record started overload my ears with information that seemingly clashed. However, a deeper listen with earphones helped me see through this sort of foggy mix (metaphorically speaking) and helped me come to a better understanding of these tracks.
And let me say: there are some really strong tracks on this album. The opener, “Havoc” is sort of your standard Borknagar opener, but it has done its job and stuck in my head. “My Domain” which features a guest appearance from Simen Hestnæs is another track that stands out for its epic build, particularly to the end of the song and stands as a reminder of what a fantastic vocalist Simen really is (and what Dimmu Borgir lost). “Abrasian Tide” is probably the most reminiscent of Quintessence and Empiricism on the whole record, and it’s just a solid track from start to finish. But my personal favorite track on the album is probably “Fleshflower” which, while quite short by metal standards, features a fantastic neo-classical kind of melody and some really convincing vocal performances. All of these awesome tracks point me to the same conclusion, when the band stays focused,they are able to produce epic, fascinating and powerful tracks. The big problem is when they let their progressive urges get ahead of themselves and the tracks start to wander.
Of course, the above tracks are not the only ones on the album I like. Every song on here has stand out moments, but I still do feel like I just get lost at some points and really, this is the first album by Borknagar where I’m able to say that. I admittedly had some issues with Epic at times, but even that one I felt like had a lot more good than bad and I can honestly say that I never had to work at liking that record. Universal, on the other hand, is a record that I have put a ton of effort into dissecting and trying to enjoy because of the high regard I hold this band in. While in the end I still think that this is a pretty good record, it certainly didn’t manage to live up to my expectations and had I not been forced to write a cogent review of it, I don’t know whether or not I would have given it more than just a couple listens.
Well, apparently this is another two (or possibly three if you count Gravisphere) Andreas Hedlund (Vintersorg, Otyg, Havayoth, etc.) record year. The first of the year will be the February 22nd release of Universal by Borknagar! Yes, yes, yes! I’m very interested to hear this album, as the stuff that I’ve heard thus far has been fantastic.
Borknagar’s upcoming album Universal will be launched for a worldwide release the 22nd of February 2010 through Indie Recordings.
Comment about the artwork:
“We are really proud to finally reveal the cover for Universal. It has been a long process to circle in and establish the perfect visual approach for this album. A cover that is able to visually represent the album. We firmly believe that we have achieved that with the new cover and the general designs (including CD,CDL, LP and CD BOX) represent nothing less.”
The tracklisting is as follows:
1. Havoc
2. Reason
3. The Stir of Seasons
4. For a Thousand Years to Come
5. Abrasion Tide
6. Fleshflower
7. Worldwide
8. My Domain (featuring guest vocals by I.C.S Vortex)
Wow. Things have been busy around here, honestly. One of the downsides of doing this for fun is that one makes no money doing it and has to come up with other ways to pull together an income. I’ve been trying to do that, plus, other things. Anyway, this is the stuff that I’ve been up to and listening to in my freetime (of which there is actually very little). In this time, however, I have pieced together a list that I would call the “best albums of the 2000s.” I don’t know if I’d actually call them the best, so much as the ones that have really stuck with me. As a guy who thinks that it was actually the mid/late 90s that were really the defining point in heavy metal for the modern era, and that what we’re dealing with is very much the outcome of this, this list was actually very difficult for me to produce.
1. Opeth // Ghost Reveries — This is always the toughest for me. Choose which Opeth record I think most defines the modern era. I finally always decide on GR, which incidentally I hated when it came out. But it totally grew on me after that and now it’s probably my favorite.
2. Katatonia // Last Fair Deal Gone Down — Again, this is tough. I love all of their modern stuff, but I think this is probably the most consistent of all their albums. Another defining record in my life, I think, too.
3. Turisas // The Varangian Way — I consistently come back to this record over and over. It pretty much represents everything that big, awesome extreme metal should be. I also think it was very much new. It combined much of that power metal and viking metal stuff that’s been threatening to merge for years into a cohesive whole.
4. Vintersorg // Visions from the Spiral Generator — Again, how do you really choose? I chose this one because I think the whole album is fantastic. But they’re all fantastic. It’s definitely between this one and Cosmic Genesis. I chose this one ’cause I love Digorgio and Mickelson’s performances.
5. Amon Amarth // Versus the World — Again a hard one to choose. But this record has some of the best tracks these guys ever wrote and some of the best melodic death metal ever.
6. Anathema // A Fine Day to Exit — This record is fucking tremendously written and perfect from first note to last note.
7. Amorphis // Eclipse — The rebirth of Amorphis is quite possibly one of the greatest things that happened in the two-thousandsies. This album, and the two that have followed since, are some of the finest metal records produced in the modern era.
8. Rhapsody // Power of the Dragonflame — Sets the bar for orchestrated, ridiculous over-the-top metal. They’ve never produced anything like it since, nor has anyone else for that matter.
9. Ihsahn // angL — I love Ihsahn’s solo stuff. It’s a perfect blend of extreme metal and prog. His writing is massively improved since being out of Emperor, in my opinion, but I’m sure there’s a black metal guy on this board who will shriek in horror at those words.
10. Shining // V:/ Halmstad — This record hooked me immediately and hasn’t let go.
You have absolutely no idea how difficult it is to write a list like that. And I do really like writing lists, I think it’s a good time. A game for me has always been top 5s or top 10s.
We’ll start with a simple link. The new track from Ihsahn’s forthcoming record After, which is the thing I’m looking forward to most in 2010 (along with the new Vintersorg).
The song is GREAT. The production and mix is really solid, and the song itself is delightfully progressive. I can easily say that Ihsahn is the best solo project by any musician pretty much ever.
According to a post that Vintersorg made on his forum, he and Matias are slowly at work recording the follow up to 2007’s Solens Rötter. While a name hasn’t been given for the new record yet, he teased today that in fact all the lyrics have ended up being in Swedish—and that this is entirely unplanned. A few titles to illustrate this:
Mörk Nebulosa
Vindögat
Palissader
Klippor och Skär
According to the enigmatic Mr. V himself:
We’ve slowly started to record stuff and it sounds beautiful.
Wow, more news today. And, frankly, I think I’m probably the first to actually update this stuff. So I was on the Vintersorg forum today when I came across an update that was written by him. It basically sounds like things are pretty much in gear for him recording an album over the rest of this summer and into the fall. Maybe we’ll have something from him in Q1 of next year? I hope so!
Some news: I’ve now written 5-6 new Vintersorg tracks that sound really cool with a lot of folk touch but somehow it also has a touch of CG atmosphere. Just going to start to record some stuff during this summer.
A new Waterclime album is now completed, at the moment I’m noe shure who will release it. It’s a leap up in song quality and also productionwise compared to the earlier two albums.
Fission: not much happens at this time…we’re just filling up the right a mount of inspiration to start working on some stuff.
Borknagar: Concentrating on Wacken and looking forward the realese the new album “Universal“.
Cronian: Not much is actually going on at the time…we have like two-three new tracks going.
Gravisphere: Working on the recording of an album. So far keyboards are kind of completed..but you never know as it’s zillions of ‘em.
just found about ten really atmopheric track in my recording computer the other day…don’t know if I ever will do anything with it…but some ideas were special.
In other news, I’m actually awaiting an interview back from Mr. V and Stenlund from Gravisphere, so that should be cool when I get it.
Borknagar is a class act and has been for a long time. Reaching all the way back to their first, self-titled release, this band has separated itself from the herd by being just plain more interesting and unique. Eventually they just separated themselves from the modern black metal scene altogether, heading towards more progressive pastures. Universal continues a trend away from the raw and simple towards the highly complex, dynamic and progressive—but the question is whether or not the band’s fans and general public will want to follow the band in this direction. Well, and whether or not where the band is leading is somewhere worth going.
Thousand Years to Come”) or sometimes the instruments seemingly clash with each other instead of working together to create beautiful chords and harmonies. Particularly in my normal speakers, I found myself just wandering off mentally when this record started overload my ears with information that seemingly clashed. However, a deeper listen with earphones helped me see through this sort of foggy mix (metaphorically speaking) and helped me come to a better understanding of these tracks.
they are able to produce epic, fascinating and powerful tracks. The big problem is when they let their progressive urges get ahead of themselves and the tracks start to wander.
