I've never really liked Raw Power. Like it's fine, but it blows my mind that there are people who like it more than Fun House.

I couldn't agree more. Probably their best album, and one of the best in history. Raw Power, indeed my friend.

I also prefer Fun House, but Raw Power is still pretty awesome.

Fun House is amazing as well.

Incorrect. Last half of Fun House is the best part. The progressive deconstruction of rock 'n' roll to almost free form noise is fantastic. If anything the first half is actually a bit samey, even if each song is fantastic (though I've never been a big fan of "Dirt").

Artist: Burzum
Album: Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
Year: 1994
Genre: Ambient black metal

Okay, okay, I know that "Black Friday" was a week ago, but it’s Friday and I’m listening to Burzum, alright. Now, I thought I’d already written about this album here already, but it turns out I hadn’t. That’s fine though, since it would most likely have been a wussy post anyway. I mean, it really did take me a while to get over the artist’s criminal history, political sympathies and general bat****ness. Now, here goes:

The album kicks off with «Det Som En Gang Var», a 14-minute long half-ambient, half-metal track that sets the general mood of the album. The guitar tone is blissfully – I mean hellishly – murky, sounding somewhat like a circular blade cutting into a piece of wood. I’m pretty sure that this is my favourite song from the album – not that there are many to choose from, of course.

“Hvis Lyset Tar Oss” is awesome as well. When the drums go from blast beats to that sweet galloping pattern, the song takes on sense of melody, without losing its intensity. It gets a little boring towards the end, but that’s my only complaint.

Then there is “Inn i Slottet fra Drømmen”. It’s alright. The main/opening riff gets tedious after a while, it’s just way too simple for repetition. The most fun part of this song, is the failed attempt at a scream that Varg makes four minutes in. You go, Varg.

The album should have just stopped here, in my opinion. But there’s one more track, “Tomhet”, an ambient track that sounds like it was recorded in a prison with a tape recorder. Because later, Varg would go on to record some music in prison using a synthesizer and a tape recorder, and from what I’ve bothered to listen to, it sounded pretty much like this. Bah.

So the first half of this album is the ****. Seriously. Then the second half starts, and it’s alright for a while, until it enters full basement nerd mode. So what do I rate this? I think three and a half out of five is appropriate.

3.5/5

Weirdly enough, I agree with you that I'm not that thrilled with the ambient parts of the last couple non-prison albums, but I actually really dig the ambient prison albums. When he was forced to concentrate on just that element, I think he really raised his game.

Rundgang um die transzendentale blah blah is actually pretty cool, but I wouldn't mind at all if it was about three times shorter.

Violently stabbing a friend to death will do that to a person.