History Music / Burzum

Around a decade later, Vikernes was released in 2009 on parole, and continued releasing music from the early to mid-2010s. In 2018, he officially announced the end of Burzum, stating that he had moved on from the project, but tweeted in late 2019 that he intended to release another album under the name. The album, ''Thulêan Mysteries'', was released in early 2020, and Vikernes has confirmed that it will be the final output from Burzum.

Burzum (BlackSpeech of [[Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium Mordor]] for "darkness") was a one-man {{black metal}} project by Norwegian musician Varg Vikernes (born February 11, 1973), notorious within music history for burning churches, killing Music/{{Mayhem}}'s guitarist Euronymous, and being a white supremacist. The project's music has been regarded as some of the most influential black metal ever released, particularly [[TropeMaker pioneering]] the {{ambient}} variant of the genre.

Founded in 1991, Burzum was initially based in a raw black metal sound, and quickly became prominent within the genre's Norwegian scene. The project was signed to [[NonIndicativeName Deathlike Silence Productions]], the record label run by Øystein Aarseth (aka Euronymous). Vikernes released four albums under the Burzum name before his arrest in 1994 for the murder of Euronymous (whom he stabbed, allegedly over a contract dispute), as well as the arson of several churches in the area. While in prison, Vikernes recorded two dark ambient albums, the result of being unable to use equipment other than a synthesizer and a tape recorder, which had a more mixed reception from the metal community than the rest of his albums.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Some of the official song titles don't match the most commonly used Norwegian spellings, likely because the font Varg used didn't have the å and ø characters. Examples include "En ring til aa herske" (would typically be spelt "En ring til å herske"), "Naar himmelen klarner" (typically spelt "Når himmelen klarner"), "Belus' doed" (typically spelt "Belus' død"), "Morgenroede" (typically spelt "Morgenrøde"), and so on. Varg's spellings aren't even always consistent with each other, as demonstrated by the album ''Det som engang var'' versus the song "Det som en gang var". (Note that there are several different dialects of Norwegian, and spellings aren't always standardised between them. The most commonly ''written'' is Bokmål by far, with Nynorsk being a distant second; however, most speakers don't actually ''speak'' either Bokmål or Nynorsk as written, but rather a regional dialect that identifies their origins.)

Burzum (BlackSpeech of Mordor for "darkness") was a one-man {{black metal}} project by Norwegian musician Varg Vikernes (born February 11, 1973), notorious within music history for burning churches, killing Music/{{Mayhem}}'s guitarist Euronymous, and being a white supremacist. The project's music has been regarded as some of the most influential black metal ever released, particularly [[TropeMaker pioneering]] the {{ambient}} variant of the genre.

%%'''NOTE:''' Varg Vikernes is a pretty polarising fellow, so please keep a neutral perspective and remember the Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement.

* BilingualBonus: While he has a few English lyrics, most of his songs are in his native Norwegian, and ''Umskiptar'' has lyrics in Old Norse (taken from a poem entitled ''Völuspá''). Also, the most commonly used versions of the song titles on ''Filosofem'' are all in German, although the lyrics themselves are in English ("Dunkelheit", "Erblicket die Töchter des Firmaments", "Gebrichlichkeit I") and Norwegian ("Jesus' Tod"). There are German translations of the song lyrics in the liner notes, though. Also lets you know that Varg Vikernes is an AwesomeMccoolname. Varg means wolf in most Scandinavian languages. It's like an English speaker named Wolf Wilson.

[[quoteright:345:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/postmoarvargs_5482.jpg]]

Around a decade later, Vikernes was released in 2009 on parole, and continued releasing music from the early- to mid-2010s. In 2018, he officially announced the end of Burzum, stating that he had moved on from the project, but tweeted in late 2019 that he intended to release another album under the name. The album, ''Thulêan Mysteries'', was released in early 2020, and Vikernes has confirmed that it will be the final output from Burzum.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: The black metal material mostly sticks to Level 9 and occasionally 10. The dark ambient material on the other hand is much softer, ranging from levels 1-4.

* BadassBookworm: Varg has previously expressed his admiration for many different authors. The most famous example is probably Creator/JRRTolkien, from whose work Varg takes Burzum's name.

* BrownNote: The music is intended as a real life example of this trope -- Vikernes envisions each Burzum album as a kind of "spell" to be listened to while the listener is lying in bed, such that by the end of the album they will be sent to sleep. YMMV as to whether he succeeded in this goal.

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: This is particularly evident at his trial. The faces he makes in the file photos don't look like he's taking it very seriously.
* ConspiracyTheorist: Varg has promoted numerous conspiracy theories since his release from prison, and many of them are [[InsaneTrollLogic detached from reality]] even by far-right ideological standards. See “InsaneTrollLogic” below.

* InsaneTrollLogic: Varg espouses a number of [[ConspiracyTheorist conspiracy theories]] as part of his far-right ideology, and many of them are very unusual even by that standard - from the idea that Neanderthals were actually beautiful superhuman “Aryan” giants (he claims all realistic depictions of how Neanderthals actually may have looked based on their real genetic material and excavated bones are somehow forgeries) who are the ancestors of the “Indo-European race” and are somehow still alive in a LostWorld beneath the HollowEarth[[note]]For starters, while it’s true that some Eurasian populations have residual traces of Neanderthal DNA, this is a result of humans assimilating them out of existence. Europeans rather unsurprisingly did not originate from this and are the descendants of Homo Sapiens like every other human population in the world, a fact that Varg really seems to wish wasn’t true.[[/note]] to the idea that people with neurodivergencies are actually people with latent psionic abilities suppressed by corrupt modern society.

* MultipleChoicePast: He changes his story nearly every time he recounts how he killed Euronymous.
** Varg has also claimed he was the only member of Mayhem not to party and instead go out for brooding walks in the night, [[BlatantLies though pretty much everyone who knew him at the time strongly disputes the truthfulness of this]].
* Myth/NorseMythology: The most common lyrical theme.
* PetTheDog: Despite being a known eugenicist and white supremacist, Varg condemned Christianity for its destruction of cultures all across the world, including those in Africa and pre-Columbian America.
** [[EvenEvilHasStandards He even says the resurgent modern American fascist movement is “pathetic” and “laughable” because white Americans stole indigenous peoples’ land and thus have no right to it.]]

* RefugeInAudacity: Varg claimed to have stabbed Euronymous in self defense at his murder trial. Euronymous had ''23'' wounds on his corpse. Although he claims that many of Euronymous' "stab wounds" were actually inflicted by broken glass he threw him down upon (not ''entirely'' implausible, considering several of these wounds were on the soles of his feet).
** He also put a picture of the burned-down Fantoft Stave Church on the cover of his EP ''Aske'' (Ashes). And this worked. He was convicted of burning down 3 other churches, but found not guilty of burning down the Fantoft Stave Church.

* StraightEdgeEvil: In the present day, Varg espouses and practices a healthy lifestyle, free of drugs, porn, deviant sexual acts, [[FamilyValuesVillain and a focus on the family]]. This is the same Varg who burned down up to 4 churches, stabbed his bandmate to death, and preaches eugenics and antisemitism.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Varg is only in his mid forties, but his grey hair and big, grey beard make him look considerably older.

Founded in 1991, Burzum was initially based in a raw black metal sound, and quickly became prominent within the genre's Norwegian scene. Burzum was signed to [[NonIndicativeName Deathlike Silence Productions]], the record label run by Øystein Aarseth (aka Euronymous). Vikernes released four albums before his arrest in 1994 for the murder of Euronymous (whom he stabbed, allegedly over a contract dispute), as well as the arson of several churches in the area. While in prison, Vikernes recorded two dark ambient albums, the result of being unable to use equipment other than a synthesizer and a tape recorder, which had a more mixed reception from the metal community than the rest of his albums.

Around a decade later, Vikernes was released in 2009 on parole, and continued releasing music from the early- to mid-2010s. In 2018, he officially announced the end of Burzum, stating that he had moved on from the project, but tweeted in late 2019 that he intended to release another Burzum album. The album, ''Thulêan Mysteries'', was released in early 2020, and Vikernes has confirmed that it will be the final album under the Burzum name.

* PetTheDog: Despite being a known eugenicist and white supremacist, Varg condemned Christianity for its destruction of cultures all across the world, including those in Africa.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: The black metal material mostly sticks to Level 9 and occasionally 10. The dark ambient material pin the other hand is much softer, ranging from levels 1-4.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: The black metal material mostly sticks to a 9 or a 10. The dark ambient material can't really be measured on the scale due to being purely electronic.

* A more abrupt example is the track “War” from the self-titled album, which is a much groovier TraditionalHeavyMetal number [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong that lifts its main riff from]] a Music/{{Bathory}} song. The catchier structure and [[{{Narm}} er… unusual]] vocal performance make it jarring in the middle of an otherwise fairly dark and brooding album.

Burzum was a one-man {{black metal}} project by Norwegian musician Varg Vikernes (born February 11, 1973), notorious within music history for burning churches, stabbing Music/{{Mayhem}}'s guitarist Euronymous to death, and being a white supremacist. The project's music has been regarded as some of the most influential black metal ever released, particularly [[TropeMaker pioneering]] the {{ambient}} variant of the genre.

Founded in 1991, Burzum was initially based in a raw black metal sound, and quickly became prominent within the genre's Norwegian scene. Burzum was signed to [[NonIndicativeName Deathlike Silence Productions]], the record label run by Øystein Aarseth (aka Euronymous). Vikernes released four albums before his arrest in 1994 for the murder of Euronymous (whom he stabbed, allegedly over a contract dispute), as well as the arson of several churches in the area. While in prison, Vikernes recorded two dark ambient albums, the result of being unable to access instruments or recording equipment other than a synthesizer and a normal tape recorder, which had a more mixed reception from the metal community than the rest of his albums.

Vikernes was released in 2009 on parole, and started recording the album ''Belus'', his first metal album since his arrest. Burzum came to an end in 2018 as part of a decision by Vikernes himself who wished to not extend the project more than it already has. However, in late 2019 he tweeted that he would release one more Burzum album in 2020.

* ''Burzum'' (BlackSpeech of Mordor for "Darkness"), 1992

Founded in 1991, Burzum initially played raw black metal, and quickly became prominent within the Norwegian black metal scene. Burzum was signed to [[NonIndicativeName Deathlike Silence Productions]], the record label run by Øystein Aarseth (aka Euronymous); Vikernes released four albums before his arrest in 1994 for the murder of Euronymous (whom he stabbed, allegedly over a contract dispute), as well as the arson of several churches in the area. While in prison, Vikernes recorded two dark ambient albums, which had a more mixed reception from the metal community than the rest of his albums.