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Reviews for Borknagar - Quintessence:

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This cd is very good.
The clean vocals played by Vortex rule and the instrumental also.
It's a bit commercial though.
The lyrics are abstract but interesting!
It's a very good cd!

Review by: Sing To Me My Doom

The singer of Borknagar (Simen Hestnaes) is my debility. What a pity that he left the band. This album has great songs as The presence is ominous, Colosus oy Invincible.

Review by: shankao

Borknagar have returned to a more aggressive sound, leaving the more mellow waters of The Archaic Course behind. In ways, this album could be compared to the first one in terms of aggressiveness, and while this is not black metal per se, it has its roots clearly entrenched in black metal territory.

With this album, the band had a few changes in the lineup (once again), seeing Lars E. Nedland (from Solefald) on keyboards and Asgeir Mickelson (from Spiral Architect) on drums. To keep up with the nature of the music, Simen Hestnęs uses his black metal growls a lot more than he uses his clean voice on this one. Not that it really matters, since his voice is totally awesome, having one of the cleanest growls I've heard in metal (alongside Mikael Akerfeldt, and Dan Swano).

The music itself seems... chaotic at first, due in most part to the production (which is not bad, the album is wonderfully produced, but it seems more like they wanted the album to sound that way). I first heard this album when I wasn't fully into metal yet and I found it unlistenable because of the "wall of sound" effect it has on most of the songs. My biggest mistake was that I was trying to focus on each instrument rather than taking it as a whole. Once you actually get used to this idea, the album is a lot easier to listen to (either that or I've been listening to it far too often... heh), but at first, until you get used to it (and especially if you're not used to this sort of metal), it can have an almost claustrophobic effect on you.

Now a bit about the songs themselves. The most innovative song on this album is, by far, The Presence Is Ominous, where the vocals are multitracked at least three times to create an awesome, eerie sound. Colossus has Hestnęs singing in his clean voice and is one of the most accessible songs on the album. The album also has two instrumentals, Inner Landscape, a song with just drums and keyboard, and Embers, a beautiful guitar solo which sets the mood for Revolt, my favorite song off the album. It's a somber, slower song, with Hestnęs using both his growls and his clean voice, and features some of the best lyrics on the album:

Burn the treason, the trinity
Yearn the heat of the fire
Face yesterdays tomorrow
The heralds of the past
The winds of a history cast
The profound spiritual fusion
Glimpse inward to my world

Those are some of the most intelligent Viking/anti-Christian lyrics I've ever heard. I've also read reviews saying how they abandoned the "forces of nature" lyrics on this album, and how they're not as good 'cause they tried too hard with them, and managed to make them too cryptic. That's bullshit. They still deal with their old topics, just not as direct. And yeah, the lyrics are cryptic, but that's the beauty of them.

All in all, this is an awesome album. I'd go as far as saying this is a masterpiece. It's a pity Hestnęs left the group to join Dimmu Borgir. The band did find Vintersorg as a replacement for him, but I doubt Vintersorg's vocals will prove to be as good as Hestnęs'. Still, he's a good songwriter, so you never know what might come out. Heh. Time will tell, I guess. But back to this, I highly recommend the album to anyone and everyone, as long as they give it some time to grow on them, because that's how most (good) metal is: it grows on you. There is no instant gratification in this genre.

Review by: Smekermann

I agree with Smekermann and I wouldn“t write it better, so there is nothing more to say. Read the upper rewiew if you wanna know my opinion.

Review by: wranimir

Borknagar - Quintessence

Borknagar returns to their roots on "Quintessence". The black metal embroided with 70s' keyboards is not usual combination, but Borknagar is well-known of their unusual combinations, like on "The Olden Domain".

There are three songs which stand out from the whole, and they are "The Presence is Ominous", "Colossus" (arguably the best Borknagar -song) and "Revolt". The atmosphere on "Colossus" has been unparallelled by any other band. "The Presence is Ominous" delivers us rather techno- and machine-influenced music, but in fact that was the song which actually got me into Borknagar. "Revolt" gives us a profound combination of Vortex's neat and clean vocal performances with trebling grunts.

The musicians playing on this album are very great, but Lazare's performance should please more, but that's understandable, because of his incomplex synth patterns.

So much for viking metal. But this 'new' style is more than welcome. It was hard to choose the best record between "The Olden Domain" and "Quintessence" but in the end, "Quintessence" has more advantages and it's easier to get into. Highly recommended.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Review by: Punisher

Sorry for writting a bit later for this great album of the Norvegians- there is the perfect combination of melodic black plus traditional Norvegian folk influences and up front of you the mighty vocals of Vortex (one my favorite male singers!!) After his left the music of Borknagar will never be the same...So that- enjoy to this music with absolutely suitable title- Quintesence, like I'm doing from the last 4 years up to now...Hail

Review by: black-throne

Great album from Borknagar... original BM and typical for borknagar. Vortex and his voice is unnormal on this album

Review by: parom

Quinteesence is by far Borknagar's best album.
Simen does an awsome job on the vocals which go completely with Oystein's abstract lyrics.
The guitars,drums and synth also blend very well with Borknagar's uniqe(mesmorizing) sound.
Over all Quintessence diserves much higher than I am giving it.

10/10

Review by: Arcanechild

QUINTESSENCE 7/10(descent)

FILE: Simen's(Vortex) grim vocals bury Quintessence in a pile of staticy crap while his clean vocals slightly ressurect the album's uniqueness. I was deffinetly too hasty with my previous review.

THE GOOD...
The cd is unique, outlandish in many ways, full of vivid sounds... and kinda boring. Colossus is a truely amazing song! One of the only four tracks on the cd I really like. the lyrics are also very vivid and abstract! There is also two interesting bass solos in the first track.

THE BAD...
The 4th Dorknagar release is not as special as most people claim. Vortex's grim vocals sound hidous(and not in a good way) and some of the synth riffs sound kinda perky and obnoxious. HAIL GARM!!!

THE UGLY...
Uggh...Simen's grim vocals sound like a pig being slaughtered echoing through a broken microphone...uggh...gag...Long Live Garm(RIP)

POPULAR TRACKS INCLUDE...
#2 The Presence is Ominous
#4 Colossus
#9 Embers
#10 Revolt

QUINTESSENCE 7/10(descent)

Review by: arcanechild

Rivalry of phantoms;The presence is ominous; The ruins of future; Colossus; Revolt...
At least half of this album is GREAT!
It would rank in #3rd place between Borknagar's albums (behing Epic and The Olden Domain).

Simen's Clean voice is beautiful.
Unfortunatelly I'm not a fan of his grim voice.

It's easy to notice it in tracks like "Ruins of the future" in which he switches Grim to Clean voices in the middle of the song, then a "good" song suddenly becomes "splendid".

You should pick this album. Really, you won't regret.

Review by: netin

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