| Reviews for Ulver - Bergtatt: | |||||||||||
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forest metal? no, its ulver. flute and acustic giutars mixed with raw and aggressive old school black metal makes Bergtatt a really interesting peice. | great songs, great cover, great ablum Review by: enthroned I guess I could start this review with a long essay on Ulver and a description of their albums and how they're each in totally different genres, but I'm not. I'm just going to focus on Bergtatt for now. Bergtatt is Ulver's first full length album, and it's quite simply a masterpiece, and one of the best (if not THE best) albums in the folk-influenced, atmospheric black metal genre. It came out in 1995, yet I still find myself surprised at that, as it doesn't sound like it came out so long ago. It sounds better than most of the crap being released today, with people freaking out over it and calling it oh-so-grim. My ass. If there ever was a grim album it would be this one. Everything from Garm's vocals on it (the man truly has one of the best, most versatile voices in music: from monk-like chants, to low-key clean singing, to black metal growls, to normal singing, to a weird hymnal voice... the man can do it all), to the awesome black metal interspersed with folkish acoustic passages, to the excellent lyrics just reeks of briliance. The album is conceptual, based on the olden folks stories of Norway. I must emphasize the lyrics once again, even though they weren't written in English originally, they still are awesome, letting you develop some sympathy for the main character, and then ripping everything apart. I loved that. I'm not going to give away more than that, as the beauty of the lyrics comes through reading them. One thing I'll say though, is that the approach is actually intelligent, something rarely found in black metal, where run of the mill "Cut your flesh and worship Satan" lyrics are the norm. The only thing dealing with Satanism in the album is in the liner notes with Garm saying "Turn your back on Christianitie." which can only be taken as Satanic if you take it in consideration as a whole: the lyrical concept and the genre the music is in. As for the music itself, the album contains only barely more black metal than folk and heavy metal, as the first song is a surprisingly laid back heavy metal song, sung entirely in clean voice, and with an awesome acoustic break and outro. Then there's also "Een Stemme Locker", an acoustic song with Garm chanting over the same guitar chords repeated over and over again, to give off a very dark, trance-like atmosphere. The other three songs are black metal with a great deal of folkish breaks and clean voice singing through them. The third song, "Graablick blev hun vaer", has a freaky little middle section with the main character running through the woods, with a little piano playing in the background. All in all, the music on this album is as diverse as you'll ever hear it on a black metal album. If there would be one problem with the album, it's that it's too damn short. 34 minutes for five songs. As good as this album is, you won't even know when those 34 minutes are up, and then you'll be left hungry for more. Overall this album comes highly recommended to anyone looking to get into black metal, or who just wants to hear a timeless masterpiece, the first one of many coming from Ulver. Review by: Smekermann Ulver - Bergtatt Ulver's first opus "Bergtatt" is an exceptional and variable album. Haarvard's compositions show, how the songwriting on epic and 'ballade'-stuff should be done. The evocative chordpatterns show the calm side of True Norwegian Black Metal, but still gains undeveloped old school black metal in general. Having rather symphonic (with primitive production) songs, "Bergtatt" never reaches the ultimate feeling of music, which is mainly because of its short length - somebody else might be satisified with 34 minutes. The strange 'goth' influence is apparent in the first song, which is quite tolerable, because of the low amount of it. Therefore "I Troldskog Faren Tild" is the second best song from this album. "Svelen Ganer Bag Aase Need" is an effort of trying to make melodic and beautiful ballade with crushing elements of raw black metal - and without denial, it succeeds in it very well! The musical side of "Bergtatt" is purely the best available. Despite to the short length, this CD is one of my best albums and well respected by me. Very beautiful, highly recommended. Rating: 5 out of 5 Review by: Punisher this album is an incomparable masterpiece of black metal, the best album ever in the black metal's history. any other band has never done an album like this. Review by: nameless One of the best album relese by ulver after nattens madrigal madrigal of th night impossible to get bored with this pure folk black metal nothing compared the song capitel 3 i can even ear bass the acoustic guit is purely amazing at lease there is pure black folk and grim metal band electric guit pure genius acoustic guit amazing bass great drum the guy is demoniac grim voice gourgeous clean voice brilliant Review by: Lord Gaziel Simply Amazing. An essential black metal creation. The songwriting on this album is phenomenal. Review by: rilontsky One of the most markable creations in the history of blackmetal.. Review by: kurja This album(or MCD) perfect! i dont want say no more! Review by: Beyto It's a combination with folk music and black metal voice. It's the most brutal music of folk, also a gentel kind of black metal... Review by: haycheese The most beautiful black metal album this side of Hvis Lyset Tar Oss. Wonderful folk music elements, too. Classic! Review by: Revelations Some call it forest metal, some call it folk/black metal. I call it norwegian black metal. This album is absolutely on my top 10 list ! I like especially one track - Graablick Blev Hun Vaer. It really surprises. Hearing the sound of someone running in the forest (hunted maybe ?) and combine that with nice pianoplaying (played on a synth it look like but nice anyhow) is a totally new experience. Another thing is that an acoustic guitar is used on some tracks which makes the folkish feelings grow and after that make the music wilder by using guitar.. This album is a prove of that metal isnīt only riff, riff, riff. Itīs musically made by a musically musician ! 9/10 Review by: gustav_ This cd is kind of relaxing black metal with many clean vocals but yet still cold and even extreme at some moments. But there are a little too many clean vocals to my opinion even if it fits the music very well... Anyway it's still a very good album that everyone who likes melodic/atmospheric black metal should listen to. 9/10 Review by: blackno2 I would say that this is the ultimate black metal album. Everything is just perfect. Review by: Nattelyd I Trollskogen faren vild is the best BM song I have ever heard. This album is not BM in vain of Darkthrone or smth like that. Never the less its maybe the best BM CD from 90's Norway. Obligatory. Review by: Mac Ulver - Bergtatt. Bought this in Norway on vacation in 2005. Yes, that late! Listening to Black Metal since '93. I can say that I have missed THE Black Metal album of all time for 10 years. Glad that I have finally bought it. It represents Norway. Man this album is really cold and atmospheric. Buy this now and listen till your ears bleed! Dennis666 Review by: Dennis666
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