Psychedelic black metal? Acid black metal? Whatever you call it, this is two or three cuts above the average screamy stuff. It’s beautiful, fuzz-distorted, ambient black metal; the vocals are buried in the mix, and are almost indistinguishable from the riffs. Beautiful and mid-paced work, with a twenty-five minute ambient track that actually works! The ambient work on this album is like Brian Eno’s “Discreet Music” or Cluster’s “71,” only it’s framed by music from a frost-stripped northern waste.

If you like this — and you probably will if you’re already looking at it on Amazon — then you should look at some of the other earlier Burzum albums. You should also take a gander at Judas Iscariot, Nortt, Xasthur, and Nachtmystium, as well as half a dozen good, fuzzier, ambient black metal acts from places like Russia, Poland, or Finland.

Now…buy this album. Enjoy. I know you will. Then get “Det Som Engang Var” and the others.