New Burzum album & ForeBears film release date announced

Posted on by

Since Thulean Perspective is currently the most visited of out Ancestral Cult blogs I have decided to put up a link here to a few posts on the Ancestral Cult main page, to ensure a better coverage for the announcement of a new Burzum album this Summer and the release date of the ForeBears film.

The Front Cover of the ForeBears DVD:

ForeBears_DVD_Outer.indd

About these ads

39 thoughts on “New Burzum album & ForeBears film release date announced”

  1. Dear Varg,

    This weekend NRK published a news article where it is told that Pytten is closing down Grieghallen: http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/hordaland/1.10974761

    Due to your long lasting professional relationship with Pytten I guess this isn´t news to you, but I have some questions that I hope you can take the time to answer.

    1. With exception of “Filosofem” you have recorded all your metalalbums in Grieghallen with the help of Pytten, so how will the closing of Grieghallen make an impact on Burzum as a “metal” band?

    2. In the news article, Pytten show the master copy of your first album, as well as the track list for what is mainly “Det som engang var”. However, the tracklist of the latter is not similar to the final version of the album. Could you please tell us whether this was the original tracklist for the album, and secondly, what is “Tom.” and “Transylvanian”. I guess the former could be “Tomhet”, but is “Transylvanian” an unreleased song or just an alternative title for one of your other songs.

    3. Are there any unrelased Burzum recordings in the archive which may, or may not, see the light of day some time.

    Thanks!
    Gjedden

  3. its a relief to hear that you are across the mastering issue Varg. would it be an option to release hi resolution downloads of your albums in the future? uncompressed PCM 24/96 files…. I’m sure the albums are recorded at this resolution before the mastering engineer gets his grubby hands in it. the cost of releasing them this way would be minimal (band width)

  6. Looking forward to the movie and the new album as well, I need more synth instrumentals to listen before sleeping ^^

    Also looking forward to your rpg and beta tests, got a group of friends willing to play/test if the beta is going to be public

  7. Why don’t you put the announcement of the new Burzum album in burzum.org? I know many Burzum fans just don’t enter to AncestralCult.

    • The admin har a PC break-down for some time. It’ll be there soon.

      PS. I don’t put anything on burzum.org. The Russian admin does….

  8. Great news! and I of course buy a copy of forebears.

    Sad that only has English subtitles … no technical limitations to add subtitles in more languages​​, so … I do not understand this decision, detrimental to your business because it excludes potential buyers.

    You have fans in all countries and some of them probably will download “illegal” subtitles from internet…

    • Fans don’t steal, and stealing is not going to add subtitles in other languages anyhow.

      NO, it is not easy to add subtitles in other languages. Translation takes a lot of effort.

      PS. If they can download subtitles from the net that is just fine.

    • The software I used did not allow the insertion of subtitles in a easy way. In addition, most of the text is a part of the film itself and is very delicate to translate properly.

    • Translating for English is easy enough online, if you are not very good at it yourself…Though judging by your comments you cope alright. I am against English being a “universal” language, but as Varg said, you can have it soon with English subtitles or wait for ages for translations into all the other European languages…

    • Maybe you could create a section in AncestralCult.com in which fans could propose and submit subtitles created by themselves.
      In this way you still have a sort of control relative to the translation itself, avoiding misunderstandings or text mistake.
      Furthermore the fans comunity could have direct access to one only subtitles file per language, with the possibility to rate it or suggest better translations.
      In this way, even those with less knowledge of english will be able to enjoy this wonderful and precious work that both of you have done. That’s just a suggestion :)

  9. Just a heads up, the DVD is in the PAL DVD format.
    There are three DVD formats. NTSC, PAL, and SECAM.
    Playing a PAL DVD in an NTSC DVD player, or vice-versa, may or may not work.
    To find out what format your country uses check the following link:
    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/PAL-NTSC-SECAM.svg
    You can however play a DVD of any format on any computer as long as you have a decent media player software.

    Looks like it’ll be available in roughly 15 days. This is good news. I look forward to purchasing and viewing it!

  10. I came across ancestral cult by seeing it on a Facebook post when it first launch, and I was not really aware of you musically. I’ve listen to most of your songs by now, and I feel lucky that a new album is being released just as I’m becoming hooked to your music. Also, I’ve been discreetly reading all your posts, never really engaging in the conversations, they’ve made me open my eyes and I felt like I was doing something bad since it goes against what most Europeans consider ‘proper’. Then I realized that if I lived in a society where I had to feel shame each time I felt proud to be a Scandinavian, and guilt each time for thinking that we might be better than others, then we must live in a corrupt society. I don’t want to be quiet anymore, and I want the whole world to know. Thank you, and also Marie Cachet for this epiphany. I can’t wait hear your new album, and to actually watch a true artistic film for once.

  11. This is great news. I think your ambient albums are the most memorable of your older albums.

    I do have a concern I’d like to bring up though. I’m trying to think of a polite way to say this, but the mastering on your latest albums has been a little hard to listen to, at least on the digital versions. They’re mixed ‘loud’ like most music is today and it fatiguing to listen through. You can see what I mean with this picture: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/155/loudness.png/ This is generally why I end up buying music on vinyl or cassette these days, it’s just more musical and relaxing when it’s mixed in the traditional way. This trend is generally called the ‘loudness war’ if you aren’t familiar with it already.

    • I agree.

      I used another mastering studio this time, so maybe it is better in this context. If not I will adress this problem personally the next time.

          • Yes, it is – but the production makes it hard to get a clue (because everything is so much upfront – “Belus” is a great case for a record that should be remastered and re-released). In my humble opinion, “Fallen” is your best record so far. Songs, production, mood – everything falls in place. And I like it that it’s a bit more “catchy” melodic wise – and the contrast between clear and ‘throaty’ vocals works out great as well. If you’d ever release a record in the “Fallen”-style, you’d make a lot of people very, very happy :-)

            • Okay, but if I start to make music based on what many or even a majority wants I’de be no better than a common pop star, making music for money and fame only.

              PS. I agree with what you say about “Belus”.

              • And yes, always do what you think is best with your music. I’ve usually found that bands’ most ridiculed album(usually because it’s different from the ‘cult classic’ or whatever) become my favorites over time. Nothing like fresh inspiration to make some really interesting art.

                Of course most people try and stay within their comfort zone and only listen to specific genres. Funny how so many of these ‘individuals’ can’t stand the thought of putting labels aside for even one moment.

          • In the loudness aspect they’re the same. Fallen does have a better production(though I think the production of Belus fits the music) I don’t really know anything about mastering music beyond dynamic range. The intro to Belus has really good DR as do the intro/conclusion of Fallen. Makes for a pretty jarring transition between them and the music.

            I’m planning on getting Belus on vinyl soon, I might just digitize it on my computer. Would be interesting to see how it compares to the CD master.

            It’s really a complicated topic that I in all honestly don’t know much about. Some loudness is good to get the wall of sound effect but when you go too far it gets fatiguing. Looking at Filosofem(not sure if it’s an original master) there isn’t much DR but the music doesn’t go anywhere near the peaks(hence no sharpness or clipping).

            I’m just using the program Audacity to look at all this. Maybe you should try it out(it’s free). I haven’t messed with it much but it seems it would help with mastering.

            • The problem is that “professionals” ruin records automatically, even if I specifically tell them not to do it like that. Pytten never made this mistake, because he is not a professional masterer; he is a technician and producer….

              Maybe next time I just release the raw mix. I wish I had done that with “Belus”, because the mastered version was crap in comparison (and I never had the time to correct this mistake, because of the label setting a release date and wanting to keep it).

              This is very furstrating. I do my best as a musician, but end up having my music ruined by the guy who masters it — because he thinks everything has to sound like radio music. When I tell him to do it another way he thinks he knows better than me; he is the “professional” masterer anyhow.

              Belus is actually one of the few albums I can think off that perhaps should actually be re-mastered and re-released.

              • My advice – attend the mastering sessions if you are able to, or at least provide the mastering engineer with a track list and information about what you want to be applied for each track (it is best to consult the producer and the person who does the mix about this). Be in contact with the mastering studio and ask them to send you the material to check it as the work progresses (at least this is easy with digital audio), or in the case of vinyl – request a test acetate as a reference, before they send the material out to the pressing plate. If you are not satisfied with the result, you can always tell them to do another master according to your needs.

                The truth is that each music (and even each song and each mix!) needs different approach and they often look at it from the pop, radio-friendly perspective, so they treat it in that fashion. I totally understand you, “professionals” can often be arrogant and think they know better than anyone else because of their years of experience (and hence ruin your material), so do not always be tolerant to them. ;)

                I hope this helps…

                P.S. I hail you for refusing to remaster the old stuff, it is almost always a failure (at least with the modern loudness-for-loudness-sake approach).

                • This is no good when I don’t even own a stereo where I can check out what they have done — and just about anything sounds good/bad in the headphones on my PC….

              • Hi,.Vikernes

                Is it still a possibility to release the raw mix for Belus? I have, since the day the album was released, always thought the sound was somewhat muddled and turned the song material (which was very good) into something duller than it could have been. Songs like “Kaimadalthas’ Nedstigning” og “Keliohesten” are perfect examples of this. They are both really great song, but the mastering drags them down, I think. They lack the kind of “punch” they should have had and would have had if they were mastered akin to your old records (which sounded very organic). I’m not saying you should just repeat what you once did, but I think you know what i mean ….

              • Good points made here. I feel that both Fallen and Umskiptar war big improvements on Belus, but I think the sound still let down Belus more than anything else…it is, as said, too “loud”, crisp…plenty of bands do get a good, crisp sound that works for the music without sounding too polished and radio friendly (Enslaved for example…again produced by Pytten).

                I know we should not expect production like Filosofem. Even the sound of From the Depths of Darkness, which is the best sounding Burzum record since Filosofem I think, probably would not work that well with the new Burzum sound. When the music changes, I think the production needs to too, but not to the point that it risks killing the atmosphere or losing depth…

                I am sure the production is flawless on them and that it is a post-production issue…I can’t comment on the sound of the new album, I love the sound of the old Burzum ambient works like Tomhet, but I don’t know what sort of synthesizers you are using (analogue, or all digital? Are you using synthesizer software like Spectrosonics?)

            • PS. They wanted to re-master the early records too, by the way, before we re-released them after Misanthropy quit. I refused, and I am very glad I did…. Never listen to businesmen when it comes to any form of art.

              • Thank you for your insight into how things work in the music business. I’m glad you did this. I had always wondered why the re-releases of your early albums hadn’t been tainted like those of other bands.

                Have you ever thought about just doing it all yourself and selling the music through your site here? It would be a good way to get more people on this site and you wouldn’t have to deal with the record companies.

  12. Oh, Han Som Reiste, one of my favourite electronic tracks ever (along with Tomhet). Fits the atmosphere perfectly. I’ve hoped for something like this, it is good to hear new enchanting Burzum ambient pieces.

    Kudos for the front cover as well, minimalistic and likeable. :)

    Really looking forward to the album and counting the days to the film.

  13. This is the kind of album I was waiting for!
    It seems like another Hliðskjálf and I enjoy a lot this one.

    Let’s see if I can save some money to buy a copy of Forebears.

    Have you about selling the film to a TV chanel like “arte”? Maybe they could be interested, and if it means more bread to your family…

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s