Epic

This is actually my first Borknagar cd with Vintersorg as the vocalist. I first got into the band since I'm a big fan of Vortex. Vortex and Vintersorg have different singing abilities. I decided to give it a try with Vintersorg vocals. I did enjoy listening to vocals. Epic is a great album with really good songs, I may give Empiricism a try since I've heard good reviews on it.

Borknagar is not new to me; they constantly brood beneath the radar existing as one of those bands whose name is all too familiar but is constantly passed up as my perception was that they would either be a slickly produced symphonic "black" metal band or a monotonous lump of blast beats and tortured rasps.Borknagar, especially on Epic, has surpassed any aesthectic and the word 'genre' is not confused on the band; it is completely irrelevent. This album is light-years beyond any typical death metal offshoot. It contains the brutality and wall of noise of the most brutal death or black affair and the symphonic majesty of the more commercial black metal bands ( Old Man's Child, Dimmu Borgir ). Not that no other band has attempted to concoct these, and not that bands havn't succeeded (one could point to Emperor and state they did it a decade ago) but Borknagar seems to of perfected their craft to a point where any history seems far too pale in comparison.Sparing the reader yet another list of song descriptions, I will say that this album, like no other in the extreme metal field I've heard before, demands to be listened to as an album, not song for song. The sleeve of the album doesn't title or number the tracks, and the lyrics are laid out and written more or less as poetic essays on the quintessence and cosmological make up of the universe and therefor mankind. Oystein, Vintersorg, and Nederland (excuse the mispellings) all contribute on the album and it is clear that these three men are able to relate to each other on the subjects as intellectual equals. The lyrics are by far the best metal lyrics I HAVE EVER READ.Upon first hearing of this album I was rather cynical about the title, thinking it to be a generic tag in an attempt to garner fans from other genres. I was wrong as this album truly is an EPIC and any band who wishes to tag themselves as EPIC seriously need to give this album a listen. These are not symphonics thrown in solely for adding atmosphere to an otherwise completely brutal sound; these are symphonics that are composed in the true essence of the word. Along with Enslaved and Opeth, I now thoroughly believe that Borknagar have garnered themselves a spot among the ranks of Scandinavia's (and for that matter, the world's) finest and most creative heavy metal bands.

Maybe. But all borknagar cds sound different from each other so it's very hard to compare them. However, this one does retain elements from their last album, empiricism, mainly the f***ed up lyrics about nature and the pace of the songs. and since it also has the mighty Vintersorg on vocals, i will use it to compare to this one. No slow ballad type songs pers say but some are more quiet than others while some are fast and heavy, others are a little of both mixed in. The first thing you'll notice this time around is that the production is a lot louder and a lot clearer. You can actually hear the guitar this time and the drums are louder.While empiricism focused more of creating long, epic songs this one concentrates on each individual band member more. The guitar (only one this time around) concentrates on creating riffs rather than a thousand acoustic riffs and melodies like on Emp. (although there is no shortage of these things here). This time around Oystein G Brun (band leader/mastermind) is the only guitar player so he's able to focus more.Vintersorg is the next person to bring about a change in themselves. His "grim" vocals (as they are called in the book LOL) are deeper sounding, meatier sounding than on EMP, which were more higher pitched and shrieking. Also, on EMP, the clean vocals were near power metal soudning but on epic here, they are more streamlined and folky like on his vintersorg (his other band that shares his name) albums. He sounded A LOT like ICS VORTEX on EMP, i think he was trying to compete since ICS was the singer before them and vintersorg didn't want to make any fans turn away. However, vintersorgs "clean" vocals shine through on this album, very unique.THe drumming is amazing yet again (their drummer, Asgeir Mickelson, is the spiral archetic drummer) although it's not as sporatic as last time. This time it's more focused and heavy and, at times, it actually pummels you. Top notch, just as good drumming as any they have done.The bass (tyr left the band earlier this year) is also played by Mickelson and he's just as good on the bass guitar as he is on drums. The bass sounds A LOT better than on the last cd because it's not as high pitched and "bouncy" sounding.and Nedland's keyboards are back and they fit a lot better. Last time, they were used mainly to heighten the atmosphere of the music but now they are treated as their own instrument, playing it's own piece of music in the songs. it works really well.all in all, any borknagar fan (i doubt there are any casual fans of a band such as this) should find this a worthwile addition to the every growing and amazing catalog of what Borknagar has to offer.PS: if anyone knows what the heck Borknagar means in english, please email. thanks!

borknagar have always been one of those bands, while they are talented and vary their sound from album to album, never really seem to release anything that you will go back to over and over again. Q is really the only borknagar album i enjoy while only disliking 2 or 3 songs.don't get me wrong, vintersorg is an amazing vocalist and i love his work with borknagar, and the musicians (especially the drummer) can obviously play, but the problem is that they seem so focused on creating "epic" songwriting, that most of their songs come off as completely boring. what i usually find is that the first 2 or 3 songs are really strong and i can go back and listen to them over and over, but the rest of the album just seems lost and boring. epic is no exception, in fact, sometimes many of the songs seem to blend together, which is nothing i would expect from borknagar.as much as i really want to like this band and "epic", i can never get past 'traveller.' if you are a hardcore borknagar fan, you'll probably dig this, but i think this is a step back from their past works.