The new Burzum album is probably going to fucking rule.

The new Burzum album is probably going to fucking rule. It's very important that it does. The black metal underground has been waiting for Varg Vikernes' next Burzum album for the last 11 years, even longer if you don't take into account the two dark ambient albums that the incarcerated black metaller released from prison.

Vikernes' infamy is almost a cliché topic among the underground, as is his imprisonment for murder, church arson and the social faux pas (to put it lightly) of being a white supremacist. These scraps of tabloid fodder have managed to keep Burzum from languishing in obscurity over the course of his imprisonment and have led many to speculate when, if ever, Varg would make his return.

Vikernes was released from prison with little fanfare in the Spring of 2009 and, a year later, is ready for the March 8 release of his newest effort, entitled Belus. The album marks his long-awaited return to black metal, which he employs to tell the tale of Belus, a god from Norse mythology. The album was announced in late fall in a statement by Vikernes, who was using the working title The White God, a title which he changed after racist and homophobic sentiments in the interview turned many off from the title. Granted, he was kind of asking for it when the announcement of an album called The White God also contained a rant about how modern black metal suffers from “homosexual” and “Negro” influences.

For the last few weeks, samples of the album have been available to stream on Amazon.com, which have given many fans hope for the newest Burzum album not being a snooze like Vikernes' dark ambient albums. It appears that the album will cost around $30 for an imported audio CD. There's also a $40 2xLP on 180-gram white (duh) vinyl. Amazon is also offering an mp3 download of the album on the release date for $9, which is probably a good move for metal fans who can't commit to a $30 Burzum CD.

The samples reveal that Burzum has fully re-embraced the Norwegian black metal sounds that he and his contemporaries laid down almost 20 years ago. From what I can gather from 30 seconds of each song, the songs on Belus follow the shrill, hypnotic riffing laid down on other Burzum works such as Filosofem, where spidery reverb-drenched guitar chords build into enveloping walls of sound.

There's also a more fast-paced traditional element, drawing in the old-school black metal sound of blastbeats, manic shrieking and wind-lashed guitar work heard on Burzum's self-titled effort and other early releases. There's even a slight nod to the incarceration-era dark ambient albums, which are polarizing among fans for their abandonment of the black metal sound. Here, that sound is recaptured on two intro and outro tracks. Based off the samples, it appears that Belus will show influence from all eras of Burzum's career, but it's impossible to tell how the entire album will play out until it's official release date.

Naturally, this album is going to get torrented and uploaded like a motherfucker. I'm willing to bet that every blog that hosts it will also get a shitty comment along the lines of “thanks for posting it. I wasn't going to fund any of Varg's politics.” Whoever writes these comments: go fuck yourself. Varg is a pretty awful human being. Yes, he's a great musician, but he's also a murderer (which, lets face it, is a bit more to be concerned about than someone being a Nazi), a domestic terrorist and a “heathen” who longs for the days of Aryan supremacy to reign over Europe, free of Judeo-Christian and African influence. You know exactly who he is.

If you're still interested in downloading it and not buying, it's not because you're not into “funding racism,” it's because you're a cheap douchebag who needs to justify downloading underground music to yourself. If you were really concerned about giving his racist views a platform, you wouldn't even download the thing. Varg (and other National Socialist or racist metal, punk and noise, for that matter) isn't like the Christian church, which grows more powerful with the more money that gets put into it. The album is probably going to make some profit, but it's not like he's going to be funneling millions in profits into something like anti-gay marriage legislation or paying lobbyists to oppose changes to institutionalize racism. You downloading his album is actually furthering the spread of his views, or at least putting them out there. Just admit that you're a closet Burzum fan but don't have the cash. At least it's honest.

While I'm at it, here's a disclaimer: I don't support any racist, nationalist or “white power” views. That's stone-age bullshit that shifts blame towards oppressed minorities rather than addressing the actual problem, which is that the world is ruled, largely, by rich, white, aristocratic men who seek ways to cement their power and influence. However, I'm not so delusional as to think that me not buying the Burzum album is going to strike a blow at the heart of institutionalized racism and oppression, or that it's going to stop the rich, white world powers from exploiting third world countries and populations for profit.

Let me be honest: I don't have 30 bucks to drop on a new Burzum album that I'm just going to rip to my computer anyway. Hell, I don't even want to pay Amazon eight dollars for their mp3s, as I would rather buy something else (like a tape or CD-r) and get a whole release than pay money for some mp3s without any packaging.

I want to walk around in the snow with it blasting over my iPod headphones, like I do with the other Burzum albums that I've downloaded. I'm going to download it and probably talk about how great of an album it is. It's not because I love Varg's politics, or murder, or arson, or any other bullshit that disconnects his views from mine. It's because Burzum fucking rules and because a new Burzum album is probably going to fucking rule, too.