THE ARCHAIC COURSE

Archaic Course is the effort of a band in their prime time. Epic, powerfull, majestic music. Best production they ever had thanx to Woodhouse Studios. The guitars play the main role along with Hestnaes' voice (aka ICS Vortex: Dimmu Borgir, Arcturus, etc etc) They sound really loud and are played in a chordlike way like I've never heard before. Lazare, the current keyboardist, may be the best out there but totally misses the point of the music of such a band like Borknagar. Ivar's keys were more than suitable for their purposes. Vortex is no longer there, was replaced by Vintersorg... Not the same thing! Not that he is a bad singer, just not the same feeling, operatic chant. Nordic landscapes, epic voyages, nature contemplating, that's what this album is all about. BEATIFUL! Current drummer Asgeir Mickelson is indeed more technical than the late Grim, but this is not just about technics, it's about enhancing sensations and feelings, and therefore I prefer Grim's touch. I think Borknagar is a little bit lost now because they're are forcing their ways into the avantgarde scene, express themselves as musicians, wich is a good thing, if only one could ignore their roots. Folks, this is their best effort ever. The deepest, at least. Just listen to "Oceans Rise, "Universal", "Ad Noctum", "Winter Millenium" and you'll know what I'm talking about! CHEERS

In the vortex.

There is a such thing as progressive black metal. Hard to believe, yes. It's not merely the presence of the keys, but the style the band exudes itself. Here, they take a different approach to songwriting, while still maintaining many of the trademarks of the black metal genre.

As in many albums, the band approaches things from a mythological standpoint (as often found in the genre). The vocals are more operatic in approach than scathing, although both can be found. The drums, for lack of a better word, are quite plain. The guitars focus on riff structures more than tremolo effects, and tend to migrate towards a somewhat "epic" structure.

My favorite piece here is Ad Noctum and Oceans Rise, as both probably have the most dynamic and varied band work of the album. I find other later releases by the band to be a bit better, although this might be a good start for those in the extreme metal field to lean towards more progressive material.

The Archaic Course is the third studio album from experimental black/ death metal band Borknagar. I can´t say I´ve been terribly impressed with their first two pretty simple yet melodic black metal albums but I sense a change in direction on The Archaic Course and I´m beginning to recognise the great experimental metal band that made Epic. Epic was my introduction to Borknagar and allthough Borknagar will never be my favorite experimental metal band they sure made a great album in Epic.

The Archaic Course is different from its predecessors ( Borknagar and The Olden Domain) because Borknagar has chosen to incorporate a classical symphonic element into their extreme metal sound. There are also lots of ethnic scandinavian folk elements in the music. Note that the music never turns into folk metal though. The Archaic Course is not a very extreme metal album even though new vocalist I.C.S. Vortex does growl/ rasp a lot there are lots of beautiful clean singing too. Fans of Green Carnation who can endure growling vocals should really give The Archaic Course a chance ( Start with Winter Millenium). I think the mood is very similar to the mood on the first couple of albums from Green Carnation. But that´s the atmosphere I´m talking about because Borknagar does play a more heavy kind of metal than Green Carnation. The songs are generally mid-paced and quite majestic with some pretty traditional heavy metal riffing. Nothing out of the ordinary in that department, but unlike other metal albums with average guitar riffs The Archaic Course wins because of it´s great atmosphere and I´m not left wondering where the great riffs were. Everything serves a purpose on this album.

The musicianship is great. Borknagar were always some of the better musicians on the Norwegian black metal scene or maybe that´s just because they never played sloppy on purpose like many of their contemporaries did?.

The production is quite enjoyable really. The sound is pretty raw and thereby fits the music, but you can hear everything that´s happening and as far as black metal productions go this one´s a pearl.

I wasn´t expecting The Archaic Course to be such an enjoyable album. It´s not very long ago I reviewed The Olden Domain and I thought to myself. My God there are still three albums to go before I can review Epic ( that´s the rules I set for myself. Always review bands from the start of their career going forward to get the best impression of their development). That way of thinking has changed dramatically after listening to The Archaic Course and I´m now looking forward to reviewing both Quintessence and Empiricism ( well I know that one a bit. I took a sneak peak). The Archaic Course lies somewhere between a 3 and a 4 star rating but since I´m a bit happily surprised right now I´ll be nice and give it a 4.

Borknagar are one of the early bands in the Norwegian symphonic black metal legions, it's a type of music with a high black metal factor when promo pictures are taken or cameras are around, but with nothing of the libertarian ideology nor the harsh power of real black metal. Luckily for Borknagar, they aren't too concerned with their image but focus on the music instead.

The sound is very different from the bleak black metal of Enslaved or Satyricon. Melodic and symphonic elements dominate over blast beats, harshness and aggression. The music is fast-paced, upbeat, well produced and thrashy rather then the usual repetitive drone of black metal. In fact, this sits fairly close to symphonic power metal, it's just a bit more creepy and crazy at times.

This certainly goes for Borknager who crafted a fine metal album here with mostly melodic vocals of the very dramatic and slightly operatic type. The vocalist would soon leave Borknager to join the more successful act Dimmu Borgir and deliver some good melodious vocals in that band. His vocals are very affected and slightly strained at time, creating a tiring effect on me that wants to put off the album halfway in. Nevertheless, it's worth persisting as the second half is better then the first. There's not that big a difference but the songs tend to be more distinguishable from one another.

Prog fans shouldn't get their hopes up from the progressive tag, the music is high quality and melodious, but is a true metal feast, meaning there's next to no dynamics and it rocks at virtually the same pace, intensity and density from start to finish. 3.5 stars

After releasing in 1997 a strong album like The Olden Domain - an eclectic blend of prog, black metal and Viking metal -, Øystein Brun and his bandmates entered Woodhouse Studios again in 1998 to record eight new compositions under the supervision of sound engineer Matthias Klinkmann, who had already worked on their previous record. However, the line-up that entered Woodhouse in 1998 was quite different from that that recorded The Olden Domain in 1997. Singer Kristoffer Rygg left the band to concentrate on his mainstay bands Ulver and Arcturus. He was replaced by ICS Vortex (real name Simen Hestnæs), who had already appeared on Arcturus' La Masquerade Infernale and who came with the recommendation of Rygg himself. In addition, a second guitarist Jens F. Ryland was added to the line-up, while keyboard player Ivar Bjørnson (Enslaved) was essentially on his way out of the band, being already credited as guest player in the CD booklet.

All these transformations may partly explain why Borknagar's third full-length feels much more tentative, messy, and ultimately disappointing than its predecessor. I suspect in particular that the transition from one to two guitar players was not yet fully metabolized by the band, seeing how in most songs of the album the guitar work is in considerable disarray, with ruffled riffs, chaotic leads and a general lack of refinement in how the different guitar parts are overlaid and arranged. I should say that the production certainly does not help here. The album sounds rough and dirty, definitely not making justice to the complexity and busyness of the material. The mix is also rather unbalanced, with keyboards and guitars all over the place and the vocals buried deep down to the point of being barely audible at times.

But messy production and overcrowded songwriting cannot fully explain the palpable dip in quality in the new material relative to The Olden Domain. Part of the problem lies instead in an increased musical ambition that was unfortunately not yet fully matched by actual songwriting and arrangement abilities. Don't get me wrong, all musicians involved in this album are top-notch, and in fact Borknagar were rightly considered a sort of extreme metal "super group" at the time. But Øystein Brun's songwriting on this album does not sound fully mature and up to the level that is required to properly blend together extreme metal and progressive/experimental metal, as Borknagar were clearly attempting to do at the time. The album tries really hard to innovate and surprise the listener with a flurry of tempo changes, interlocking sub-sections and quirky arrangements. But there is no flow, harmony or coherence in the way these musical ideas are structured and arranged, and the result feels very much like an infernal cauldron that is constantly on the brink of spiralling out of control (which it does more than once). My overall impression is that the material for this album would have needed a longer gestation period, possibly in the hands of a more expert producer (Klinkmann had worked mostly as sound engineer in his career) who could help the band hone their sound, by refining the structure and arrangements of the songs and pruning away the most out-there and superfluous bits.

Speaking of out-there bits, ICS Vortex is an excellent singer as he will demonstrate with his stints with Dimmu Borgir and Arcturus, but he does not exactly shine on this album. Again, the problem is one of trying too hard. His vocals sweep between grim vocals, theatrical baritones and extravagant falsettos, which is impressive. However, his performance does feel forced and strained at times, like on "The Witching Hour" and "The Black Token", a pair of songs which is probably the lowest point of the record and where ICS Vortex sounds more like a caricature of Rygg than the good singer he actually is.

All this trying hard to be progressive and experimental also means that a lot of the folk vibes that had adorned The Olden Domain are notched down considerably on The Archaic Course. The new music is also more aggressive and frenzied, making fewer concessions to melody in favour of speed and heaviness, another aspect that I do not particularly appreciate of this record.

Ultimately, there are only a handful of tracks that I find myself returning to on this record. "Ocean Rise" and "Universal" open the album in a style that is not dramatically different from the songs of The Olden Domain, albeit "Universal" does feel a tad too busy at times. However, the best song on the album is probably "Ad Noctum", the only track not penned by Brun but by ICS Vortex. It is a frenzied mash-up of 1970s Hammond organ and furious black metal played at a breakneck tempo, which is stunning in its vigour and audacity. It feels very much ahead of its times, like some of the music that Arcturus were doing around the same years, and it would not feel out of place even today, 25 years later, on the record of a forward-thinking extreme metal act like Ihsahn or Leprous.

Although on each song I can find one or two musical moments that draw my interest, there is no other track on this record that I enjoy listening to from start to finish. Ultimately, this makes sitting through the album quite a chore and I can't see myself playing this one much often in the future, especially when I could instead play one of the other better albums by Borknagar, like The Olden Domain. Overall, I'd say The Archaic Course is for completionists or hardcore fans of the band only. Everyone else should approach this one with caution, if at all.