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August 28, 2008 |
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01. Earth Imagery
02. Grains
03. Oceans Rise
04. Signs
05. White
06. Cynosure
07. Human Nature
08. Acclimation
09. The Spirit Of Nature
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Way back in April, a disc by the group CRONIAN came out. CRONIAN was a purportedly experimental side project from Øystein G. Brun and Vintersorg, BORKNAGAR's principal songwriter/guitarist and singer, respectively. Unsurprisingly, CRONIAN pretty much sounded exactly like BORKNAGAR. Fast forward to October, and the latest release from BORKNAGAR proper. More of the same, right? Nope. This time around, they decided to do an acoustic folk album!
What the hell?! Isn't that sort of thing that side projects are for?
Inexplicable decisions aside, this does sound like BORKNAGAR's trademark Viking/Folk/Atmospheric/Progressive Black Metal, just unplugged. With clean vocals. And without the Metal part. I suppose that makes it Viking/Atmospheric/Progressive Folk. Mostly, it sounds like JETHRO TULL. On the plus side, the stripped-down sound allows the songwriting to stand out more; on the minus, the songs themselves aren't that interesting. They aren't helped by weird neo-pagan lyrics like "The earth defines my synergy / The mountain refines my energy," -- and that's in the chorus of the first song! At least you can understand the words this time out.
In general, there does seem to be a nature theme: "Earth Imagery", "Grains", "Oceans Rise", "Human Nature", "Acclimation", and "The Spirit of Nature" all seem to involve the environment in some way, and that's most of the songs on the record. "Cynosure" doesn't seem to be about nature, but it wins the "We Own an English Dictionary" Award. Overall, nothing really stands out, although there are a few decent tracks. "Earth Imagery," despite the silly chorus, is actually catchy, and "Oceans Rise," originally from "The Archaic Course," proves that BORKNAGAR's songs can successfully be translated into acoustic tunes. The oddest song is "Human Nature," which almost sounds like an outtake from Prokofiev's "Peter And The Wolf," with strange flute movements. It's certainly interesting, if somewhat out of place.
In the end, "Origin" makes for nice background music, but don't expect BORKNAGAR's usual wall of sound. Hell, don't expect much usual BORKNAGAR. There's certainly something to be said for experimentation and changing things up, but the results aren't always successful. It would have at least been nice if the record wasn't just sort of... boring.
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