What Borknagar do yuo recommend?

[~Derek~]

What Borknagar do you recommend? I like the songs I heard off Black Metal Radio from their earliest CD the best, I heard one off Quintessence and thought it was good. I also like Garm's other bands earlier stuff in Arcturus and Ulver.

[Zephyrus]

In this order, get:

1. Quintessence
2. The Archaic Course
3. The Olden Domain
4. Empiricism
5. Borknagar
6. Epic

[Nick_Perrin]

I would say just get all their albums, as they're all pretty unique/different from each other and it's hard to know which one you would like best.

[~Derek~]

Originally Posted by Zephyrus

In this order, get:

1. Quintessence
2. The Archaic Course
3. The Olden Domain
4. Empiricism
5. Borknagar
6. Epic

I remember what you told me about Origin but I don't know, I'm not into all acoustic guitar and clean vocals type metal, it is at my local FYE though. Are the Archaic Course and The Olden Domain more of the black metal style similar to the S/T than the progressive type?

[Zephyrus]

Yes.

[Hatebreeder]

Originally Posted by Zephyrus

In this order, get:

1. Quintessence
2. The Archaic Course
3. The Olden Domain
4. Empiricism
5. Borknagar
6. Epic

I fully support this list.

[Det Som Engang Var]

I rank them

1.Quintessence
2.The Archaic Course
3.Epic
4.The Olden Domain
5.Origin
6.Empiricism
7.Borknagar

[Naglfar]

It depends on who's vocals you like.

I don't know what they played on metal radio, but if you like the older vocals, then buy the older stuff, Olden Domain and Borknagar.

Personally, Quintessence is my least favorite Borknagar album (and the instrumental on that album my least favorite Borky song of all; but at least it has mighty Colossus on it). If you like Simen's vocals, then you have to go with Archaic Course and Quintessence first. Imo Archaic Course is a much more interesting album, but to each his own.

My faves are the albums with Vintersorg singing on them, but I'm also a Vintersorg fan so I'm biased towards Empiricism / Epic / Origin. Some people don't like his singing, so if you're not big on Mr.V, get Empiricism among your first three purchases and then pick up Origin and Epic last (you probably shouldn't even buy Origin if you don't like Mr.V's voice).

[Naglfar]

Originally Posted by bluewizard

I remember what you told me about Origin but I don't know, I'm not into all acoustic guitar and clean vocals type metal, it is at my local FYE though. Are the Archaic Course and The Olden Domain more of the black metal style similar to the S/T than the progressive type?

Quintessence will probably be your favorite, along with the older albums. Archaic course has a black metal sound to it, but there's a lot of clean vocals on that album. The reason I don't like Quintessence all that much is because there are many metal albums out there that have a similar sound, and I like Borky because, for the most part, they're pretty unique...

If you don't like acoustic, then don't get near Origin. It's all acoustic / wind instruments with clean singing. Epic and Empiricism are still pretty black metal, but with Mr.V around they inevitably have some progressive feel to their sound (especially Epic).

[~Derek~]

I've never heard Mr V(Vintersorg), I liked Garm for sure and I liked Vortex from what I remember but I'm not sure to which degree. And there's degrees of proginess I can enjoy and tolerate, take Emperor's Prometheus, I enjoyed it, sure, it wasn't the best CD, but it was good. Ihsahn's The Adversary, too proggy for me, so I'll likely get Quintessence or the S/T when I get me a Borknagar CD

[George]

Borknagar's releases are still pretty focused when compared to other bands which get labeled "progressive." So, you should be fine with the later releases. You'll notice some more softer moments added to the music when Vintersorg joins the band, and whether you'll enjoy that is determined by your personal tastes.