Borknagar - Origin
Century Media Records - CD 77599-2 - October 30th, 2006
By Brandon Ströder
Behold the Origin of Borknagar, presented at the end in true Quentin Tarantino fashion.
The keyboards of
Borknagar have always been pretty spectacular, despite the cheesiness of such large keyboard orchestrations.
Origin takes it up a notch with an actual violinist, a flutist, and even a guy playing the cello. This is probably something they should have considered earlier in their careeer, perhaps for the epic
Epic, or the grimmer movements of
Empiricism. The effects these natural instruments have on
Origin are bigger than anyone could have preconceived. Adding to the grandiose is the production, which is crystal clear, and each instrument can easily be heard. Of course
Origin is best at high volumes, but the same can be said about any
Borknagar album, or even
Cronian.
Similar to
Cronian and past
Borknagar albums, we've still got the same lyrical themes; or at least it seems so on the surface. I hold to this theory that every first track of every Vintersorg-related album has the word "existence" in the lyrics. He says it on the second song, "Grains", as well. Who's keeping count though? The song is sweet. Existence seems to be a word he likes to sing a lot, or a concept he writes about very often. Vintersorg's patented vocal style and melodies are back and better than ever, and he also performs some lower-octave vocals that are extremely well done! Although it is amazing to hear
Borknagar acoustically, it seems like they still build off of a lot of the same ideas as they did for their heavy music. Some of the key progressions are extremely similar, and sometimes it even seems like they could have sped up the tempo a tiny bit and put in heavy guitars! It's not quite the
Finntroll 'Visor Om Slutet' level of acoustic transformation, yet it is a cool transformation nonetheless. And the guest flutist and violinist they've got are very good, really adding to that 'medieval' kind of sound.
It's interesting to hear what the heavy versions of these songs would sound like.
'White' is the song that sounds like it could translate into the most interesting heavy song, as it already sounds pretty darn heavy with the extreme cello performance, and the staccato and violin performances that follow it. "Oceans Rise" was a heavy song from
The Archaic Course metamorphosed into an acoustic song for this release. If you didn't know that little chunk of knowledge, you probably never would have guessed. The curse of
The Archaic Course is that it is a bit too archaic for people to really go back and check out, except for the hardcore
Borknagar fans
(you know, those of us who have to hear everything ever written by the bands we like). It's also the longest song clocking in at a hefty 6:05 for this little 35 minute epic.
Borknagar's infallible acoustic skill is astounding, considering this is their first acoustic album. I guess playing all that folk metal must have really prepared them to take on such a daunting task!
9/10
UM's Review Rating Scale
Official Borknagar Website
Official Century Media Records Website
