Search - Vintersorg :: Focusing Blur

With whom shall I have this dialog?

Rintrah | 12/05/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Vintersorg's The Focusing Blur is masterpeice sadly ahead of its time. The creative genius displayed on this album is most humbling. The lyrics are just brillant. I've never heard anything like them put to music. Seriously, if you want meaningful philosophical-metaphysical ponderings on the nature of the Universe(s) and our place in it with your avant-garde metal; this is the album for you. Just glancing at the song titles will give you an idea. Do a search for the lyrics they are worth the read even if you don't have the music. However, the music is stellar. Its amazingly amazing. Its catchy. Its bizarre. And it rocks.

Due to the lack of reviews here I suspect The Focusing Blur is unjustly underated and/or obscure. This album is truly something special and it deserves attention and praise. If more people listened to this the world would be a better place. Seriously."

Interesting, often bizarre, avant-garde black metal.

Ben Stubbs | Australia | 05/21/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Vintersorg are one heck of a strange band. At least, they have been for the last few albums. What started as a folky viking metal act has turned out to be a progressive avant-garde black metal band that combines both philosophical and scientific reasoning. All this creates a very unique listening experience even if it's not always completely convincing in its finality.



Personally, I much prefer Vintersorg in its modern incarnation (ie. since "Cosmic Genesis") and particularly enjoyed 2002's "Visions From the Spiral Generator". "The Focusing Blur" continues this sound while adding even more bizarre ingredients to the mix.



For the uninitiated, Vintersorg is led by a simply fantastic singer that goes by the same name (also known as Andreas Hedlund). If you're a fan of Borknagar, then you will recognise his distinct clean and black metal style vocals immediately as he's been a fulltime member of that band since 2001. Also of particular note, is the presence of metal legend Steve DiGeorgio (Death, Sadus, Testament to name a few) on base guitar. With names like these involved, you know that you're going to get some great musicianship. But great musicianship does not necessary automatically make great music and "The Focusing Blur" is the perfect example of this (Winds also comes to mind). There are some inspired moments throughout the album that get me nodding my approval. Tracks like "Matrix Odyssey", "Microcosmical Micro and "Star Puzzled" are thoroughly enjoyable and bring to mind the eccentricity of Arcturus. I can't help feel though that Vintersorg are trying too hard to be unique and interesting and on some occasions, things just get bizarre. I'm all for letting the creative juices flow and seeing where the music can go, but some of these arrangements and vocal styles are just plain silly. In general though, these moments are limited and nearly always made up for by the end of the track, but ultimately cannot be ignored.



In the end I guess the album name "The Focusing Blur" is fairly appropriate and I for one hope the band's next output can focus and define the image that such a talented group of musicians could so obviously unleash.



Regardless of these flaws, Vintersorg never fails to keep things interesting and I'm sure I will listen to this whenever I feel the need for slightly more challenging music than the majority of the metal scene could possibly deliver."