This is one of the five black metal recorded pre-jail for Varg Vikernes and, despite its shorter length, it lives up to the other releases without any questions asked. This is probably, bar some of his electronic affairs, one of Varg's most minimal and ambient records, despite being the only one to feature 100% guitar orientated tracks. As has been widely documented, the beauty of Varg's music has never been technicality but here he especially relies on brilliant songwriting, all encompassing production and vocal lines that make you feel his anguish to communicate an atmosphere that is probably unmatched by any other artist past or present. The riffs on this release are somewhat simple chords that develop and grow through the tracks, incorperating layers of melody that drift in and out creating a wash of sound that, once fully devop and progress throughout the tracks, can take you to another world in your very own head. Bass guitar generally contributes as accompaniment only but is very audible and sometimes takes a different direction, slowly taking another road only to be slowly brought back to the main melody with seamless ease. Drums are not fast, not technical and not even stand out but serve another purpose which is simply to accompany the journey. Mostly adverse to the standard in rock music, the drums are used more in common with the traits of classical music, in the sense that they take a back seat to keep concentration on the song development at hand or even, at some points, are just completely left out.