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Burzum

3 guitar songs · Tabs, Lessons & Tone Guide Black Metal

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Band Overview

Burzum emerged from Norway in the early 1990s as a one-man Black Metal project founded by Varg Vikernes, establishing itself as a cornerstone of the second-wave black metal movement alongside Darkthrone and Mayhem. Vikernes created an intentionally lo-fi, atmospheric approach to black metal guitar that rejected the polished production of Thrash Metal in favor of deliberately murky, tremolo-heavy textures that defined the genre's aesthetic for decades. The guitar work prioritizes raw tremolo picking over technical complexity, layered dissonant melodies over flashy solos, and drone-like passages over conventional song structure, making Burzum essential listening for guitarists seeking to understand how restraint and atmosphere can be more powerful than speed. Varg Vikernes is the sole instrumentalist on Burzum's recordings, handling all guitars with a minimalist philosophy: lo-fi recording equipment, heavily distorted single-note runs, and hypnotic repetition create an unsettling, ritualistic quality that influenced countless black metal bands. Learning Burzum requires understanding that difficulty is not about execution speed or technical complexity, but about capturing a specific emotional and sonic darkness through tone control, tremolo picking precision, and an understanding of how dissonance and repetition shape atmosphere rather than melody.

What Makes Burzum Essential for Guitar Players

  • Tremolo picking is the backbone of Burzum's sound: fast, even picking on single notes or simple two-note riffs using a pick angle that maximizes string noise and brightness, creating a signature 'buzzing' texture that defines second-wave black metal. This technique demands consistent hand stability and pick control rather than speed, and learning to maintain even tremolo at moderate tempos (around 160-180 BPM) is more valuable than playing fast.
  • Dissonant interval stacking and chromatic progression replace traditional major/minor harmony: Burzum riffs often use minor thirds, tritones, and chromatic movement to create unease rather than resolution. This approach requires guitarists to abandon conventional chord shapes and think in terms of single-note melodies that clash rather than complement.
  • Lo-fi recording aesthetics shape the tone as much as the gear: Vikernes intentionally used cheap recording equipment and minimal mic placement to create murky, compressed guitar tones where individual notes blend into a wall of sound. Replicating this requires understanding that tone comes from recording technique and deliberate distortion stacking, not just amp settings.
  • Layered guitar textures and microphone placement create depth without overdubbing complexity: multiple guitar tracks recorded at different positions and volumes stack to create a three-dimensional soundscape. Learning Burzum songs means understanding how simple riffs become hypnotic when layered with slight timing variations and panning.
  • Minimal chord changes and repetitive structure demand absolute precision in execution: Burzum riffs often stay on two or three chord voicings for entire sections, meaning any inconsistency in picking, vibrato, or tone becomes immediately noticeable. This forces guitarists to develop meticulous technique and understand how micro-variations in dynamics create movement within a static harmonic framework.

Did You Know?

Varg Vikernes recorded Burzum's debut album 'Hvis Lyset Tar Oss' on a 4-track Tascam Portastudio in his bedroom, deliberately keeping the sound lo-fi and murky rather than pursuing studio clarity, establishing that black metal tone comes from philosophy and recording choices, not expensive gear.

The guitar tone on classic Burzum albums comes from a combination of heavily overdriven amplifiers and deliberate microphone placement close to the speaker cone, compressing and distorting the signal until individual notes disappear into a unified wall of buzzing dissonance.

Burzum's riffs often use single-note tremolo picking lines rather than chord-based rhythm patterns, a technique that became definitive for second-wave black metal and influenced how an entire generation of guitarists approached distorted guitar tone as texture rather than clarity.

Despite the extreme distortion and lo-fi quality, Burzum's melodies follow specific compositional structures rooted in Norwegian folk traditions and classical composition, meaning beneath the wall of noise sits carefully crafted harmonic movement that reward close listening.

Varg Vikernes' guitar approach rejected the technical guitar heroism of 1980s thrash metal, instead valuing repetition, atmosphere, and emotional impact over speed or complexity, establishing that difficult guitar music is not synonymous with technically difficult guitar playing.

The production techniques used on Burzum albums, particularly the use of distortion as a compressive tool that blurs timing and creates a hypnotic effect, influenced entire subgenres of metal and established lo-fi aesthetics as intentional artistic choice rather than limitation.

Essential Albums for Guitarists

Hvis Lyset Tar Oss album cover
Hvis Lyset Tar Oss 1994

This album defines black metal tremolo picking and lo-fi atmosphere for guitarists, featuring hypnotic single-note riffs built on relentless tremolo technique and layered dissonant melodies. Songs like 'Det Som Engang Var' teach how consistent tremolo picking, minor-key tonality, and repetitive structure create emotional impact without technical flashiness, making it essential for understanding how tone and persistence matter more than speed.

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Aske album cover
Aske 1994

A raw, purely atmospheric EP that showcases Vikernes' stripped-down approach to guitar composition, featuring minimal riffs that stay locked on single intervals for extended periods. 'A Lost Forgotten Sad Spirit' and 'Dunkelheit' demonstrate how repetition and tonal consistency can create meditative, trance-like guitar textures that influence modern ambient and drone metal.

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Filosofem album cover
Filosofem 1996

The most fully realized expression of Burzum's compositional vision, featuring longer song structures, more developed melodies, and sophisticated layering techniques that remain lo-fi but more articulate than earlier work. 'Dunkelheit' is essential for learning how to build momentum through tremolo picking variations and subtle harmonic shifts, while maintaining a hypnotic, meditative quality throughout extended passages.

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Tone & Gear

Guitar

Varg Vikernes used standard electric guitars throughout Burzum's recording history, typically mid-range instruments without specific model obsession, prioritizing heavily overdriven amplification and recording technique over the guitar itself. The guitar choice mattered far less than the tone shaping that occurred during recording and distortion stacking, reflecting Burzum's philosophy that gear specifications are less important than intentional sonic choices.

Amp

Burzum's guitar tone comes from heavily overdriven amplifiers recorded at close mic distance with minimal studio treatment, creating a compressed, distorted wall of sound where individual notes blur together. The specific amp model is less important than the distortion level and recording technique; Vikernes prioritized saturation and harmonic compression over clarity, using the amp as a tool to create texture rather than reproduce the guitar signal.

Pickups

Pickup specifications are largely undocumented in Burzum recordings, as the extreme distortion and lo-fi recording process renders individual pickup characteristics nearly irrelevant. The guitar signal is so heavily processed and compressed that warm or bright pickups produce nearly identical results once pushed through layers of distortion and recorded on budget equipment.

Effects & Chain

Burzum uses minimal to no outboard effects, prioritizing straight guitar-into-amplifier signal flow with all tone shaping occurring at the amp and during recording. The 'effect' is the overdriven amp itself, intentionally recorded poorly to create murky, compressed textures where distortion becomes a compositional element rather than a processing choice, rejecting the multi-effects mentality of modern metal guitar.

How to Practice Burzum on GuitarZone

Every Burzum song page on GuitarZone includes a built-in Practice Toolbar. No app to download, no account needed. Open any song, then use the toolbar to slow the video to 0.5× speed, set an A/B loop around the exact riff you're working on, and jump between song sections instantly.

The toolbar appears automatically on every guitar tab, lesson, and cover page. Pick a song below, hit play, and start practicing at your own pace.

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