review by: Mladen Škot

For some reason, recently I've been listening to Borknagar quite a lot. Not that all of their music is mindblowingly excellent, it's just that there is enough diversity in it to keep my ears occupied while doing something. So, here we have their new release, Origin. As you might have heard, it's an acoustic album.

Much like in Opeth's case (believe or not, in Keep of Kalessin's too), all of Borknagar's songs are originally written on acoustic guitar and distorted later. On the appropriately titled Origin, the idea was to explore the potential the music would have without all the metal loudness.

For some reason, Blind Guardian's The Forgotten Tales comes to mind — remember how they turned their already good songs into even better acoustic ones? With all the layers of orchestration and introduction of folk and classical elements, and instruments such as bamboo flutes, woodwinds, violin and cello, Origin is not far from that. There are also gentle male choirs, heavily reminding of Ulver's Kveldssanger. What it misses, though, is either Blind Guardian's catchiness or Ulver's solemnity. There is one old song, "Oceans Rise," from The Archaic Course reworked in a manner that is only interesting; the other eight tracks are new.

The music as a whole has a storytelling feel, with some highs and lows, quiet and loud parts but most of the time it sounds suspended, like something is going to happen any moment. But it never does, and the whole experience leaves the listener wanting for just one sincere, wild, uncalculated moment.

The sterile sound is another disadvantage — for an acoustic album, isn't it a bit overproduced? I mean, the whole idea is to show the songs in an organic, natural light — and a band actually playing them — but if you're expecting to hear Oystein G. Brun's fingers gently sweeping over the strings while changing chords... it's not going to happen very often. Furthermore, the guitar is played through an effect adding stereo spacing but taking away the natural feel — in brief, it sounds like one of those acoustic guitars you hear during the loud parts played by some black metal bands.

Vintersorg's vocals are produced, cleaned and again recorded through an equalizer, compressor and who knows what. The drums sound like regular Borknagar drums, no change there. The bass guitar is too silent, though it does sound like an acoustic, fretless one. But it has been recorded in another studio. Whatever happened to the good old concept, you know, a band playing and microphones recording the music?

Apart from that, have no fear — it's still good old Borknagar, occasionally brilliant but mostly — guess — something to keep your ears occupied with while doing something else. (6.5/10)