Undoubtedly my favourite black metal song ever, and one of my top metal tracks as well, "Jesus' Tod", or "Jesu død" in the original Norwegian version, from the one and only Burzum.
It's taken from the fourth full-length album: "Filosofem", created by the genius mastermind but very controversial Varg Vikernes, a.k.a Count Grishnackh, an iconic figure in the so called "True Norwegian Black Metal" scene. The album was recorded in March 1993, at Grieghallen Studio in Bergen, but was only released in 1996, when Varg was already imprisoned.
The front cover, featuring a woman playing a birch trumpet, is a close-up of a 1900's paiting made by Norwegian artist Theodor Kittelsen, entitled: "Op Under Fjeldet Toner en Lur", which in English translates to: "Up in the Hills a Clarion Call Rings Out". The album's booklet includes more artwork by this painter.
Also the first track of "Filosofem": "Burzum", or in the German tracklist named "Dunkelheit", it's the first real Burzum track, and according to Varg, it was supposed to appear in the previous album: "Hvis lyset tar oss", but the quality was so poor at the time, he decided to discard it.
Much of the work made by Vikernes, which he used to write and create all of the music in his one man project: Burzum, was without a doubt a huge influence for many Metal artists out there, especially in the black metal genre. These guitar riffs are just amazing! And the bad raw quality of the production (made on purpose, just like many other black metal bands did at this time), only makes the music better!
For me personally, this album and this track in particular, were a captivating starting point to listen to more on extreme metal, I've listened to this so many times in the past, and honestly as you can see, I still do!
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