The black metal band Borknagar's latest release is an acoustic album, but it's hard to sound evil and menancing when there's a bamboo flute playing in the background.
Origin is very mellow and folky sounding with a lot of strings, acoustic guitars and the aforementioned bamboo flute. It's an interesting departure from the band's usual symphonic style, and it works. It's difficult to believe, but a black metal band has created something that sounds pretty instead of dark and forbidding. The songs are definitely not black metal, they are a combination of folk, classical and new age music.
Vintersorg's vocals are all melodic, and he sings in a subdued style with a lot of subtle emotion on some songs, and sings with a louder and fuller voice on the more upbeat and intense songs. The whole CD is very diverse, and one of the only negatives is that there is only 35 minutes of music.
