Origin - Borknagar

'Origin' is Borknagar's first fully acoustic album, perhaps an inevitability considering the folk elements that have been present since their debut release over ten years earlier. Clearly (or at least, hopefully) conceived as an experiment to stand out from the rest of their somewhat diverse discography, this album abandons all pretensions to black metal entirely, focusing instead on acoustic instruments alongside traditional folk staples in the form of a flute, violin and cello. In this way, it's comparable to Opeth's 'Damnation,' similarly indebted to progressive bands of the seventies but with a greater neofolk basis. This isn't a particularly good album, ...  Read the complete review