This is a hard one for me. I had such fond memories of this album, to the point where I idolized it in my memories a bit. I revisited it a few days ago and I'm wondering was I wrong?
This is the album where Borknagar broke off from the traditional black metal and started incorporating clean vocals, slight progressive tenancies and more interesting song structures - including a couple of instrumentals. All of these things elevate the album above the debut by quite a bit in my estimation, however the album itself still feels like its seeking... trying to find an identity.
Borknagar begins the album with The Eye of Oden. This song is a preview of almost everything that the album has in store. It starts off with a highly melodic riff and Garms off key clean singing. The band interlaces both guitar and keyboard melodies before speeding up and incorporating harsh vocals. The transition seems mostly natural from the start to the center of the song, but something is off too me. It sounds too sudden, like where missing a transition riff. Each individual riff is good on its own, but put together in the song the way they are... they don't fit as well as I would like them to.
And that's the story of The Olden Domain. So many of the individual riffs are great but the songs as a whole seem like they are lacking something... that one little ingredient that propels it from a collection of riffs to a fully realized composition.
There are risks about going back to old albums that you enjoyed quite a bit in your youth. Sometimes they reward you greatly, and other times the nostalgia is what was driving your fond memories. While The Olden Domain certainly is not a bad album, it feels incomplete as it is. I'll probably let this one sit for a while before coming back, maybe that time it'll recapture me as it did in my youth.
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