Say what you will about his personal life, Varg Vikernes has certainly left his mark on the world of black metal, to the point where any depressive black metal gets often labeled as a Burzum ripoff. Many times, this is unfair and a gross oversimplification of the ideas behind the music. For I Shalt Become's album In Falling Snow, however, the tag is completely accurate.

I Shalt Become is a one-man USBM act with one other album recorded before this, in 1998. This album, though rereleased this year by No Colors Records, debuted in 1999 as a demo of the band Birkenau, though S. Holliman, the man behind the act, apparently denies the validity of this first release. Regardless of the confusion, the band seems to have come out of a long dormancy this year, with the rerelease of this album heralding its resurgence.

This marks the first time the album has been widely available, but it seems that the world has not been missing much. Certainly, it's not bad music. It is, however, very typical depressive black metal, featuring raw guitars repeating monotonous riffs, the often heavy use of background keyboards, and subdued, often barely audible, drumming. Together, these elements often generate an appropriate atmosphere of emptiness and sorrow, assuming one is in the right mood. When one isn't in the right mood, the formulaic nature of it all becomes rapidly apparent, and the music can grow dull.

Very few of the riffs actually stand out. You might argue that this shouldn't be a problem for ambient music, but Burzum managed to craft ambient, highly memorable black metal; just listen to the songs from Hviss Lyset Tar Oss or Filosofem. Granted, these albums are widely considered to be classics of the genre, so the comparison is less than fair. However, the music here cribs so many elements from those albums that I can't help but make the comparison. Perhaps the one unique element here is Holliman's voice, which doesn't help the music any. I've always been one for arguing that metal isn't about the vocals, but, much as I hate to admit it, there is a definite difference between good and bad vocals in black metal. These vocals, best described as a strangled croak, are a prime example of the latter. To be honest, the music would have been improved had Holliman stolen yet again from Varg and used that man's tortured shrieks. As it is, the vocals stick out horribly against the music, which fails to provide enough quality to overwhelm those negatives.

Much of this review sounds quite harsh, but, as I've said before, this isn't bad music. It just offers virtually nothing that hasn't been done before and done better. If you're thinking of getting this album, stop and ask yourself whether you own all of Burzum's black metal output. If the answer to that question is “no,” go out and buy a Burzum album instead. On the other hand, if you've listened to Det Som Engang Var more times than you can stand, but you still want to hear more music in that vein, you might find this album worth your while.