I imagine that when people listen to the classic albums they assume the debut album Burzum to be the oldest material, and the subsequent releases of Det som engang var, Hvis lyset tar oss and Filosofem to be charting a direct musical progression to the later works, Dauði Baldrs and Hliðskjálf. To some extent this is true, but equally it should be considered that, especially early on, the Count did not release his songs in the order in which they were written.
Thus I have constructed a 'Timeline' to show the real order in which the Burzum songs were written, so that it is possible to see clearly how Varg's musical vision expanded with time. The songs from each album are colour coded as shown below.
The order of recording of the albums was:
| Album | Recorded | First released |
| Burzum | January '92 | March '92 (D.S.P.) |
| Aske (EP) | August '92 | March '93 (D.S.P.) |
| Det som engang var | April '92 | Aug. '93 (Cymophane) |
| Hvis lyset tar oss | Sep '92 | May '94 (Misanthropy) |
| Filosofem | Mar'93 | January '96 (Misanthropy) |
| Dauði Baldrs | Late '94/early '95 | September '97 (Misanthropy) |
| Hliðskjálf | Summer '98 | May '99 (Misanthropy) |
The timeline shows that the early material on the Burzum, Aske and Det som engang var albums was recorded and released only roughly in the order of when it was written. The later albums do follow a more chronological progression in terms of writing and release (with the exception of the opening track of Filosofem).
Clearly Varg appears to have been most active in the period around late '91/early '92. Obviously 1992 was really 'the year' for Burzum, given that four out of his six classic releases were recorded in that year. Indeed, it does seem that Varg wrote and recorded a large amount of material in a very short space of time. When Asked about this in the Terrorizer interview, Varg simply replies: "I felt I wouldn't be a free man for long. I even thought that maybe I wouldn't stay alive for too long."
NB: Since writing the original timeline on my old Burzum webpage, Varg has checked it and made corrections where necessary, so this one should be accurate. – Rainer