Blut Aus Nord/Ævangelist - Codex Obscura Nomina (2016)

One of the more esoteric split pairings I've seen lately, there was no way I wasn't checking this out, and much to my satisfaction, it's just as strange and effective a team-up as I might have expected. French veterans Blut Aus Nord are known for a wide body of offerings that range from more traditionally or folk-flavored black metal full-lengths to peripheral release cycles that flirted with industrial-tinged escapism to a fault. Ævangelist is the project which steered prolific US musician Matron Thorn away from the raw black metal musings of his mainstay Benighted in Sodom to a new depth of ugly, atmospheric, compelling death metal which has proven to be among the most unique and alien in an ever-crowding field of cavern core morbidity. How would the two of these groups sound in proximity?

Well, that's not exactly the nature of this release, and I feel both bands distinguish themselves pretty clearly to their own back catalogues rather than rely too much on sounding flush with the other. There is certainly some overlap due to the outsider dissonance practiced by both, but it's almost like a line drawn in the sand where the four BAN tracks end and Ævangelist's 21+ minute opus begins. As for the former, do not expect Memoria Vetusta IV material here, their offerings are more in line with the 777 trilogy, only cast in an even darker pallor redolent of their mid-oughts fare (MoRT, Odinist, etc). An emphasis more on raw industrial or trip hop beats drowned in resonant, gut-wrenching distortion, discordant and unusual effects and guitars, foul whispers and growls, and a general clamor that is in its own way just as oblique and disgusting as any of the harsher recordings they've put out over the considerable backlog. It's almost like a bastard spawn of DJ Shadow and Godflesh, only far more cacophonous and unusual than that union could allude to. Or if the producers of the Silent Hill video game series passed on Akira Yamaoka's eerie proclivities for such beat-driven fare and then greenlit Vindsval and company to 'make it their own' after hearing Sect(s) or The Desanctification. Partly hypnotic, always repulsive.

"Threshold of the Miraculous", Ævangelist's contribution, is rawer still, and spans a much broader gulf of styles within its boundaries than even the four BAN cuts combined. Lots of tinny electronic impulses here, sudden shifts in tempo and instrumentation where the grimy dissonant guitars erupt, and clearer growled vocals than on the band before them. It's par for the course that the band is so disheveled and nightmarish in scope, but I couldn't help feel here that the length of the track was working against it. There were several impressive atmospheric parts, with the French narration and so forth, but a lot of the heavier sequences just sort of randomly appeared and disappeared and it did not gel together as a compelling whole, whereas I've really enjoyed the lest swollen material they've put out on albums like De Masicatione Mortuorum in Tumulis. I was more partial towards the Blus Aus Nord stuff, but even that didn't quite grasp me consistently over its own 20 minute presentation, it was simply fascinating to hear them spew forth those big beats and then slather them in dementia.

All told, this was a pretty interesting listen that is worth hearing if you're deep into either (or both) of the acts involved, but not mandatory when they've got much stronger exclusive material. The two 'sides' of the split function in tandem, yet I didn't feel that they both stood out equally. However, I don't think there's any question that Blut Aus Nord and Ævangelist continue to take chances, and their work will ebb and flow to particular audiences based on what eras or phases of their eccentric histories they were most enthralled by. If you loved the 777 trilogy but desired it to go a little further out on a limb, it's probably worth checking this out, even though it's not quite so immersive and doesn't last the duration of spinning yourself straight through all those records in succession. Daniel Valencia's cover work here is also pretty neat.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

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Blut Aus Nord - 777 - The Desanctification (2011)

The Desanctification comes fairly hot on the heels of the last Blut Aus Nord experiment, Sect(s) this past April, but I almost wish that the two had been joined as a single, double-LP, since their central tropes are so similar in content. Then again, this is only the second of THREE recordings in this 777 series, so even that prospect would not paint the entire picture. Nonetheless, the French pick up directly where they left off. Like its conceptual predecessor, the songs are not given titles, instead dubbed as 'Epitomes' with affixed Roman numerals that the canny listener might learn to somehow separate them. It makes sense from the perspective that the band desires the audience to lose itself in the whole album rather than focused on particular tracks, but I can't help but feel that it also leeches a bit of character from some of the better individual pieces.

I say this because I was not entirely thrilled by the first few songs on the album. It's the similar sort of drone-heavy content the band presented in the spring, with mechanized, often industrial aesthetics to the drumming (hell, "Epitome VII" even has a hip hop undercurrent to the beat). Jangling, eerie guitars are looped in cycles of haunting regret while the vocals shift between poles of faint, melodic, layered groans and the occasional bitter bite of their black metal background. Most of the pieces contain one central 'hook' that they build towards (like the arching melody around 5:30 into "Epitome VII"), yet these don't always feel as if they were worth the wait. For example, "Epitome VIII" incorporates some grimier vocals redolent of their past works, but the bounce of the guitars and the background ambiance feels a little dry, and the big melody coming in at the bridge just doesn't feel like enough of a payoff.

Deeper into the track list, however, I felt that the stronger material at long last arrived in the fourth track "Epitome X". Cleaner, layered vocals create a psychedelic somnolence that erupts into these beautiful, glazed guitars which feel like a field of flowers suddenly blooming on a cold, barren steppe. "Epitome XI" is another of the strongest pieces, with a steady electronic ethno ambient pulse beat beneath the droning, life-sapping guitars and a sense of immediate, blinding desperation to the gradual curves of the distant, melodic guitar slogging along the top. The closer "Epitome XIII" also has a nice texture to it, with a doom-like, crashing gait and a dissonant hint of disjointedness that mirrors the mood of the album preceding it, sort of as if it were tying off a knot.

Ultimately, this wasn't quite so strong or compelling as its thematic precursor Sect(s). I don't think it's a huge stretch to claim that Blut Aus Nord seem to be drifting further and further away from their metallic roots. Sure, there are distorted guitars and occasional lapses into the primal aggression which once inspired them, but this is more of an ambient, mood piece with a ton of guitars to replace what might otherwise be a bank of synthesizers. Fans of those drone and sludge artists not afraid to incorporate warmer melodic textures into their composition will find a lot to devour here, but I did not spend much of the 43 minute playtime in the same rapture I felt through past Blut Aus Nord recordings. The Desanctification is fully consistent in tone with Sect(s), but I'm hoping that the final chapter in the trilogy will prove more revelatory than its midsection.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

Blut Aus Nord - 777 - Sect(s) (2011)

With such a dazzling panoply of distortion at their backs, it becomes a bit of a guessing game to where Blut Aus Nord are next going to steer their career. Individual releases tend to variate greatly from one another with but a few constants, and then reappear, years and miles down the creative highway as if they'd never lapsed from sight. 777 - Sect(s), the 8th full-length from the French entrepreneurs, does not actually bring as much of the unexpected to the table as several of the band's past diversions. In fact, it's pretty close in its stylistic contrast to previous efforts like Odinist or the What Once Was...Liber I project that released last year, but I'll be damned if the band have not once more flexed their imagination upon a fully submersible experience. Within the first two tracks, I had become fully dissolved into its perplexed, abusive aural narrative...again! It almost pisses me off, except that in the end I'm the one that adversely benefits.

If you've listened through the back catalog, then you know to expect compelling arrangements of both dissonance and melody. This album is planned as the first in a trilogy, so like last year's work, its but an installment of conceptual, structured chaos in a grand pattern we cannot yet judge. The play list is divided into 7 pieces, with a length of about 45 minutes, but there seem to be two primary motifs coursing through it. The first is that of blasted, driving fare threaded with discordant, disheveled note choices that create a schizoid symmetry ("Epitomes I and III"), and the second is the slower, drudging fare belabored in stunning bends and melodies, backed by soft synthesizers ("Epitomes II, IV and VI"). Though the latter selections are the more resilient and engrossing, the faster material really puts them into perspective by spanning them out across the distance of the record. In addition, they incorporate traces of electric percussion and louder ambiance in various segues throughout (the close of "Epitome I" is a prime example), and the sum of these fluctuations births an uncanny, atmospheric hypnosis one can experience time and time again, tethered from solitude by Vindsval's mocking rasp.

Blut Aus Nord does not disappoint here, but in all the album does lack some of the standing fiber of their past works. The Frenchmen are not long on guitar riffs, they are simply means to an unwholesome end, a nightmare space between urban reality and metaphysical horror, but a few of the faster passages, like 2010's What Once Was...Liber I do seem to be an inkling dry. That said, I've been listening through this a good number of times now and the haunted thrills never dissipate. I'd liken this to a sort of antithesis of Deathspell Omega's Paracletus. Where that was a busy, almost overwhelming burst of ideas wrought through unhinged, explosive paced aggression, this is a more primordial alternative, lurking in the margins of complexity but only rarely stepping out into the bloodstream of intensity. 777 - Sect(s) is not the perfect engine of creation that I've always dreamed of from this band, but it's yet another stimulating excursion into an impeccable body of work.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10]

http://www.blutausnord.com/

Blut Aus Nord - What Once Was... Liber I (2010)

Blut Aus Nord seem to be one of the very few bands on the extreme end of metal that can take their artistic license in almost any direction they wish to twist it and still enthrall me. I have come to rely upon their collective output, even the debatable, divisive works like mORT and Odinist, as a true escape from the sodden mist of predictable mediocrity that so saturates this art form as it reaches its qualitative and quantitative apex, and then explodes into the void of inevitable exodus. For these Frenchmen, you can know only to expect that each full-bodied interpretation of their darker halves will shift away from the prior axis, yet never completely abandon it along the overall career path.

What Once Was...Liber I is a niche release at present, the first through Debemur Morti, issued as a 12" Gatefold vinyl. I can certainly see where the classiness of this format collides with the nostalgic record collector of taste, but I do feel as if this sells the work short, so I hope to see its CD format available for the majority of listeners who may have to settle for a digital version in the interim. Content-wise, it's a single lengthy track divided into two sides, facing the tall task of engrossing the listener and not letting go. To this extent, it truly exceeds, because it's one of the most purely 'riff-heavy' works I've ever heard from Blut Aus Nord. There is little continuity with the last full-length, the excellent Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars. Instead, the tones of this album are gritty, with processed black/doom guitar riffs operating at varied speeds through a bleak, oppressive architecture, drums crashing almost needlessly in the backdrop.

Yes, the density here is delivered almost exclusively through the ominous guitars and strangled rasp of Vindsval, as diabolic as he's been in years. The band's sense of ambiance has been retained, but here it haunts the margin of the guitar reverb more so than some scintillating panoramic mural in the background. The level of aggression here is far more of The Mystical Beast of Rebellion or The Work Which Transforms God than Memoria Vetusta in either of its incarnations. I'm not entirely convinced that this work could not have been structured into a number of smaller sequences, since there are some stretches of riffs which would make excellent tunes of their own accord, like the crashing percussion that introduces the latter half of the track, like a To Mega Therion swallowing on downers and absinthe while some unfortunate beast is choked to provide poetry; or the speed that later ensues with a terminal, blood-addled grace.

The band have stated that this will be the first in a new line of recordings, hopefully to run concurrent with the more thoughtful, atmospheric works tinged by melody like the last album. While it doesn't offer the duality of, say, Neurosis/Tribes of Neurot, it's an excellent thematic drift from which we can all benefit, provided the content remains at this level of solid riffing and utter, compelling darkness. One of the most hallowed, fascinating forces in French metal music has found yet another dimension in which to inject their harrowing humours, and it's time we once again roll up our sleeves to take the medicine.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10]

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars (2009)

Blut Aus Nord is one of the most brilliant artists in black metal, a band that never fails to fascinate or enthrall with their unique excursions into ambient territory, crusted in a barbaric black shell. While I found their last two albums MoRT and Odinist to be genre re-defining and excellent, they did seem to alienate a segment of the band's fan base. To those fans, Memoria Vetusta II, a 'sequel' to their 1996 sophomore effort Memoria Vetusta I: Fathers of the Icy Age, makes for a kindly peace offering. That said, if you found yourself more in the camp of their recent, chaotically charged offerings, you will still be pleased, because this album simply oozes grace and quality.

Yes, Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars is a partial nod to the band's early catalogue, but it's also a highly refined, mature work of atmospheric black metal which scintillates from the moment of its intro "Acceptance (Aske)", a stripped down ambient piece which conjures the lush skyscape of the album's cover art. "Disciple's Libration (Lost in the Nine Worlds)" reigns you into a driving, melodic black fervor, each riff painstakingly crafted to offer both beauty and innate savagery. The bass playing of GhÖst is a constant presence, keeping the low end anchor of the composition dynamic and busy. "The Cosmic Echoes of Non-Matter (Immaterial Voices of the Fathers)" is similar, yet slightly more turbulent in its forceful shifting of interstellar energies, a beacon of black neuroses veiled in shimmering angels and celestial bodies. "Translucent Body of Air (Sutta Anapanasati)" is a breathtaking acoustic/ambient piece which leads into the driving, gorgeous "Formless Sphere (Beyond the Reason)". This album simply does not falter, but I should make specific mention of the wondrous "Antithesis of the Flesh (...and Then Arises a New Essence)", and the album's closer, "Elevation", a tonal, uplifting shift into transcendence.

Though melodious and 'catchy' from the onset, Memoria Vestuta II is still a complex enough work that repeated listens will provide further insight and 'unlock' epic patterns in the material. The mix of the album is incredible: raw enough to please fans of their earlier work, yet every note and strike of a drum is captured perfectly. The album echoes through your headphones like the voice of an extraterrestrial deity, stopping to ask you for directions to the nearest quasar. Is it the band's magnum opus to this point? I can't say as such, I hold a deep love for some of the band's earlier works and have also been impressed with their more cryptic efforts of the 21st century. What I can say is that Blut Aus Nord is the type of band we will look back on in 20 years as purveyors of genius, and this is a record which transcends black metal yet could not be more loyal to its deepest intentions.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.5/10]

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