Blut Aus Nord : "Ethereal Horizons"

 

The French Black Metal band's 16th album shows Blut Aus Nord never makes the same album twice, and they are embracing every side of the genre here while cloaking them all in their signature atmosphere. It is like listening to a smoke machine envelop a band rather than just seeing it on stage. The opening track finds atmospheric black metal being pushed in new directions, while the pained moaning of the clean vocals cuts through the thickness of sound, bringing' Mercyful Fate's earliest incarnations of black metal to mind. There is the needed cauldron of blast beats and tremolo-picked guitars needed to identify their blackened intent, but not sounding like everyone else in the process. 

"Seculsion" finds them wandering more into the murkiness of night, which is scaled out into a bigger, more epic climax that shows them taking what many bands would have left as just a hypnotic drone and carrying it to greater heights. Cleaner vocals continue to hold purpose n the punchier, more metallic attack of "the Ordeal". There is hookier, more riff-oriented writing here than what you might expect from them. "The Fall Opens the Sky" begins by adhering more closely to the tropes of second-wave black metal before transitioning into minimalist ambiance, then building into a more shoegazing sound. 

"What Burns Now Listens" is a more hypnotic drone with vocals buried in the storm of atmosphere sweeping over you, thanks to the melodic chiming of guitars. There is an almost Nordic feel that reminds me more of older Enslaved on the last song. Though that is just the first four and a half minutes of what sprawl out into a 12 Minute epic. When it kicks back in after the minute of simmering, things are more grandiose and deliberate. It does wind its way into more metallic riffing that rings out and stomps in equal measure.  There is a more progressive feel to the throbbing layers it arrives at. For some bands, this album would be ambitious for these guys; it' business as usual. I will give it a 9.5, as it touches on most aspects you want from them. It drops on Debemur Morti Productions on November 28th.

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