Blut Aus Nord : " Deus Salutis Meae"

I love these guys because they are so fucking dark. The title of the French art metal band's new  album translates to "God of my Salvation" , but it's highly unlikely they are making this noise ridden murk for any conventional gods. The first real song is heavy as a steamroller, but full of sonic depth. "Impious" kicks in with vicious double bass and they prove you can make mean as fuck black metal without having to use tired old blast beats.This is funny because these guys don't self identity as black metal. What is interesting about what they are doing here is droning , but at a high velocity. It can be hard to tell where they guitars begin and end. The blast beats do show up for "Apostasis" . The wacky dissonant solos begin fly from the edges of the riffs that also begin have a little more of a death metal feel to them. The vocals here are a lower growl that contributes to this.

Things get creepy with "Absime", though in more of a doom like manner. The vocals are sung and form more of a chant against the thick plodding. The paces up dramatically for "Revelatio". The solos squeal out of the hammering drums that slows every thing to more of a death metal pace. It's not until the section of chanted vocals that they break away black metal conformity on "Ex tenebrae Lucis" . To their credit most of these songs are a reasonable length and they still cram a vast amount of depravity into them. The descending quality of many of these riffs feel like death metal. Some of the sonic sprawl that sit against the density of guitar reminds me of Ministry.

"Metanoia" is another step in the spiral down. It drones on one riff with a forest of weird noises enclosing it. The vocals sound like the pigs that got possessed in the Gospel of Matthew. So maybe this album is their "Animals". It's a concept album we did not catch onto from the perspective of the pigs after being possessed. The double bass would mimic their hooves racing toward the cliff. I'll give this album an 8.5. It gets props for being dense and dark, though the song writing works more off of the drone, if you are a fan of these guys it is unlikely you will find your self disappointed. This album is being released on October 27th.