Blut Aus Nord

Our Place of Worship Is Silence – Disavowed, and Left Hopeless Review

Our Place of Worship Is Silence – Disavowed, and Left Hopeless Review

“Don’t you hate it when people randomly come up to you and force you into happiness? You know, the types that just get in your face and tell you that “You’d be (prettier, handsomer, approachable, etc.) if you’d just smile more”? Because there are fewer things more unnerving and anger-inducing as toxic positivity, especially when we’re still a good couple of feet underwater when it comes to the pandemic, American politics, and the world continuously burning all around us. Californian duo Our Place of Worship Is Silence knows this, having thrown down just three years ago with With Inexorable Suffering, a promising album that combined the ugliness of sludge, the brutality of hardcore, and the murk of French black metal.” Worship the unsilent rage.

Fyrnask – VII-Kenoma Review

Fyrnask – VII-Kenoma Review

“When I think of the sprawling extreme metal bands that I admire the most – The Ruins of Beverast, Urfaust, Spectral Lore, Blut Aus Nord and Darkspace a handful – I picture their music as labyrinthine cathedrals: their domes, spires and towers encrusted in shadowy depth; their facades etched in malicious secrets, crafted meticulously over hundreds of years; a visitor’s footsteps echoing minutely against the leering iconography of the interior walls. Using rough raw material, the best bands craft cathedrals of splendor that loom over the scene with menacing authority. Many bands, too many bands, attempt to recreate the fine detail of the best. They try, but the foundation of their place of worship is fractured and cheap to begin with. The finished product stands tall for a brief moment in time, but as the wind changes the structure falls – they lack the intricacy, the balance, the transitions. Another band on the rubble heap. On a plot of land somewhere in the East of Germany another architect lays the first stones of a new creation. Fyrnask has experience.” Building toward destruction.

Forhist – Forhist Review

Forhist – Forhist Review

“Sometimes, we all gotta get back to basics. When you’re Vindsval from the influential band, Blut Aus Nord, that means returning to your atmospheric black metal roots. Blut Aus Nord has always been an interesting proposition, veering wildly between the avant-garde (The Work Which Transforms God, 777 trilogy) and the traditional (The Memoria Vetusta trilogy, Hallucinogen). While I admire the boundary-pushing stuff, I have a mighty soft spot for those Memoria Vestusta albums, which I think comfortably inhabit the apex of melodic black metal. Forhist is Vindsval’s solo project, and Forhist the debut under this moniker.” Blut Aus More.

Déluge – Ægo Templo Review

Déluge – Ægo Templo Review

Déluge is a French black metal/post-hardcore quintet, a demo and debut full-length Æther under their belt since their 2013 formation. Perhaps most similar to acts Downfall of Gaia or Celeste, Déluge’s sophomore effort Ægo Templo is content channeling the worship of hyper-melodic post-rock-influenced post-hardcore or screamo acts like Envy, So Hideous, or Suffocate for Fuck Sake.” After France comes the flood.

Vous Autres – Sel de Pierre Review

Vous Autres – Sel de Pierre Review

“Well, it’s been… a year? Seriously…? Wtf? It’s only been a fucking year since Vous AutresChamp du Sang landed in the cold, dark corner of my existence? I go back to that debut record like it was a genre-defying piece! A record washed away and only now rescued the forgotten past. Maybe it’s the fact that it feels aged yet relevant. Or because it has an energy and spontaneity of a band not held back by anyone or anything. A band that put it all out there, regardless of the consequences. A band that… OK, so that might be a bit dramatic. But, Champ du Sang is a fantastic record and one that still gets much praise from Madam X and myself to this day. So, when the French duo treaded through a cemetery of thick, black mud—its headstones, broken from the bright, industrial cracks of lightning—to hand-deliver Sel de Pierre into my cold hands, I… wept.” Gods of pain.

Dawn of a Dark Age – La Tavola Osca Review

Dawn of a Dark Age – La Tavola Osca Review

Dawn of a Dark Age is an Italian black metal duo formed in 2014, brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Vittorio Sabelli (aka Eurynomos, also of Suici.De.Pression), currently featuring vocalist Emanuele Prandoni (aka Anamnesi of Progenie Terrestre Pura and Grind Zero). Sabelli has released five full-lengths since the project’s inception: volumes 1-5 of The Six Elements series (in order: Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Spirit / Mystères). This presumably culminates in sixth full-length La Tavola Osca, even if I’m unsure what it has to do with the elements.” Bend them all.

Ulveblod – Omnia Mors Aequat Review

Ulveblod – Omnia Mors Aequat Review

“I wanted a black metal/noise hybrid. I figured it was the trvest style out there: the ultimate form of pitch-black atmosphere that could conjure abstractness and bleakness to new heights. While there have been plenty of artists that have tried, like Enbilulugugal, Gnaw Their Tongues, and Abruptum, success has been limited, so I wished upon a star for noisy black metal.” Cut off your noise to spite your face.

T.O.M.B. – Thin the Veil Review

T.O.M.B. – Thin the Veil Review

“I would kill for a good atmospheric album. Just ask Kronos about that time that we discussed the atmospheric sludge/doom beauty of The Osedax around the water cooler when Gardenstale mentioned he was gonna give it, AT BEST, a 2.5. Have you seen any Gardenstale reviews lately? Didn’t think so.” Thin lines between love and hate.

Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze – Offerings of Flesh and Gold [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]

Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze – Offerings of Flesh and Gold [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]

Offerings of Flesh and Gold blends ritual ambiance, drone, and even aspects of dungeon synth with black metal, and I don’t know if it’s my latest fascination with enigmatic black metal projects like Death. Void. Terror. or Ancient Moon, but this debut hits the sweet spot.” Bull markets .

Blut Aus Nord – Hallucinogen [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]

Blut Aus Nord – Hallucinogen [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]

“Whichever the style, the quality of <'sb>Blut Aus Nord output never faltered. They could and have done whatever they wanted. Yet even in such a varied discography, their thirteenth LP Hallucinogen arrives as a sharp and expectedly unexpected detour. An ascendance to a higher celestial plane.” Black trip.