I'm fairly new to Blut Aus Nord, but this year has been all about discovering French metal bands for me. Blut Aus Nord have sadly been overshadowed among the larger metal circles by Alcest, who are brilliant, but are less outright terrifying and have more "16 year old girl" appeal due to the softer beauty of their music and the fact that Neige is a hot piece of French ass.
What kind of way is that to start a review, Novak? God.
Like I said, I'm not ultra familiar with this band, but I know they're not at the center of the melodic metal circle, where they damn well belong. This album (originally released in 2003) has been reissued this year by Debemur Morti which makes it fair game for me to cover as a new release and not a throwback. It's just.... one of the most intense things I've ever heard. And as if the album alone were not enough, the (highly limited) reissue ends with a bonus track- a cover of Godflesh's Mighty Trust Krusher. Never have I heard another band do Godflesh justice, but justice has finally been served. In case you had not noticed, your not so humble narrator is an enormous Justin Broadrick fan.
The sound of this album is like they've opened a hole in the floor that goes straight down to hell and the sucking waves of heat and flame and pulling the sound down into the hole. The whole thing is slightly off and a little wobbly sounding. It has many ambient interludes as if everyone is simply exhausted from pouring every shred of soul they have into their instruments. It's like a metal soundtrack to the Hellraiser films.
Axis is just brilliant with it's periodic high and low-pitched screams accompanied by high-power blastbeats
My favorite track, Our Blessed Frozen Cells is possibly the epitome of the genre for me.
This album is really groundbreaking. The band is doing whatever they fucking want with it. I fear I have little to say about it otherwise, but I strongly suggest you give this a spin because if you like fucked up metal, this is where you want to be. I'm glad I got over my long-held distaste for drum machines because this just goes to show that you can create huge sound and complex structures without a live drummer.
http://dmp666.bandcamp.com/album/777-cosmosophy
