Blut Aus Nord – 777 – Sect(s)
Release: 2011Apr18 (US)
Label: Debemur Morti Productions
Rating: 4/5
The French band with the poorly-translated German name, Blut Aus Nord, has been around for quite some time. Though they have experimented with different techniques and styles, their uncomfortable sound has always been signature and recognizable. 777 is their latest installment, and though it doesn’t quite stand up to their previous release and progressive masterpiece, Memoria Vetusta II, it’s an ambitious and very listenable album in its own right.
For one thing, it’s a lot more industrial-sounding. They don’t try to hide the fact that a drum machine is in use. It sounds artificial, as if it was a soundtrack to the dystopian future of monochromatic European cities. “Epitome II” is a perfect example of this. Its dark melancholy incites feelings of hopelessness, but the slow, consistent and unwavering drumbeat places you in neo-noir science fiction setting. And unlike many of their previous offers, the production is clear and audible. Every note can be heard, though the vocals are pushed so far into the background, it may as well be an instrumental album.
“Epitome I” and “Epitome III” sound a little more like the Blut Aus Nord I remember. The fast drumbeat and dissonant guitar riffs prevail. It’s the type of music where a black metal newb might get up to adjust his stereo. Nope. It’s supposed to sound broken and weird like that.
“Epitome IV” has more movement to it, and is better, because it’s nearly 12 minutes long. One of my favorite parts of this song is the way the chunky chord progression plays off the atmospheric synthesizer. They play around with a lot of 3/4 and 4/4 time changes which is fun for a while, but gets irritating quickly. The song peaks with the classic blasting Blut Aus Nord avec les weird tremolo effects.
Like “III”, “Epitome V” is more of the same. Nothing new here aside from the clean production. The next and final track, of which I think you can guess the title, has a really badass chunky chord pedal underneath atmospheric chords. It sounds amazing, along the lines of the aforementioned dystopian flavor.
So 777 isn’t a masterpiece, but then again, Blut Aus Nord set themselves some really high standards. It would be foolish to say there are bands this tries to sound like, because Blut Aus Nord have been vanguards of doing weird shit with black metal for some time now. This is another great album from a great band.
01. Epitome I
02. Epitome II
03. Epitome III
04. Epitome IV
05. Epitome V
06. Epitome VI
~Joshua Perrin
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