Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II - Dialogue With The Stars review
Band: | Blut Aus Nord |
Album: | Memoria Vetusta II - Dialogue With The Stars |
Release date: | February 2009 |
01. Acceptance (Aske)
02. Disciple's Libration (Lost In The Nine Worlds)
03. The Cosmic Echoes Of Non-Matter (Immaterial Voices Of The Fathers)
04. Translucent Body Of Air (Sutta Anapanasati)
05. The Formless Sphere (Beyond The Reason)
06. ...The Meditant (Dialogue With The Stars)
07. The Alcove Of Angels (Vipassana)
08. Antithesis Of The Flesh (...And Then Arises A New Essence)
09. Elevation
If you haven't heard of Blut Aus Nord, you're either an Amish person who doesn't use the internet, or you're a goddamn poser who listens to Dimmu Borgir and thinks they are the best black metal band around. I jest, of course, but if you really are into black metal, you owe it to yourself to check out these Frenchies, who happen to be one of the most intriguing bands from the mentioned genre nowadays. This is mostly due to their experimental/industrial releases, a la The Work Which Transforms God or their latest, not yet complete Sects 777 trilogy. However, you'll find that these guys are just as capable of releasing top-notch quality material that falls more into the spectrum of "conventional" rather than genre-breaking, and this album damn well proves it.
Even though I dubbed Memoria Vetusta II "conventional", this happens to be a very relative term, which Blut Aus Nord enjoys bending. Looking at most black metal, one can easily feel the hateful, negative vibe presented by the music. Memoria Vetusta II, on the other hand, forgoes this approach, choosing instead the width of open skies, the infinity of space and mystery of distant stars as a source of inspiration. Indeed, the sensation of floating through the vast blackness of space or lifting off towards the skies while the sun sets is omnipresent here. Should you decide to listen to this the way it was probably intended to, i.e. while lying in a meadow, staring into the setting sun, you might just feel your consciousness leaving your earthly shell, floating upwards towards the great unknown... And should you decide to listen to it whilst on strong drugs, I can only imagine the sensation.
Ah, but listen to me going on like a kid who just had his first joint. I'm sure you all love hearing about my out-of-body experiences, but focus must be regained. So, how do these three faceless phantoms manage to help you transcend into the great beyond? Through a fairly typical playing style, consisting of blast-beats, lots of tremolo picking, frequently used wall-of-sound technique, constant shifts from full-on instrumental assaults to more reduced, more mellow moments, programmed drums that fit into the overall sound better than any human could and a noticeably industrial-esque guitar tuning, not that different from the one used in The Work Which Transforms God. While it's not by any means something spectacular or never before heard, it does put a considerable amount of riff-shriek-repeat formula bands to shame.
Bottom line, the only way in which the album disappoints is maybe that it isn't pushing boundaries which Blut Aus Nord are particularly adept at doing, or that it doesn't exactly manage to keep you blown away 100% of the time, as it does have some weaker moments which slightly dampen the brilliance of others. Nonetheless, Memoria Vetusta II remains a damn strong release and a textbook example of how quality black metal should sound like.
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