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Blut Aus Nord - 777 - Cosmosophy review




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Reviewer:
8.4

187 users:
8.12
Band: Blut Aus Nord
Album: 777 - Cosmosophy
Release date: September 2012


01. Epitome XIV
02. Epitome XV
03. Epitome XVI
04. Epitome XVII
05. Epitome XVIII

777 - Cosmography is without a doubt the quietest and perhaps the least challenging of the entire trilogy of Blut Aus Nord. The dissonance and abrasive wall of sound lightly vanishes and gives way to other new elements. You can expect to find electronic beats, spoken passages, apocalyptic chants, industrial machinery, clean vocals, crystal clear delayed guitars and even some little amounts of doom. Is it eclectic or heterogeneous? Hell no. It's actually a really articulated record and mostly everything is laid in its right place. Is it the best record of the trilogy? I don't know but it's a really beautiful closure. I like to think this kind of music is like seeing a movie, since the visual aspect is a really significant part while listening. In those terms the climax of this trilogy is not disturbing or creepy but rather cathartic and desolating. It's almost like a post-apocalyptic scene where you can see the whole modern world falling apart or at least the human part of it.

But then appears a major turn off: the clean vocals. Fuck, they're annoying. While at some parts they really suit the music (like Epitome XVII) they mostly ruin the whole atmosphere that the music slowly creates. The problem is that whereas the music is really flamboyant and unearthly, the vocals are really average and when they try to keep up at the same level with the music they really fail at it. It's like hanging out with a bunch of operatic fat guys with jeans and a shirt. That's the reason why some songs like "Epitome XIV" don't work with the clean vocals and others like "Epitome XVII" do.

But overall 777 - Cosmography is an excellent record with some minor problems (Clean vocals! ehem). It's like a colossal and dehumanized factory that works on its own: industrial sounds crushing over a diminished humanity, that's how big it is. While the dissonance and abrasiveness of the past records is diminished, it gives way to a new hope that takes the shape of a yearned prophecy that everyone in the world is expecting. You never see the arrival of that moment but the melancholic wait for it. Especially in songs like "Epitome XVI" and "Epitome XVII" you can perceive by reading the lyrics that moment of unfulfilled expectation. The whole world is crumbling around you and you are running through tons and tons of junk and rusty cars yet waiting and yearning looking to the sky. Alone.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 9
Songwriting: 9
Originality: 8
Production: 8

Written by Evil Chip | 22.01.2013




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.

Staff review by
RaduP
Rating:
N/A
Blut Aus Nord is a band that often works in trilogies. And just like they’re currently in the process of closing another trilogy, let’s look at how they closed the best one in the past.

Read more ››
published 03.11.2023 | Comments (2)


Comments

Comments: 7   Visited by: 70 users
22.01.2013 - 17:02
Rating: 8
X-Ray Rod
Skandino
Great review! I fully agree with you... It's a very nice album with unfortunate clean vocals. But at least they aren't that constant throughout the album. The main problem I had was a bit more personal though. I had completely different expectations. I wanted this triology to end differently. The first part had most of their harsh BM sounds, the second one been a bridge between that and their industrial sound... So I wanted the triology to end with a far more mechanic sound in the vein of the last minute of the second aprt of the triology.

But yeah, nice album but easily the least good for me.
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Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29
Like you could kiss my ass
Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
Rod, let me love you.
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24.01.2013 - 20:02
Rating: 8
Evil Chip

Written by X-Ray Rod on 22.01.2013 at 17:02

Great review! I fully agree with you... It's a very nice album with unfortunate clean vocals. But at least they aren't that constant throughout the album. The main problem I had was a bit more personal though. I had completely different expectations. I wanted this triology to end differently. The first part had most of their harsh BM sounds, the second one been a bridge between that and their industrial sound... So I wanted the triology to end with a far more mechanic sound in the vein of the last minute of the second aprt of the triology.

But yeah, nice album but easily the least good for me.

Yes, I would've prefered a more industrial-mechanic sound too, but I think this is really good too but not what I was expecting either
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04.02.2013 - 06:34
Auntie Sahar
Drone Empress
Great review. This is honestly my favorite of the 777 trilogy, for exactly the reasons that you and Mr. Doctor mentioned. Sects was indeed more of Blut Aus Nord's aggressive side, while The Desanctification kinda blended that with some "groovier" songwriting and a more industrial edge. Cosmosophy, though, like you said, is a lot more desolating and melancholic. It's a really creative technique, in my opinion, because it essentially means that the trilogy gets less chaotic as it progresses, but that's not by any means a bad thing. Kinda like it's telling a tale of Armageddon: Sects is the beginning, the violent build up to the end of the world. The Desanctification is the middle, representing the bizzare transition from structure to disorder (hence the fusion of the BM and industrial elements). And then, as you so brilliantly put it, Cosmosophy is the end, where all that we know has been obliterated, and we take in the reality of our desolation in quiet, sorrowful acceptance.
Again, spot on review, and fantastic album
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I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go.

~ II. VII
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05.02.2013 - 01:14
Rating: 8
Evil Chip

Written by Auntie Sahar on 04.02.2013 at 06:34

Great review. This is honestly my favorite of the 777 trilogy, for exactly the reasons that you and Mr. Doctor mentioned. Sects was indeed more of Blut Aus Nord's aggressive side, while The Desanctification kinda blended that with some "groovier" songwriting and a more industrial edge. Cosmosophy, though, like you said, is a lot more desolating and melancholic. It's a really creative technique, in my opinion, because it essentially means that the trilogy gets less chaotic as it progresses, but that's not by any means a bad thing. Kinda like it's telling a tale of Armageddon: Sects is the beginning, the violent build up to the end of the world. The Desanctification is the middle, representing the bizzare transition from structure to disorder (hence the fusion of the BM and industrial elements). And then, as you so brilliantly put it, Cosmosophy is the end, where all that we know has been obliterated, and we take in the reality of our desolation in quiet, sorrowful acceptance.
Again, spot on review, and fantastic album

Thanks! I enjoy the evolving variety through all the trilogy also. Although I do enjoy a lot the more dissonant and grimier production of early Blut Aus Nord, these albums really achieve their goals. I like the way they evolved in a good way from raw to mellow, as rarely bands make that step right.
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05.02.2013 - 17:43
mojo

I love these three records, they combine into a masterpiece, as far as I'm concerned.

I must say this one is my favourite. It seems to favour haunting over frightening, melancholy over aggression, it's the one least likely to make me scream and most likely to make me cry. It's a perfect end to the journey of the trilogy, I think .. down, rather than up. Beautiful.
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Yeah. No. Wait, what was the question?
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13.06.2013 - 10:42
Rating: 8
Silent Creeper
Senile Veteran
Cosmography?
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14.06.2013 - 03:00
Rating: 8
Evil Chip

Written by Silent Creeper on 13.06.2013 at 10:42

Cosmography?

Yeah I know, although I don't know how to edit that mistake. You're the first to notice that mistake
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