BLUT AUS NORD — Disharmonium - Undreamable Abysses (review)

BLUT AUS NORD — Disharmonium - Undreamable Abysses album cover

Album · 2022 · Atmospheric Black Metal

4/5 · 2022-05-20
siLLy puPPy

Having gestated in the fertile French black metal scene of the 1990s, the Mondeville based BLUT AUS NORD has been quite instrumental in bridging the gap between the worlds of atmospheric black metal and psychedelic electronica and has produced some of the most memorable experiences of surreal metal especially in the 21st century with the mind bending musical antics of “The Work That Transforms God” and beyond. While many a black metal act seems stuck on autopilot, BLUT AUS NORD is one of those rare acts that remains utterly unique in pretty every way and some 30 years on still is crafting the same styles of bestial black metal in fine form.

The power quartet of VIndsval (vocals, guitar), W.D. Feld (drums, electronics, keyboards), GhÖst (bass) and Thorns (drums) returns with its 15th powerhouse DISHARMONIUM - UNDREAMABLE ABYSSES. With an album cover that comes just in time to make one think of the new Dr Strange flick about the Multiverse, it also seems fitting that the bizarre sounds unleashed on this bizarre avant-garde display of black metal and dark ambience does indeed sound like a stroll through some strange path in between universes. Once again BLUT AUS NORD delivers the perfect ingredients of an ominous journey into a hypnotic atmospheric series of soundscapes that teeter between absolute dissonance and infernal elegance.

Like many of the modern BLUT AUS NORD releases, this one sort of oozes its way from beginning to end with a mix of heavy guitar riffs, hyperactive percussion, oscillating sound effects and buried vocals that sound just as out there as ever. While BLUT AUS NORD may not be covering any new ground, i have to say that these guys really don’t need to either. They have successfully inculcated a unique style that even decades later sounds like no other. The impeccable mix of the metal and ambient parts that swarm around like a mad swarm of hornets attacking a choir is literally intoxicating as the music is unrelenting and unsettlingly surreal!

This time around DISHARMONIUM - UNDREAMABLE ABYSSES features seven hypnosis inducing tracks that all sort of gel together fairly comfortably but as an album of this magnitude where the freakery dial is turned up to 11 and beyond, the album is merciful in that it doesn’t exceed much beyond the 46 minute mark. This is truly music that can test your very sanity and too much exposure may indeed cause some sort of mental breakdown of some sort! I happen to have thick skin so i personally love this bizarre chimeric musical display and even though BLUT AUS NORD continues to stick to its formula, it’s one that i personally never grow tired of one little bit.

Still no idea what to call this. Some sort of industrial black metal that utilizes elements from post-rock, dark ritual ambient, depressive black metal and even a bit of stoner doom metal here and there. Whatever this madness it, you cannot mistake these sounds for anything other than the inimitable BLUT AUS NORD which remains one of the French scene’s most dynamic and prolific extreme metal acts. While every album is firmly in the BLUT AUS NORD camp, the band has been clever in how it switches things up subtly from one album to the next and this 15th installment is by no means the exception. Expect elements from the “Memoria” releases as well as the “777” trilogy and beyond. As bleak and inaccessible as ever, BLUT AUS NORD remains one of my favorite extreme metal acts of all time.