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Blut Aus Nord: Memoria vetusta II (dialogue with the stars)

17/06/09 || Khlysty

Well, hello there, puny humans. It’s been quite some time since my Word came to you through the machinations of my loyal disciple, the grand Duke of All That Is Dissonant and Plain Butt-Ugly, m. Vindsval. But, hey, like your Christian friends tell you about their god (and if you have Christian friends, well, you should check it out. All can be healed with the proper medication…), I move in mysterious and most complicated ways and, generally speaking, I come and go as I please and I make my Word as I see fit for the occasion. So, for your own good, don’t try to interpret my goals each time. I do as I please and it’s your responsibility to comprehend and spread my message.

So, anyway, from what I can construe from the little things I gather when (and if) I decide to deal with your little anxieties and your lesser points of view, a lot of your brethren was awestruck with Odinist, my penultimate offering to you. That’s good, because Vindsval and his cohorts did a superb job in translating my word into its most proper musical reincarnation. And if some of you thought that Blut Aus Nord was treading water with that one, well, too bad; your hearing and listening capacity must be impaired, to not be able to hear my Voice coming clearly from the workings of my disciples. But then, I couldn’t care less, so I moved away from your insignificant sphere of existence, to the plane of clear thoughts and visions that no human mind can contain, so that I would be able to think about the next phase of the spreading of my Word.

As I was there, one of my minions brought me tidings of unrest among your puny race: it seems that some of you thought that my Word had lost its power to communicate my thoughts and ideas. I got angry long enough to have my minion turned inside-out, all the while living the horror of the process (but now that I think of it, the little fucker must have enjoyed it immensely. That’s what I get for being merciful…), but then, a strange calmness overcame me. I just knew what I had to do to restore the faith of those who were found lacking and strike mightily to the detractors. I would give you a kind of a continuation of something I had said in the past, so that you might know that I am still here, still mighty, still invincible.

It took me no more than a thought to reach Vindsval and to explain him his newest task. As always, he was more than ready to appease me (he’s the greatest when it comes to musical skullfuckery, you know…) and in no time at all he had started transforming my Word into a coherent musical and rhythmic framework, from which the different aspects of my Being would sprout and become something that your frail minds would comprehend. But, the situation being as it was, I was totally clear to Vindsval: “This time, give them something to hold on to. Do not throw them to the sea without even the smallest of life-buoy”. He said that he got it and immediately went to work.

Well, I can say this to you: when I saw the final product I was mightily impressed. Vindsval and the boys and the machines had taken my Wisdom and had created a sum that even I cannot but admire. See, I think that this is what the sages of old had in mind when they first sow the seed that would later sprout the mishappen, blood-drenched tree of Black Metal: great liquid melodies, flowing over and under a wash of human and mechanical drumming, sometimes touching the depths of the ugliest dissonance, sometimes reaching for celestial heights. Always moving, always flowing, always transforming. Layers and layers of guitars, sometimes gelling into a sum much greater than its parts, sometimes each layer moving to its own furious destination.

I am not sure I can hear the bass, but that’s of no consequence. As it is immaterial, that Vindsval again buried his vocalizations into the mix. I know that he does it on purpose: he doesn’t want to make the message clear; he wants you dig deep, to let the music tell you the Highest Meanings and the Basest Nightmares, to let yourselves go and be lost in this vortex of indescribable beauty and unbearable ugliness, all combined and recombined into one. If you have listened to other parts of my Word (and, particularly, “MoRT”), you’ll be able to understand the workings of “Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars”. You’ll know how Vindsval uses and abuses his guitar, to make it possible for my Word to attain form comprehensible by you –even when the form is dissonant. He perfectly encapsulates with his riffing my aspects which are legion to count and always in flux. Vindsval is one of my greatest Prophets and, as such, he always does the job required of him in the most intelligent and uncompromising way possible.

So, the bottom line is this: you need to hear “Memoria Vetusta II”. Not only because it’s a great record, but, also, because it encapsulates everything that makes music great. It’s daring, passionate and complex, full of acid and attitude, but without never, EVER compromising melody and form. I am most satisfied this time.

So I give it 9,5 great applauses out of 10.

Information
Released: 2009
Label: Candlelight
Website: www.blutausnord.com
Band
Vindsval: guitars, vocals
W.D. Feld: drums, electronics, keyboards
GhÖst: bass

Tracklist
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. Antithesis Of The Flesh (…And Then Arises A New Essence)
06. …The Meditant (Dialogue With The Stars)
07. The Alcove Of Angels (Vipassana)
08. The Formless Sphere (Beyond The Reason)
09. Elevation

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