### Blut Aus Nord: The work which transforms god

#### 17/04/13 || BamaHammer

It’s been a decade to the day (as I sit here writing this) since this piece of epic kvlt blackness was set loose on this planet. In other words, this shit ain’t nothing new. However, this album is honestly one of the true classics of 21st century black metal. Blut Aus Nord was of course France’s heavyweight of the second wave, and their first two albums, “Ultima thulée” and “Memoria vetusta I” from the mid-‘90s, were mighty fine black metal artifacts in their own right.

What sets “TWWTG” apart from its predecessors and all other black metal albums I’ve ever heard is a truly unique feeling of uneasiness that this record brings to the table that seems to be simply a residual result of capturing absolutely perfect moments of musicianship that sound like they could never be replicated under any other circumstances other than those from the moment they were recorded. This album always manages to take me to a unique mental state every time I hear it. The production also makes it sound as though the band is playing on a vast icy and desolate plateau in a blizzard, leaving you feeling terrified, alone, and little queasy. And it’s fucken amazing.

After the semi-useless introductory track, the album kicks off with “The Choir of the Dead”, an epic track that ranks right up there with many of black metal’s greatest tracks. The riff is essentially a combination of guitar parts that take a single note and bend them in such a manner that it honestly leaves you feeling a little dizzy or at least a little weird every time it plays through. The undulating bends cause the song to come alive and breathe and even hypnotize to an extent, and by the time the chorus hits your eardrums in all its reverb-ery glory, the band has their hooks firmly inside your psyche and wills you to follow.

There are a few elements of industrial influences and whatever the fuck avantgarde means that honestly may put off some of the more annoyingly orthodox black metal purists, but for me these elements take the music to an untouchable level of greatness that make the album darkly charming and infinitely addictive. Those parts aren’t overdone or overly forced, but instead provide some amazing supplementary sounds that make this album sound like something that was written and recorded on Planet Grimnekrohell.

The bottom line is that if for some reason you missed this thing back in 2003 and you consider yourself a black metal aficionado to any extent, you need to experience this. Grab your headphones, turn off the lights, clear your mind, and become transformed.

- Information
- Released: 2003
- Label: Adipocere
- Website: Blut Aus Nord Facebook
- Band
- Vindsval: guitars
- W.D. Feld: drums
- GhÖst: bass

- Tracklist
- 01. End
- 02. The Choir of the Dead
- 03. Axis
- 04. The Fall
- 05. Metamorphosis
- 06. The Supreme Abstract
- 07. Our Blessed Frozen Cells
- 08. Devilish Essence
- 09. The Howling of God
- 10. Inner Mental Cage
- 11. Density
- 12. Procession of the Dead Clowns