Blut Aus Nord – 777 – The Desanctification (2011)

As the second stop in their chilling and somewhat perplexing 777 trilogy, today we have Blut Aus Nord and “The Desanctification”. In this release, the band continues their journey with “Epitomes VII to XII”, featuring very interesting compositions that take their unique and very imaginative sound to new heights. If you are expecting a crushing Black Metal release, we strongly advice you skip this one (and the previous one), but if you have an open mind and you are ready to be transported, you should keep reading.

The band has always been pushing the boundaries of Black Metal, and Metal itself, but with this 777 trilogy we find them even further down the spiral into an abyss of solid music but with sometimes doubtful directions. The riffing and the overall songwriting are very typical of the band, but some of the industrial/electronic elements felt a bit weird on the first few times we played this album. However, as with any Blut Aus Nord release, there is always something lurking in the songs that will surprise the listener and keep it engaged.

Opening with the hypnotic “Epitome VII”, the release delivers some industrial and atmospheric elements that create a very sick and eerie feeling to this track. The aggression finally arrives with “Epitome VIII”, probably the most crushing and brutal track of this whole release. The mix is a bit weird and the vocals and industrial elements song a bit garbled up, but this just adds to the deranged sound of the track. The tempo nicely goes down with “Epitome IX”, a more experimental and minimalist piece. The next track “Epitome XII”, has this very psychotic atmosphere that totally caught our attention and we can’t get it out of our head, making this our favorite track of this release.

The chugging riffing of “Epitome X” and “XI” is very typical of the band and nicely blends with the electronic beats, in particular on “Epitome XI”. We find these two songs very powerful and generate some great momentum in the middle of this release. This album will give you that feeling that you travel through time since it sneaks up on you and all of a sudden it’s 30 minutes later and you didn’t even realize it, not too many bands can easily pull this off, and Blus Aus Nord do it gracefully.

The song that puzzled us the most was “Epitome XIII”, the closing moments almost bust into a full-on dubstep beat…. something that would not surprise us from the band in the future, but it would just be plain weird. If this is an indicator on how the third part of the 777 trilogy will turn out, then we better brace ourselves for it.

In general, we have to say that Blut Aus Nord has in fact released an excellent album with very effective songs, but they fall a bit short from their own self-imposed gold standard. “The Desanctification” is a solid release that will surely appeal to any fan of the band, but could have been much better. We can only hope that the closing offering of this 777 trilogy fuses everything we’ve heard of this band so far in a much more cohesive and devastating release.

Release: November, 29th, 2011

Country: France