Here are the facts as we know them: Blut Aus Nord is the one-man black metal project of a Frenchman who calls himself Vindsval. Vindsval debuted his whole thing in 1994, but he has allowed the public to learn basically nothing about him in the years since, which is fine, since guys who make black metal often turn out to be either (1) sociopaths or (2) boring nerds. (There are even some boring nerd sociopaths.) I hadn’t heard of him before this year, when he released the first two volumes of his 777 album trilogy, which is getting some good press for pushing black metal into unexpected places. Even so, I didn’t give it a chance until yesterday, when my friend and Stereogum predecessor Brandon Stosuy called both parts of 777, collectively, his favorite metal album of the year in his Pitchfork column. Brandon’s right. I couldn’t much get into Sect(s), the first 777 volume, because it sounded, to my ears anyway, like so much of the black metal I’ve tried and failed to like in the past six years or so. But The Desanctification, the new one, will probably turn out to be my favorite black metal album of the past few years, mostly because it jettisons the stuff I don’t like about the genre while keeping the stuff I like intact.
First: A word about black metal. A few people I know, people whose opinions I usually understand and always respect, live and breathe the stuff. It’s immersive, worldview-informing music, and I just don’t get it most of the time. Even at its worst, the genre does misanthropic atmosphere beautifully. But the rabid-badger vocals and constant double-bass drum-salvos drain the music of the drama and grandeur it should have. With that constant drum-judder, the music ends up essentially rhythmless a lot of the time. And even a beloved genre classic like, say, Emperor’s In The Nightside Eclipse flattens out into endless nothingness when I try to get into it. The only black metal albums I find myself genuinely enjoying are the ones that make a point of going way, way outside genre orthodoxy — like the last Nachtmystium joint, which had the temerity to inject synth-disco into its attack.
Beyond a few flourishes, like Wax Trax-sounding drum-machine sputters or gothy synth-swells, The Desanctification doesn’t explicitly grab at musical ideas from outside black metal. The album nails that swirling, mystical I-hate-everyone atmosphere just about perfectly, and Vindsval’s buried-grunt lyrics basically dissolve into “hargle bargle urgle burgle graaaaaah!” whenever I try to figure them out. (I really hope he’s not a Nazi.) But the album works because it keeps a central rhythmic pulse throughout. It’s not a dance-music thing by any stretch, and the actual drum sounds all have that sickening wed-thud quality so prevalent in the genre. But they’re slow enough that they actually punch hard and give the riffs room to breathe, and the few bursts of double-bass assault work because there are enough slow passages to give their intensity some weight.
I don’t know what the album is about, exactly, and I don’t think I’m supposed to. The album works something like Godflesh’s Streetcleaner – a forbidding slab of unadorned hate, compellingly rendered. It’s the sort of thing that can send you into a staring-into-nothingness zone-out for periods of time long enough to make your loved ones uncomfortable. I recommend keeping it on your headphones when you’re wading through holiday-shopping crowds; it’s the sort of generalized animosity that can keep you afloat in situations like that.
777: The Desanctification is out today on Debemur Morti.
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Yes!!!!!
Also, I know you say in the article that you can’t get into black metal generally, but you should definitely give that Krallice joint from this year a chance. I guess it might be a little more in conventional black metal territory (it definitely doesn’t have the sort of industrial funk that this one has going for it) but it’s strikingly fierce, forward-moving stuff. And Peste Noire I’d also highly recommend. As nationalist as they might be (I don’t really know b/c I don’t understand French), they do a really awesome job of forming they’re own black metal aesthetic, one that feels as much like drunken folk music as it does like Emperor or Mayhem or any of that classic black metal stuff.
Yeah, I’ll second the recommendation for Peste Noire. They are a band that are hated by many a blackmetal fan because of their willingness to indulge in almost vaudville horror folk, amongst their blackmetal. This years release also contains some techno beats, just to annoy even more people.
I think they are superb personally :P
Krallice’s album from this year just wasn’t as good as their last two imo. It wasn’t bad, just not amazing. PN is awesome.
I think Wolves In The Throne Room, Circle of Ouroborus, Primordial, Liturgy, and, above all, Cormorant all have great black metal albums that are a little easier on the ears than the classical style of the genre. The Desanctification is still probably my favorite black metal album this year, though.
This album is so last week. God stereogum, can’t you keep up with a bunch of hyper-caffeinated ADHD music-snobs who don’t know the first thing about metal?
Anyway, on a serious note, great album.
As a huge Blut Aus Nord fan, I cannot help but feel the need to interject here. First things first, BAN is “officially” comprised of three members: Vindsval, GhÖst, and W.D. Feld. This has been so since “The Work Which Transforms God.” With their anonymity kept so intact, this might not be true, but judging that all band photographs include three sihlouettes or three hooded figures, we should respect that number. Secondly, they are not Nazis and in the rare interviews given by Vindsval, he eschews any and all authoritarian dogmas of black metal. One of the essential things of the “777″ trilogy, and BAN’s work more generally is that you should know what they are talking about. With Stereogum and other extra-metal outlets embracing the “new” “Transcendental Black Metal” movement, it is important to realize that without bands like Blut Aus Nord, that pathway would be no where near as defined as it is. They were really the first black metal band to embrace black metal as a world-ethos, a philosophy that could force humanity and individuals to a Batailleian “impossible” and a connection with the Universe (hence the subtitle for the final chapter of “777″-cosmosophy). Yes, their general silence makes t is difficult to decipher these meanings, but they are still present. For the “777″ trilogy, their thematic arc is actually fairly easy to follow as it is explicitly described in their CD descriptions on Debemur Morti’s webstore. Finally, BAN’s work begs to be listened to in order-starting all the way back to their 1995 release. By following this path, it really illuminates just what a group can do with black metal and jut how far it can be twisted to being something it is not, yet follow a logical trajectory. A few (ok, maybe a lot of) listens of their entire catalog and “777-The Desanctification,” as well as “777-Sect(s)” start to make a lot more sense.
Sorry for the essay. Like I said, huge BAN fan that currently cannot fall asleep.
It took me a while to get into Black Metal too, I’m more of a doom/early death metal guy. But now I can’t get enough of it. I know exactly what you mean by the extended blast beats making it very difficult to get into the grooves of the record, but one day it all just clicked. I think I was listening to Immortal at the gym (which is something I highly recommend trying), one day and the tremolo picking syncing with the drum made sense. The endless humming pulse of the guitar and drum somehow made running three miles bearable.
I do agree that the new “Post Black” bands like Agalloch, Deafheaven, Bergraven and Nachmystium are definitely better music, but lack the essence of sheer terror that traditional black metal thrusts forth. I can definitely see why it appeals to the traditionally indie/hipster stereogum crowd.