Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars

Six years after releasing the album that put them on the map, the infamous and peculiarly named 'The Work Which Transforms God', Blut Aus Nord go one-eighty degrees from the latter and from the previous 'Odinist' and choose the route of glorified melody ruling over the music. The difference is stark: respectively the deep abyss reaching down farther than even believed possible, and this, a return not only to the surface but an elevation above ground. There's real lift to the sections throughout the songs, with melodies that feel inherently airborne.

Starting off with a short instrumental intro that is actually a good listen certainly bodes well. Minimalist, synth-based, pure atmosphere with deep sorrow as a sign of what's to come. And what follows is a host of songs packed with that melodious riffing that constitutes the album's essence. It'll express a multitude of different themes and emotions: unadulterated beauty with the obvious ideal of purity, a search for the epic as one of the dominant themes, with also a sense of mystery, especially when the backing choirs come on. The soaring reverb-driven leads, coupled with the occasional operatic backing voice, confer a heroic quality to the music, or otherwise that form of inward reverence that is such a recurrent aspect of Vindsval's composition.

Some of the lead work ventures into complex patterns that results in melodies that sound exaggerated, like their melodic articulations are being intentionally stretched, surely in an effort to give those parts a warped energy while still remaining in the melodic area. There's a general likeness here to the Sacramentum album 'Far Away from the Sun', most apparent on tracks like 'The Meditant (Dialogue With The Stars)'. It's got that same "freedom of the nighttime" dynamic; nightfall provoking the long-awaited awakening of the senses; like scenery that comes alive in the dark of night with the moonlight as its faint guiding glow.

Tackling the negatives: lengthiness. The tracks on the whole are a tad too stuffed for this to be efficient the way it needs. It shouldn't require a full hour to tell this story, but then again that's the epic black metal game. This facet stretches out the record and occasionally kills off momentum.
Otherwise the clean guitars seem like a relevant addition at first, but they keep coming as a rather redundant break from the drum-laden/heavy guitar sections and they feel a bit stale overtime. There's even a full instrumental of it; albeit short; that simply doesn't add much. Finally, the use of harmonic minor (the middle-eastern sounding scale) rather banalizes the tracks as it's an overused mood in metal and as often in the genre there's little effort here to give those sections much originality.

Overall this is a work that, although it may not transform God, contains a wealth of intelligently designed melodies and musical themes the listener will find as checkpoints throughout the entire record, rather than merely over a couple of highlight tracks. To name a few, the tragedy in the outro to Track 3, the whole first part of 'The Meditant' and its majestic vistas of nightly sparkle, the heart-wrenching desperation of the outro on 'The Alcove Of Angels' (before the clean part), the odd ghostly lead effect on the opening verse on 'The Formless Sphere', the beautiful contrast at the end of that track between the alternating ominous and noble-sounding sections, and of course last but not least the ceremonious outro track 'Elevation' as an absolute beacon of the album's overarching concept of a soaring transcendence into the night sky.

I've considered myself a metal fan for many years, but I hadn't explored anything by Blut Aus Nord until listening to Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars. I had heard that this band managed to capture a sound of darkness and discomfort in their music unlike any other band, but I don't think I was prepared for the otherworldly sounds that this album possesses.

This album is dark and twisted, ethereal and dense, and even manages to make the listener a bit uncomfortable at times (something this band does quite well) However, I think what sets this album apart from others in the band's catalogue is the fact that there is a tremendous element of beauty and even epic-ness imbued into the melodies within.The ability to combine such characteristics into a cohesive album that pans out to be an ultimately enjoyable experience demonstrates that Blut Aus Nord has truly created an artistic masterpiece.

I found this album surprisingly easy to get in to. Dare I say this album is catchy? Granted, someone who listens to 21 pilots, Lady Gaga, and Eminem may not classify it as such, but considering the bands reputation for dissonance and ugliness,I think there are so many melodies that are absolute ear-worms and manage to sear my brain upon contact. I think each song on this album has so many intricate guitar riffs that I almost find myself humming while sitting at work.

The band uses synths very tastefully to create that otherworldly theme that I keep mentioning. One of my favorite tracks "Antithesis of the Flesh" manages to place these eerie synths at the forefront of this wall of sound that really makes me feel like I'm listening to this album from a barren wasteland of a planet somewhere far in the cosmos. This song takes off into oblivion once the guitars kick in. The last two and half minutes of this song are absolutely gorgeous, with the guitar riffs creating this soaring affect, only to intermediately be broken up by an extremely ugly riff that creates such a different affect.

It's truly the guitars that make this album the great beast that it is. I almost feel like the guitars are talking, nay, dancing with each other throughout this album. The melodies are so strong you can almost see them shimmering in a dark sky. The song "Disciples Libration" has so many incredible dark riffs in it that I honestly manage to pick out something new every damn time I listen to it. The song also manages to change pace quite a few times and there's a moment in the middle of song where the guitars slow down to playing some very warm and familiar power chords while a background chant is added to create this really epic atmosphere - it actually gives me goosebumps. The song then immediately changes pace again and an absolute atrocious guitar riff comes out of nowhere to rip the listener away from that beautiful moment and send them hurtling back into a void of chaos. God I love that.

Even the drums on this album are fantastic. They might be slightly synthetic and thin sounding, but I think that only adds to the strange atmosphere that the album conveys. There is also so much variation in the drumming, with many time signature switches in a single song. There are also more than just blast beats incorporated to this album, as the final track on the album has the most "human" sounding drum work on the whole album.

I don't think I could pick a favorite track. There is just too much here, and too much to hear for favorites. Let this album attack you. You will love it. The riffs and insane sounds that Blut Aus Nord has crafted in this album will absolutely floor you and blow your mind...if you let it. I don't think I've ever seen an album that is capable of this effect. With each listen, I continue to discover more intricacies that this album has. I believe this is an album that is truly out of this world.

The Memoria Vetusta series of albums is what Blut aus Nord makes of traditional and naturalistic black metal. What the second edition in this series feels like is a more melodic and lively take on the style that was explored in a frigid, aggressive way with the first Memoria Vetusta album, Fathers of the Icy Age. Dialog with the Stars takes an approach that focuses on melody and vivaciousness by crafting massive songs with riffs that show off the beauty of Blut aus Nord's sound. Everything here flows smoothly and many of the jagged edges are smoothed out to make something airy, smooth, and majestic, while still feeling cyclopean and bizarre. The songs do tend to go on for an extremely long time and also get lost in themselves a lot. Memoria Vetusta II is a beautiful, but long-winded affair.

The return to the old 90s style is like many of Blut aus Nord's musical decisions, a left-field turn that yields unique and interesting results, even if those results are cryptic and don't stick right away. It contradicts the older albums by offering a beautiful and vast sound that contrasts the gritty, devilish, and claustrophobic albums that came right before it. This still feels desolate, but in a melodic, natural way, rather than in an industrial, apocalyptic bent. Cascades of riffs go on for such a long time, that you lose yourself inside them. This makes Memoria Vetusta II feel good as a piece, but ultimately too big to digest at once. It works well as background atmosphere for meditation and setting an epic mood. Blut aus Nord's mystic energy is strong here, and the aura is nice, just everything here is a bit too big to keep your attention if you're not in the right frame of mind for it.

Memoria Vetusta II: Dialog with the Stars is an album that spreads its atmosphere about a vast, and epic soundscape as wide as the sky, and shows that Blut aus Nord know how to handle peace and positivity in opposite to their normal sound while still delivering the black metal. But, it also shows that they can get over-ambitious while still achieving quite a bit. If you love melody and ultra-ethereal riffs, then your probably better equipped than most for this second entry in Blut aus Nord's series of "traditional" melodic black metal.

The Memoria Vetusta series had made itself out to be a refuge for melody in a career otherwise defined by a calculated ugliness. More often than not, Blut aus Nord has been driven by a cold industrial atmosphere and swirling dissonance. The Work Which Transforms God and MoRT are two of the most jarring albums I've ever heard from any genre. When Blut aus Nord decides to get dark, it is the stuff of nightmares unlike anything else I've heard. Vindsval had already demonstrated his tact with melodic writing on the first pair of albums. Nonetheless, the subsequent extremity that characterized Blut aus Nord made the partial return to melody on MVII: Dialogue with the Stars a total revelation.

It is difficult to write or think about Dialogue with the Stars without feeling total awe for what BaN accomplished here. I'm not even sure I could call it my favourite album of theirs-- that standing's always gone to TWWTG. Surprisingly however, it's this one that's rewarded repeated listening the most. Although the tragic melodies, clearcut riffs and tactful soloing of Fathers of the Icy Age returned on Dialogue with the Stars, it didn't come at any cost to the band's trademark weirdness. The album's first riff, opening up "Disciple's Libration", is a perfect example of this contrast. It's still technically dissonant by most every standard, but unlike the indecipherable murk of other albums, Vindsval channels it in such a way that it's instantly memorable from the first listen onward.

The greatest irony is that Dialogue with the Stars has been Blut aus Nord's biggest "grower" album from my experience of it. Even if there are plenty of earworms and distinct ideas, the song structures have been drawn out accordingly. Despite how ugly it was on the outside, I think there was a certain comfort in knowing an album like MoRT was essentially rhapsodic and meandering; you could sink into the atmosphere without feeling a need to decipher anything. The opposite rings true here. Vindsval carries these massive tracks along with the vision of a progressive rock master. Even if the album's shorter interludes feel a bit superfluous in light of its centrepieces, it doesn't feel like a single moment of the album has been spent frivolously. Blut aus Nord's masterful atmosphere has always been completely unique to my ears. The only thing that ever potentially held me at bay was the fact that there was nothing to grip one's ears upon. Dialogue with the Stars accomplishes that end even better than what I've come to expect from one of my all-time favourite acts.

Some of the most gorgeous exercises in melodic writing I've ever heard in black metal are featured here. "Disciple's Libration" is chock-full of them. "...the Meditant" and especially "Antithesis of the Flesh" make Vindsval out to be just as much a genius in this style as he is with the abrasive industrial stuff. It's kind of mind-blowing to think a trait they're so potentially great with is purposefully underused elsewhere. I think there's a lot of merit in giving each album its own niche. After having listened to their discography obsessively these last couple of weeks, I'm becoming convinced that Blut aus Nord are one of the few black metal bands out there that have written music to suit any mood. Unlike its weaker successor Saturnian Poetry, Dialogue with the Stars does different things without alienating the project's weird foundations.

...not with silence, but with this. Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars is easily one of the most important black metal records of the last decade. Most people would probably think that the saga was abandoned, but think again people! Vindsval doesn't quit, and since a second part was for him necessary, nothing would prevent it from happening. And thankfully the time had arrived somewhere in 2009, the second album was unveiled and up to this day, I still have to pick my brains from the floor after every listen... That alone says something, right?

The thing is that, this album doesn't even try to be amazing. It just is, just like that. You don't need any particular reason or excuse to listen to it. You just have to. And yes, it's that good. Of course there is no such thing as a flawless album (or is it?), but this comes much closer than usual. If it only had a better production this would be... Actually you know what? This would be as it is now. Maybe the production isn't the best of its kind but the album remains an essential listen.

Then there is that short introduction that raises a wall between you and, pretty much, everything else. After that introduction is over, you belong to the album (and not the other way around) until it's officially over. However the album could be considered as a monotonous effort, if you believe that an album that only has peaks and not frustrating moments, is also a monotonous album. Once again, as it happens with all the melodic Blut Aus Nord albums, every song has a peak, except for the last one which is a peak by itself. Wait... I think I should note here that this album has one of the most amazing streaks ever. The four final tracks are impeccable, while the whole album is great. Thus a four song streak marks this as a monumental album (even more than it actually is).

You could also consider the lack of lyrics as a con, but then again, the music makes up for it. The vocals are a bit buried in the mix, but then again, the music makes up for it. Seriously there is not one flaw here, that the music can't make up for. The guitars are always doing something remarkable even if they're playing a typical black metal riff. In every song, there's a certain pinch of extra melody that not only graces the album, but also makes it feel like a cult classic. There is some bass, as far as I can hear and sometimes the basslines won't follow the rhythm guitars. The programmed drums now... eh, the patterns are great but the Memoria Vetusta series, need a more dramatic tone to their drumming... When I say dramatic I mean more active and lively, as in the third chapter, Saturnian Poetry. As for the keyboards those are just downright amazing.

Dialogue with the Stars worked as a reminder back then. Some people were disappointed by MoRT and Odinist (bullshit, those albums are great as well), thus the long awaited second chapter came at the best possible moments to shut those mouths and never let them express any doubt again. Trust me, in a few years from now, people are going to talk about this album as they talk about Hvis lyset tar oss... Yes, it's that good, get over it already! In all seriousness though, if someone ignored it, now it's the right time to give a listen... And then pick his brains from the floor.

Favorite tracks: "Disciple's Libration", "...the Meditant", "The Alcove of Angels", "Antithesis of the Flesh", "Elevation".

98/100.

I gotta say, sometimes I feel really bad for the Blut Aus Nord fanbase. In accordance with the general opinion, I prefer when the band is much more blatantly and directly melodic. Fans of this band from the get-go had to wait thirteen fucking years until Vinny finally put something out that had just as much melodic deliciousness at the level of Fathers of the Icy Age. It was hard enough for me to trudge through reviewing their "industrial era" over the course of a handful of months. Compared to folks who have been with this band since the beginning, though, that's nothing--this band took an even longer break in releasing delicious melodies than the break Necrophagist has taken to release the followup to Epitaph! Now, Necrophagist is probably going to eclipse that timeframe in a couple of years (prove me wrong, Suicmez), but either way it's not like anybody gives a shit about them anymore. (The very fact that I even mention them here is probably confusing because they have absolutely nothing to do with Blut Aus Nord or this album, I just thought the gap in releases was a good timeframe of reference.) So why is it that Blut Aus Nord spends over a decade fucking around with their fans and people still laud Dialogue With the Stars like it's the phallus of god? Maybe the comparison is inept because (unlike Necrophagist) Blut Aus Nord actually released music during the decade-long gap in supreme quality, but I'd much rather support the notion that fans of this French black metal group stuck with them through the bad times because they knew what Vinny was really capable of all along and firmly believed that he had never lost the magic touch. It sure seems that way now, because Memoria Vetusta II is the climactic release after 13 years of building tension. Ultima Thulee will forever be my favourite release by this band, but I probably listen to Dialogue With the Stars more often nowadays. Vinny's still got it, and every single goddamn riff on this album proves that.

This is hands down the friendliest, most saccharine thing Blut Aus Nord has put out to date. It bears more resemblance to their "90s BM" era than any other, but the huge time gap between releases makes for an inherent dissimilarity in the end result, even if the aesthetic and execution are attempted in an identical manner to the first Memoria Vetusta album. Honestly, though, the dynamics present on this album make Fathers of the Icy Age look like a one-trick pony in comparison. There's faster parts over that "consonant dissonance" riff thing Blut Aus Nord does so well, with a much more easy-to follow sense of melody this time around. Keyboards provide tastefully done harmony and hold their own with a certain sort of delicate wonder during the interlude sections. The ambiance of Blut Aus Nord has always made them a cut above the rest no matter what they were doing, but god damn it's been so long since they actually sounded consistently pleasant and inviting. This doesn't sound nearly as flowery and pretty as I'm making it out to be, though, and that's the amazing stunt this album manages to pull. Even though this is loaded with rich harmonies with some even sweeter keyboards on top, this is still much less overtly friendly than a lot of atmospheric black metal being released these days. Not that a comfortable sort of melody is necessarily a bad thing, but the vast, empty feeling that comes along with the naturally pleasant character of the riffs is a perfect way of capturing the feeling of one engaging in a dialogue with the stars.

Holy shit did you listen all the way through and get to "Elevation"? They just take one riff and ride it the whole way through the same way "Procession of the Dead Clowns" did, and fuck, is it ever a monster riff, just this triumphant, delicious piece of guitarwork that I could probably listen to for hours on repeat if I had nothing better to do. The drums are perhaps a tad too mechanical-sounding for the tastes of many, but the slightly hazing, hissing tone they have compliments the atmosphere well and this sort of drumming has pretty much been the norm for Blut Aus Nord since...well, pretty much since they began. If you really think that the drums are too clinical for you at this point, you should probably just give up on listening to these guys because you just don't get it goddammit. They feel completely natural within the context of the album's sound, and this may just be the band's best drum performance yet. They've always been extremely fluid and meticulously composed, with each new measure bring in a slightly different drum pattern, and they work completely in sync with the riffs. On albums like Mystical Beast and Work, the static, repetitive drumming prevented the music from really wandering and breathing, and only once you hear this album do you realize how much it held the band back before. The drums actually reminds me quite a bit of Odinist just in their intricacy and movement, but only now that they're actually supporting great riffs do they get the chance to shine in a way that they didn't on this album's predecessor. The vocals have always been a somewhat minimal and buried layer of icing in the Blut Aus Nord cake, but they just make the only human element of the music sound withered, small and insignificant held up against the grand scale of the music, and the vocals have always worked well for how little they do.

It's difficult to describe in detail what makes Dialogue With the Stars so uniquely good, because it just results in me repeatedly stating EVERYTHING IS AMAZING over and over again. Songs are consistently longer on this album, so the good riffs get more time to develop and the strange riffs work as fluid transitions. There's playful sense of dynamic in the songwriting that Fathers of the Icy Age lacked in its more straightforward riff salad attack. Don't get me wrong, that album is excellent in its own right, but I happen to prefer this sort of approach much more. It's bigger in scope, richer in melody and atmosphere--everything that makes Blut Aus Nord a joy to listen to for me is emphasized and maximized to its fullest potential here. Ultima Thulee significantly shaped my taste in black metal when I was getting into the genre and it holds a special place in my heart, but objectively this really is Blut Aus Nord at their finest. Given the variety and quality in their back catalog, I assure you that is really saying something.

Blut Aus Nord is one of the most brilliant artists in black metal, a band that never fails to fascinate or enthrall with their unique excursions into ambient territory, crusted in a barbaric black shell. While I found their last two albums MoRT and Odinist to be genre re-defining and excellent, they did seem to alienate a segment of the band's fan base. To those fans, Memoria Vetusta II, a 'sequel' to their 1996 sophomore effort Memoria Vetusta I: Fathers of the Icy Age, makes for a kindly peace offering. That said, if you found yourself more in the camp of their recent, chaotically charged offerings, you will still be pleased, because this album simply oozes grace and quality.

Yes, Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars is a partial nod to the band's early catalogue, but it's also a highly refined, mature work of atmospheric black metal which scintillates from the moment of its intro "Acceptance (Aske)", a stripped down ambient piece which conjures the lush skyscape of the album's cover art. "Disciple's Libration (Lost in the Nine Worlds)" reigns you into a driving, melodic black fervor, each riff painstakingly crafted to offer both beauty and innate savagery. The bass playing of GhÖst is a constant presence, keeping the low end anchor of the composition dynamic and busy. "The Cosmic Echoes of Non-Matter (Immaterial Voices of the Fathers)" is similar, yet slightly more turbulent in its forceful shifting of interstellar energies, a beacon of black neuroses veiled in shimmering angels and celestial bodies. "Translucent Body of Air (Sutta Anapanasati)" is a breathtaking acoustic/ambient piece which leads into the driving, gorgeous "Formless Sphere (Beyond the Reason)". This album simply does not falter, but I should make specific mention of the wondrous "Antithesis of the Flesh (...and Then Arises a New Essence)", and the album's closer, "Elevation", a tonal, uplifting shift into transcendence.

Though melodious and 'catchy' from the onset, Memoria Vestuta II is still a complex enough work that repeated listens will provide further insight and 'unlock' epic patterns in the material. The mix of the album is incredible: raw enough to please fans of their earlier work, yet every note and strike of a drum is captured perfectly. The album echoes through your headphones like the voice of an extraterrestrial deity, stopping to ask you for directions to the nearest quasar. Is it the band's magnum opus to this point? I can't say as such, I hold a deep love for some of the band's earlier works and have also been impressed with their more cryptic efforts of the 21st century. What I can say is that Blut Aus Nord is the type of band we will look back on in 20 years as purveyors of genius, and this is a record which transcends black metal yet could not be more loyal to its deepest intentions.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Forever shunning the limelight, France's mysterious black metal troupe Blut Aus Nord are back in town with album number seven, "Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars", an album which in title at least could be deemed as the natural successor to album two "Memoria Vetusta I: Fathers of the Icy Age". Being considerably closer to my favoured end of the dense cavernous world of BM and a band at that with quite a reputation predominantly formed by 2003's "The Work Which Transforms God" this has been an album release I had a certain intrigue about for some time.

"The Work..." being the only album I had previously heard by BAN, and as of yet not fully realised it's wonders so many others speak of, may not exactly class me as a long-established fan but results in "Memoria Vetusta II" as being a test of their overall worthiness to a French underground black metal scene surprisingly strong relative to it's historical contribution to the pantheon of metal.

The action gets going immediately with "Acceptance (Aske)" heading straight into dissonant BM territory, referencing Burzum, Wolves in the Throne Room, and more euphorically, Windir, on the way to creating a sound inherently dark and broody yet one that always possesses a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, unlike many of their counterparts. This could be surmised as being thanks to the wicked sense of melody found in "The Cosmic Echoes of Non-Matter (Immaterial Voices of the Fathers)" and "The Alcove of Angels (Vipassana)" and perversely, perhaps, to the ambient inclinations in "Disciple's Libration (Lost in the Nine Worlds)" and "Elevation" where Varg's monotone ambient dirges have been indulged to become a moment of fresh air sandwiched between rasping, driving black metal. The majority of the album is spent in this tone, with a drumsound sadly lacking the feel of a human touch and a vocalist nestled in the distance amid the dissonance of BAN's synthesised riffs, but riffs some of these are. Cascading down from the distance and given plenty of time to grow in many cases, in the likes of "The Formless Sphere (Beyond The Reason)" they trace out symphonies of masterfully crafted black metal of the kind those without a passion for BM often fail to grasp. Thin they may, and lower in the mix than they deserve but "The Alcove Of Angels (Vipassana)" and "The Cosmic Echoes Of Non-Matter (Immaterial Voices Of The Fathers)" are majestic and emperial and hint at why BAN are such a mysteriously revered name.

Don't expect much in the way of promotion or touring to support this record; you'd be lucky to even find a picture of Blut Aus Nord existing. Thus adding to the sense of other worldliness in their more spaced-out interludes, "Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars" is a deeply intriguing listen that could even do the unthinkable and pull in some outsiders to the enclosed world of BM as amongst all the theatrics there are some seriously good bands ploughing their furrows in it's rich plains.

Originally written for Rockfreaks.net

It’d be a grave injustice to talk about French black metal and not mention Blut Aus Nord. As soon as Vindsval put out a juggernaut of a debut album in Ultima Thulee, Blut Aus Nord firmly established themselves as a band that treads their own ground. Incorporating a more industrial approach as opposed to the pronounced folkish/pagan sound prevalent in Ultima Thulee, they released Memoria Vetusta I a year later and did not disappoint. The ensuing experimental phase saw them peak with The Work Which Transforms God – an album where the signature Blut Aus Nord sound was processed through a cold, mechanical filter creating a uniquely hellish atmosphere previously unknown to black metal. 2007’s Odinist was largely unnoticed but it was another consistent addition to their credit. Anyhow, I’ll stop boring you with the history lesson and get to the imperative matter at hand: Blut Aus Nord are back with an emphatic bang.

Memoria Vetusta II: A Dialogue With The Stars is a magnificently produced album with justice being done to every aspect of the music, especially the riff. Blut Aus Nord have always been a riff oriented black metal band as opposed to the build-on-a-single-motif type of band (though they have dabbled with the latter art form as well – Procession Of The Dead Clowns being a great case in point). The riffs themselves are plenty in number and come in all shapes and sizes which swing through diverse moods and tempos. Lots of ideas are flirted with including a variety of acoustic/clean guitars parts, keyboard-heavy atmospheric melodic passages, menacing thrash-inclined chug based riffs, dissonant hanging chords and spaced out psychedelic solos along with other oddities. Doesn’t sound like the black metal you know? Don’t jump too far ahead for the core of the album is made of unsympathetic, blast-beat driven, tremolo picked riffs consisting of odd meters and an unhinged notion of darkness.

Deviating from their previous output, Blut Aus Nord bring an unheralded epicness to their sound not unlike how Emperor did with In The Nightside Eclipse. A characteristic sense of twisted melody is prevalent throughout, serving as the backbone of the album – a distinctive skill achieved by very few bands (I’m looking at you Summoning and Septic Flesh). Many purists may believe that the term ‘melodic black metal’ is a perfect example of an oxymoron. But I urge all of them to listen to Memoria Vetusta II: A Dialogue With The Stars and truly experience what ‘melodic’ black metal is all about. The album demands an hour of your time and I assure you that your it is time well spent. In my books, this is a sure-shot forerunner for album of the year.

Originally written for http://www.kvltsite.com

Witness the majestic return of one of the vanguards of the French Black Metal revolution. Nominally a sequel to their 1996 epic, this is not so much a back-to-your-roots album as it is the marriage of their original style with recent experimental offerings. Blut Aus Nord have birthed a worthy successor to both Memoria Vetusta I and the pioneering Work Which Transforms God of 2003. When so many bands don crowns of decaying laurels, Vindsval’s triumvirate remains ever the masters of their craft.

The first song “Antithesis of the Flesh” storms through your headphones in a transcendent synthesis of old and new. Copious melodies weave through atmospheric keyboards and monastic chants. Meanwhile inhuman blasts and industrial drumbeats propel the listener into galactic soundscapes. Scenes of terror and mystique give way to regal fanfare. Incorporating elements from Ultima Thulée through Odinist, rarely is an album so diverse yet euphoniously consistent.

For a genre immersed in darkness and misanthropy, dare I say this composition is colorful and enlivening? The artwork alone paints an organic yet otherworldly exhibition. Musically, it contrasts emotive melodies with the mathematical rhythms of the drum computer; futuristic yet as ancient as the human condition itself. Lyrics are absent, offering freer interpretation and drawing the listener closer to the music’s own eloquence.

This is as far removed from standard Black Metal as Oslo from Paris. Buzz saw guitar riffing underlies clean and acoustic guitar harmonies and solos, shimmering with progressive highlights. Contemplative ambience interplays with headbangable riffs. Screeching vocals blend into a musical fabric drenched in beautiful pain. All sense of traditional song structure is discarded for an intelligently structured opus worth several listens just to comprehend its magnificence.

Black Metal stalwarts may find discomfort in the cleaner production and experimental elements. As for the unenlightened, this is the perfect gateway to Metal in its true grandeur. Leave your pop culture stereotypes at the dock and dive in. Let this album drown you in an ocean of sound, for both meditation and catharsis. It’s far too early for an “album of the year” declaration, but if anything will contend with this, 2009 should be a glorious year for Metal.

Amazing. Blut Aus Nord has done it again, taking a further step on their constant evolution. It would seem the experience gathered with the experimentation on the last few albums has gotten mixed with the old-schoolesque feeling of their first albums, mainly Memoria Vetusta I. This album could have very well been written in 1996, and latter given the more modern touches of MoRT and Odinist, but that's not all. This album was given something new. Something progressive I may say.

Let's get the only bad thing about this album out of the way. The sound is the good old sound we all know, maybe a bit cleaner, but that's all. After so much evolution and experimentation I would like to hear a considerable change in sound, but it remains the trademark BAN sound, which is still nice, but it's what keeps this album to reach a 100.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way we can proceed with the many great things this album holds. For starters, many people lost interest on the band once it dived into the extremely experimental styles of MoRT and Odinist, while at the same time many people began to show interest on the band for the same reasons. This album here seems like the band's (very well done) attempt to join these two crowds into one album both (and others) can enjoy. The dissonant riffs, the echoing keyboards, damp ambient, bizarre feeling altogether, unconventional melodies, they are all there, to be sure. But these seem to converge in what I can only call regular structures. The kind of recognizable melodies, catchy ones at that, and logical but not repetitive patterns (I mean there are well separated riffs and all but this is as far from the verse-chorus-verse structure as possible) bring a sense of familiarity to those who are not used to the extremely experimental sides of BAN.

On the other hand, there are many things I could have never expected from a BAN album, but ended up working in great ways. For example, the clean passages. Yes, that's right, this album has many clean guitar passages which make for a nice calm moment between storms of relentless black metal. Keyboards have been executed in a delicate and flowing manner, instead of being used for extra dissonant sounds and diverse FX which were used in the past for the sole sake of being weird. The keyboards kind of push the melodies on like some kind of musical lubricant, without being too notorious (or rather, being hardly notorious in some cases). There are also many moments one could call "solos" even though they don't seem to be more than just... nice musical moments with the guitar (because calling them "solos" kind of gives them a central part on the song structure which they don't really have), these moments are excellent and really add to the feeling this album transfers. They're even rockish at times, which makes for an even more unexpected experience.

This could very well be the best Blut Aus Nord album out there. I really enjoyed Memoria Vetusta I, TWWTAW was an incredible and unique piece of unconventional music, the experimentation in MoRT and to a lesser extent Odinist were just amazing and unpredictable, but this album has gathered the essence of all of these releases, condensing them in one master piece which holds a stronger feeling than all of those releases together. It's the most "alive" album BAN has to offer, and I highly recommend it to anyone who ever enjoyed any BAN album, and to those who seek for something new and great in black metal.