Blut & Krieg

Given all the times I've gushed over the Moonblood demo tapes, it amazed me that I haven't actually covered the studio albums, which aren't that much compared to the demos, but are still amongst the best in their catalog. The first of these studio albums would be the 1997 debut "Blut & Krieg", which has barely seen any new official reissues since it first came out. But for those who are lucky enough to own these authentic editions, they will surely be met with some fantastic moments.

The album opens up with the Midnight intro, a brief, but great ambient piece that sets in the nightly and majestic tone of the album. From there, we move onto "In a Bloody Night of Fullmoon", which truly sets the tone of the album. Right away, the production is noticeably a lot cleaner compared to the demos, which makes the instrumentals sound equally balanced in the mixing. This is especially important for the guitars, since the riffs performed there are amazing. The riffs themselves follow that cold and raw style that we've come to know from the band now, but the epic undertones are more prominent, and offer a deadly, yet adventurous atmosphere in the dark landscape. The drumming is a bit more grounded in its beat patterns, and even in the faster moments, the blastbeats don't feel too over-the-top, and are quite fitting to the cold riffs. The bass is pretty weak, however, as it's not only hard to hear at times, but the bass play in general is weaker compared to those in the rehearsal demos. Fortunately, the guitars and drums are well enough to help carry the whole thing, and each track has its own style with the instrumentals that make them stand out from one another, but also feel connected in some way. My personal favorite tracks include "...and Snow Covered the Lifeless Bodies", "Blut & Krieg" and especially "I Am All" with how well they execute that epic sound. Not only is the production better, but the songwriting and composition of the instruments have improved a lot from those bare-boned demos.

The vocals are also fantastic. Gaamalzagoth's vocals on the demos were excellent, but they're especially phenomenal on this album. While the shrieks and screams still remain the same, with the cleaner production and epic-driven riffs, they flow perfectly within this type of atmosphere. A good example of this is in the track "Under the Cold Fullmoon", which I presume comes from a track from the fifth rehearsal. Not only do these vocals flow well with the guitars and drums, but with the gothic undertones of the fullmoon, the shrieking almost feel like an ode to the fullmoon. The vocal performance remains as sinister as ever, and also fit perfectly with the intense instruments.

In a way, the debut studio album serves as a combination with everything great about the demos, as well as making the album sound unique with better production. Whether it be from the cold and epic guitar riffs or the haunting cries of Gaamalzagoth, there are virtually no flaws in these tracks. If you haven't checked this one out yet, then I would definitely recommend listening to it sometime soon.

Moonblood was a German black metal band of the 90's known for releasing a crap-ton of album length demos and only two official full-lengths, Blut Und Krieg being one of them. Moonblood played a stylistic variety of black metal known as "epic black metal" Moonblood's take on this genre is less of a focus on the hypnotic drumming and repetitiveness of atmospheric black metal, and more of a basic black metal approach with some keyboards playing medieval esque melodies. You could also go as far as saying as this is what black metal would be if Candlemass or Scald played it. While lyrical themes definitely do not make a genre, you can definitely see the epic approach to lyrics, songs about fantasy, war, and of course the completely foreign never used before lyrical theme of winter and how cold it is. Definitely something new to talk about in black metal. There are two songs in this album with the word fullmoon as well. I just love black metal, there is simply nothing like it! Now onto the music on the album and what you can expect from this official full-length from Moonblood.

You can expect some longer songs, and some well-thought out ones at that. The favorites being "...and Snow Covered The Lifeless Bodies" as well as "Under the Cold Fullmoon" The songs have some great transcending melodies, and the variation in tempo on these songs is great as well. The fast sections never get in the way of establishing atmosphere, and the slow/mid-pace sections possess great and headbanging riffs. Another thing I'm glad about which I'll elaborate more on in the production section is the bass lines. The bass lines shine the most through the mix during the fast tempo sections of songs, and it's just nice and refreshing to hear the bass in black metal, when most of the time in this genre it is buried in the mix. The highlights of the album are definitely made up of the longer tracks minute tracks, that basically consists of every song. Blut Und Krieg, the self titled track is awesome as well, it is also the only song on the album that is sung in full German. Near the end it kind of feels as if to drag on just a bit. The last song and outro, "I Am All" along with "The Infernal Master Returns" are one of my favorite songs on the album. A problem I have with the album is while every song has great moments, there are times in some songs where it just feels like nothing is happening or going anywhere. Sometimes it seems as if the length lacks direction. This is something I can forgive, as this album does please my ears very much with it's atmosphere and overall sound. Now onto the production of that sound.

The production is your average lo-fi production of black metal, however, the guitars are a bit thicker. Yes, they are still shrill, but they sound like they got some meat to them, some more substance than just coldness. The bass, another thing that has some meat to as well, because it isn't constantly buried in the mix. It is substantially louder on here than on many demos/albums I hear from underground bands. Lastly the drums, and they are hard to hear a lot of times, but definitely not the worst drum mix I've ever heard. It's only the snare I have trouble hearing sometimes, and I don't remember hearing double bass more than a few distinct times. Overall, yes, it's what nerds call "kvlt" production. The keyboards and effects sound really good when implemented. One of my favorite effects used is in the end of Blut Und Krieg when swords are clashing and men are fighting. Listenable and decent production here. Guitars stand out for me, bass being audible is the biggest plus.

Concluding these descriptions and critiques, I decree that this album deserves that mid 80 ranking of an 85. The album does a lot of things well, and it's a fun listen for sure, but it can be a chore of a listen at times. While not the most amazing thing ever made, it still stands as an underground classic. It's simple, yet effective attack of atmosphere while not straying into completely atmospheric territory makes it a challenging yet accessible listen for black metal fans, and metal fans in general. I recommend it to all black metal fans in general, and especially enjoyers of atmospheric black metal. Anyone who likes Candlemass, Scald, Sorcerer or Solitude Aeturnus and likes some black metal might be inclined to try this out because of it's atmosphere and the lyrical themes presented. Solid black metal from the 2nd wave

-Nolan

Moonblood is of course probably primarily known for their dedication to kvlt practices like releasing only tapes and vinyl and also releasing many rehearsals with varied productions. This is their first full length release (though most rehersals are the length of an album), and is probably their best, as the later release "Taste Our German Steel," featured a different sound with a more straight forward black metal approach and with an annoying drum sound. On this the production is pretty much perfect for underground black metal, with drums lower in the mix and highlighting the guitars and vocals. The vocals themselves are between Nocturno Culto and Darken, a kind of rasping croak that at times goes into a harsher scream. They are effective, although not exactly the best I have heard.
The guitar riffs are much more complex then most would give credit to, and they have nice differences. Some have a more lead approach with folky otherworldly riffs that stretch on for a while, while others have a more epic Graveland-eque feeling, and yet others are more of the punky type sound. The best in my opinion are the folkier more emotional riffs, which have a much better feeling with the production. When they attempt the Graveland epic riffs the murky production unfortunatly doesn't work as well, though the atmosphere is still felt.
Moonblood seems to be going for a more medieval war-like feeling on this release, and they suceed fairly well, particularly when you can hear highlighting riffs, and I can imagine that perhaps with a better production the more Viking elements would have worked perfectly. As it is, while excellent this release has many faults, which is unfortunatly what one generally feels about nearly every Moonblood release.
Despite this, this album often suceeds, and is perhaps their best release as it brings images of death and war to a listeners mind. Like others have said the later half is much better than the first half, with a better use of keyboards and clean guitars.
Like all Moonblood releases you'll only find this as over-priced bootlegs or on a good file sharing server. I'd suggest finding this if you can and don't mind a lesser production.

This has to be one of the most epic black metal album's I've ever heard. When I listen to this album, I can easily picture an epic medieval battle, without a problem. Actually, that's pretty much the only thing I pictured when I listened to this (expect when I heard the Intro). The riffs are a bit too repetitive though. As an example, the song "Shadows" is 7:36, and it contains only one or two riffs, and when you have vocals that are pretty boring and repetitive, it gets boring pretty fast. The ambience that's provided in this album is great though, the Intro (called Midnight) make me think of a village at midnight, and like a war is about to come up. The drums in this are pretty weak, sometimes barely audible, or most of the time just boring, and too repetitive. The lack of drum fills really affects the album. The drummer could at least have put in a few drum fills here in there, to vary from the usual "meh, so-so" drum riffs we're used to hear in black metal.


Since most of the riffs are repetitive, I felt like all the song were stretching and never ending. What I'd like to see is more riffs in the songs. What Moonblood seems to do is take a riff, and make a whole song out of it. They could at least add more keyboards or leads to shake thing up, but nope. This album only concentrates on simple riffs and simple drums. Because of that, the riffs also feel like they were made in two seconds. About the vocals, they're ok. Nothing amazing, but not horrible either. The vocalist is always doing harsh vocals, some clean vocals with some acoustic guitar in the back would be nice to give me a little break from what i'm used to hearing.

This album is epic to say the least, but its riffs are too repetitive, which makes the songs feel like they'll never end. It's a strong album, but most fans will probablly find it too repetitive.

The first image conjured up in my mind as I listen to this album, is one of a battlefield. A battlefield on a cold night, after every warrior has perished. Every warrior but one, a wounded victor of the dark side, who awaits a cold death under the moonlight.

Moonblood have been one of the most consistant black metal bands in history, and this is perhaps their crowning triumph. Their debut full-length simply oozes bleakness - the epic, folkish melodies are drawn out over (generally) mid-paced drumming to produce a hypnotic atmosphere, conjuring up a vast, spacious, snow-covered landscape. Gaamalzagoth, despite the frankly stupid name, is a great and distinctive vocalist. His ugly shrieks give the album a push down towards hell.

Complaints about the album's production (other than the volume-changes) are undeserved in my opinion - indeed, the trembling, droning lead-guitar tone in particular strengthens the sense of other-wordliness this recording attempts to induce.

I find the second half of this album more interesting than the first, and although this is just a subjective note (perhaps an unusual one among fans of this release?) and isn't too substantial, it is perhaps why this doesn't quite manage to get the perfect rating. Shadows, for example, although not bad, is quite weak (has an almost punkish vibe in places, which irritates me) compared to the magnificent title track and those after it. Moonblood's ub3rkvltn3ss is also annoying, but doesn't have a conscious effect on my score.

This is the perfect album for people who love Burzum's BM recordings and Darkthrone's "Transilvanian Hunger", but are sick of derivative clones, and long for something that reaches the limits of epic and coldness while still being fairly unusual. Highly recommended.

Where has Moonblood been all my life? It has been six years since BLUT UND KRIEG was unleased upon the world by the German master of black metal (No, not Herr Goat Opyros. Lol), Occulta Mors.

I almost feel as if I shouldn’t review this album at all, my reason being that if you haven’t discovered Moonblood on your own, you probably have no business cranking out the unholy epic black symphony anyway. Hah!

Without a doubt, BLUT UND KRIEG is one of the top 10, hell, maybe even top 5 black metal albums of all time. Ugly, raw, and brutal, yet at the same time melodic, epic, and beautiful, Moonblood embodies all the greatness once held by bands such as Darkthrone and Burzum in their most brilliant and glorious moments. Everything about this album is excellent. The guitar tone sets the mood for the entire album with a fuzzy, booming drone that envelops the listener. Try listening to Moonblood through a very good pair of headphones, and I guarantee that you will be sucked in! That’s what I was advised to do upon my first listen, as the first notes of “In a Bloody Night of Fullmoon” hit my ears as a total fucking deathmarch. This song shatters all definitions of what is epic. There is an etherial presence here, something larger than the music itself. Moonblood is just fucking sinister and evil. Occulta Mors’ vocals are the perfect kind of demonic rasp over the thick, doomy riffs to set the atmosphere of the album as an evil, anguished trance tinged with sorrow, hatred, and suffering. All songs on the album play upon these various themes to different degrees, but the true masterpiece on this masterpiece album is the nine minute long “...and Snow Covered the Lifeless Bodies.” Det Som En Gang WHO? Fuck, do I love that song.

My paltry words here cannot do any sort of justice to this most excellent piece of work. Moonblood – BLUT UND KRIEG defies adequate description. One does not mearly listen to this album; one must experience it. Totally fucking essential.

(originally written by me for www.metal-rules.com, December, 2003)

What Blut und Krieg has to offer us truly is a bloody war of epic black metal. This is probably one of the worst produced black metal albums I've heard, but it's nothing to worry about, because it actually improves the atmosphere of the music. It's got a bit of a Darkthrone production feel, except below the Darkthrone standard for recording. The vocals are demonic, icy, and raspy. This is the kind of voice you'd expect to hear from a chilling undead wraith, or a demon of the sort - harsh and bloody.

The guitar riffs, to say the least, are quite simple. However, everyone should know that simplicity doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. The guitar sound is very melodic and crunchy. The riffs are consistent, but not to the point where it's repetitive. Thankfully the drums aren't just a bunch of blast beats and random pounding.

Although nothing special, the drums are very steady and do a fine job at keeping the rhythm fills. There is plenty of mid-paced snare and cymbal to go around for the drumming. The bass playing is nothing special either, it just does its job at gluing the guitar and drums together to complete the cold and luster mesh of dark music. If there were an album to represent the essence of a demon, this would be it. This album shows what black metal is all about - dark, chilly, evil music.

Pick this up whenever you can if you feel up to trying something truly harsh. This album is not for the weak.