French avant-black metal weirdo Vindsval’s Blut aus Nord project has been a forerunner in the strange and hallucinogenic for nearly thirty years now, and through that progression the project has seen many changes. From Ultima Thulée‘s frozen atmospheres to The Work Which Transforms God‘s industrial, bizarre looseness, it was 2019’s Hallucinogen which ushered in a new era for this long-standing project. Suddenly melodic and lush, Hallucinogen cast off Blut aus Nord’s strangeness in favor of something more digestible and focused. Though ultimately a very good album, Hallucinogen merely zeroed in on a single aspect of Vindsval’s creativity, magnifying it to great and kaleidoscopic magnitudes.
What makes upcoming Blut aus Nord album Disharmonium – Undreamable Abysses that much better than the, by the court of public opinion, unattainably good Hallucinogen is that it operates in hindsight. The character Vindsval built over these three decades was simply too great to be compartmentalized with one successful, albeit very different, record, and so Disharmonium – Undreamable Abysses looks at the bigger picture, pulling from Blut aus Nord’s different sound-epochs as a means of ingratiating itself. What this means is simple: for us old-heads, Blut aus Nord is strange again, but not without the lessons it learned from changing. This new album’s heavy melodicism and psychedelia will appeal to those who discovered Blut aus Nord through or found solace in Hallucinogen, but shades of The Work Which Transforms God (and even Odinist) find their way through with weird, bouncing leads and heavily effected, industrialized atmospheres. Though the idea of a Blut aus Nord “magnum opus” is heavily debated due to the project’s chameleonic approach across time, Disharmonium – Undreamable Abysses is special in that it takes from the project’s best aspects and presents them in an exciting way. This is the Blut aus Nord album.
Watch an advance video for “That Cannot Be Dreamed” below.
Disharmonium – Undreamable Abysses releases May 20 on Debemur Morti Productions.
