Blut Aus Nord – Disharmonium – Undreamable Abysses (Review)

This is the fourteenth album from Blut Aus Nord, a French black metal band.

A new Blut Aus Nord release is always worth paying attention to. Over the years the band have ranged through a variety of dark, blackened styles, (see some examples, here, here, here, and here), so what delights does Disharmonium – Undreamable Abysses hold?

The latest Blut Aus Nord release contains 46 minutes of atypical black metal that’s dissonant, malevolent, and rather exceptional.

Disharmonium – Undreamable Abysses is a nightmarescape of grim dissonance and multidimensional horror. Elements of a variety of incarnations of the band can be heard in one form or another. Industrial darkness is surgically deployed. Dark psychedelia and otherworldly melody run through the music like a virulent pathogen. Walls of impenetrable sound crush with ease. Within this though are moments of cosmic beauty that take the breath away.

Atmospheric density, malignant tension, and ethereal melody form the core of this album’s offering, and everything else augments this. Blut Aus Nord have crafted a terrifying soundscape that’s rich in layers of near-tangible fear and expressive terror. This is a highly immersive album; the music swallows you whole and wraps itself around you until you no longer know where you end and the swathes of sentient darkness begin.

This hypnotic album is one of the finest pieces of work that this very individual band have produced. It glances backwards for inspiration across Blut Aus Nord’s long existence, yet uses what it sees to forge yet another new path into the future.

Essential listening.