Blut Aus Nord – ​Disharmonium – Nahab (Review)

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

Blut Aus Nord have an enviable discography, (see Triunity, Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry, Deus Salutis Meæ, Hallucinogen, and this new album’s direct predecessor – Disharmonium – Undreamable Abysses, as a few examples), and they’ve now already added to it again with the 44 minutes of new material that is Disharmonium – Nahab.

The second part of the Disharmonium trilogy, Disharmonium – Nahab follows on from its predecessor by ramping up both the cosmic terror and the sinister atmosphere. Driven by a malevolent dissonance that’s almost tangible, this is a psychedelic blackened journey into lands of unfathomable horror. It offers an intense listen, one that explores discordant dreams and eerie nightmares.

There’s no light on Disharmonium – Nahab, just varying degrees of shadow and the creatures that lurk hungrily within. The songs slither and slide across their durations like daemonic entities, wrapped in malignant darkness. They’re darkly textured pieces, revelling in their twisted violence and grim macabre moods.

(There are three intro/interlude tracks which are ultimately as disposable as all such tracks are, but at least add a little something to the album’s otherworldly atmosphere, so aren’t the annoyance such tracks usually are).

Disharmonium – Nahab delivers a spectral soundscape of near-impenetrable serpentine growths. Dense worldbuilding and explosions of esoteric melody have resulted in music that’s distressingly haunting and screams of a terrifying beauty that’s mind-rending to behold.

This is the sound of Blut Aus Nord delving deep into the Hellish underworld, and returning with something that was probably better left buried. It’s less music, and more a near-physical manifestation of supernatural evil.

You have been warned.

However, for explorers of the arcane and the obscure, this is an essential experience to saturate yourself in.