Blut Aus Nord – Ethereal Horizons (Review)

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

Following on from 2023’s ​Disharmonium – Nahab comes Ethereal Horizons, a 52-minute work of expansive, exquisite black metal artistry. Yep, this one’s pretty damn good.

The music of But Aus Nord has shapeshifted into many different forms across the decades, taking in a variety of  influences. Ethereal Horizons is an attempt of sorts to incorporate many of these aspects into one collection of songs, albeit with a strong particular focus, and I have to say it is a remarkably accomplished album, even by the artist’s high standards.

This is a record with a far warmer and more organic feel than some of Blut Aus Nord’s work, yet it’s also dreamy and ethereal. The album is well-named. The songs offer up a hallucinatory experience, a psychedelic journey into otherworldly landscapes and vast, spacious blackened dreamscapes. The music presents as contemporary black metal, albeit of a form that’s firmly rooted in ancient times. It’s richly melodic and atmospheric, but also embraces a progressive approach, and even wanders in post-rock waters in places.

The vocals are varied, well-performed, and passionately delivered. Whether snarling with hostile bite or layering the music with emotive colour, they’re always effective.

Ethereal Horizons, for me, is defined by its melodic depth. Alongside this sits an aggressive demeanour, set within a comprehensive atmospheric framework that crowns everything. The melodies underpin it all. Whether taking centre stage or reinforcing the whole, this is an album of melancholic melody that’s wrapped around a compelling progressive/atmospheric black metal core. It really, really hits the spot.

This is probably my favourite Blut Aus Nord album in a while; it’s an extremely strong, enjoyable, and transportive record. If you’re a fan of bands such as Mare Cognitum, Mesarthim, Midnight Odyssey, and Spectral Lore, then there’s much to explore here for you.

Essential listening.