Ethereal Horizons [CD]

Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons [CD]

"I've learned over the years that, when it comes to my own musical creativity, the truth of today is rarely the truth of tomorrow." Vindsval

The wonderful 16th album from legendary Avant Black Metal paragons BLUT AUS NORD is the culmination of a 30-year vision - as mainman Vindsval connects each element of the band's history to launch yet another intrepid exploratory evolution.

"Ethereal Horizons" is BLUT AUS NORD fully realised: richer, deeper, grander, more enigmatic and simultaneously more human than ever. Intermeshing the earthen and the futuristic as a vessel for the dark dreamer, soaring and ascending to vivid realms.

After spending the preceding few years immersed in the wyrd and uneasy world of Lovecraft, this guitars-forward and melodious new album feels more akin to the organic, intoxicating terrain of 2014's "Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry" or 2019's "Hallucinogen" - a cosmic and consonant antidote to our incessant psychic battering from the bleak, cacophonous biosphere in which we reside.

"Ethereal Horizons" incorporates otherworldliness from all eras of BAN - traces of churning dissonance, subtle industrialised elements, the weeping of celestial leads, V's spectral & subliminal snarl - but brings in a suite of new and more grounded feels too. Far-reaching melodic themes turn inward and outward, frequently resolving into the swing of classic, prog and post rock. The warmth of swirling psych-organ and expanses of kosmische synth provide a bed for emotive themes to build and release into full-throttle ruthlessness. Vocal stylings are wide-ranging as ever, utilising the distinctive cloudbusting cleans and choirs, but this time with a lazer-focus on wistful transcendent melodies, refrains and even out-and-out hooks.

Essential.

Recommended if you like: ENSLAVED, EMPEROR, ULVER (Bergtatt era), KING CRIMSON... 

POINTS OF INTEREST:
> 16th album is a striking new chapter in BAN's perpetual metamorphosis
> Heralded by 2 video clips.
> Digital marketing campaigns on Facebook, Instagram & Youtube.
> Ads scheduled in all main Metal Mags worldwide (Legacy, Rock Hard Italy, Decibel... )

Praise for previous album, "Nahab" (2023):
"... a fascinating and gripping work of Black Metal art that opens up a vortex only Blut Aus Nord could let us access!" (Metal Injection)
"... a discordant, slinking beast, one that presents this long-standing act as the masters of their own style!" (Decibel)
"... another hallucinogenic instalment from the best Black Metal band on this world, or any other." (Metal Hammer UK)

TRACKLIST:
01 Shadows Breathe First 07:16
02 Seclusion 08:18
03 The Ordeal 07:17
04 The Fall Opens The Sky 07:48
05 What Burns Now Listens 06:22
06 Twin Suns Reverie 02:21
07 The End Becomes Grace 12:24