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Blut Aus Nord: 777 – The desanctification

29/12/11 || The Duff

Blut Aus Nord hit us with part two of their 777 trilogy, the follow-up to “Sect(s)” released earlier this year and the prequel to “Cosmosophy” due later sometime in 2012. “Sect(s)” was a great disc, a mixture of the industrial bleakness of “The Work Which Transforms God”, the epic highs of “Dialogue with the Stars” and the twisting nihilism of “Mort”. Banishing rumours of ensuing efforts to take on radically different styles and entirely new terrain for the band, “Desanctification” unsurprisingly follows upon the same ground as “Sect(s)”. I’m not sure if to have all three records played as one entire song was the band’s desired goal, but probably my biggest disappointment is that “Desanctification” sounds so akin to its immediate predecessor.

“Sect(s)” was a real satisfying album, more of the same isn’t so bad, but this is where the album’s role as a ‘middle’ album is most apparent, the listener is launched in and then jettisoned with no real continuity from one track to the other, no sense of the completeness of “Sect(s)” – despite its kicking off the entire concept, as well as the variation on a track by track basis, the first of this trilogy still felt like it could belong as its own piece. Take for example “Epitome XII” off, despite being an almost exact replica of “Epitome VI” off “Sect(s)”, I get the feeling it was intentionally placed as the second-to-last track simply to deny the listener a comfortably tied-off record, instead giving us what might as well be the launching into the third and final installment.

In this regard, “Desanctification” is unfulfilling, meandering possibly for the purpose of tying the ends 1+3 together but with little all-round greatness; this in a sense also makes the wait for the final part of the puzzle all the more agonizing. While I agree some albums of BAN’s discography are better than others, for example “Odinist” being alarmingly on the short side, I’ve always felt that the band has 100% succeeded in getting its message across. This trilogy sounds like it could fall flat on its face, “Desanctification” seeming like a stumbling mess at times with some tracks being dragged out well beyond their due.

The music is generally lush, entrancing, both dark and uplifting, the mix of “The Work…”-industrial, “Mort”-hypnotic and “Dialogue with the Stars”-epic with occasions of stagnancy. Exactly the same production, same effects, same twisted melodies so easily identified as Vindsval and cohorts rotting away in some wine cellar someplace; the same rhythms, almost the same notes elsewhere as on “Sect(s)” just with half the excitement. The only evolutions from one album to the next are the clean vocal chants that sound like the band’s earliest days and the clean guitars of “Epitome IX” which made me think my MP3 player had accidentally stumbled onto the new Esoteric album.

While I understand that this guarantees a sense of completeness for all three records when combined, I still feel as though I’m being robbed when the only real worth I can see thus far in “Desanctification” is a sound only BAN can provide – really, though, it’s all note for note too similar to the first part of the trilogy, and in contrast to Deathspell Omega, a band they were close to album-to-album matched in terms of ambition, they sadly appear no longer to keep in the same league.

Information
Released: 2011
Label: Debemur Morti Productions
Website: Blut Aus Nord MySpace
Band
Vindsval: vocals, guitars
GhÖst: bass
W.D. Feld: drums, keyboards, electronics

Tracklist
01. Epitome VII
02. Epitome VIII
03. Epitome IX
04. Epitome X
05. Epitome XI
06. Epitome XII
07. Epitome XIII

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