Blut Aus Nord - The Mystical Beast of Rebellion (2001)

Created by the wills of W.D. Feld and Vindsval in Mondeville, Lower Normandy, France in 1994, Blut Aus Nord (German for "Blood from North") has been going strong ever since with nowadays no less than ten full-length albums as well as splits and EPs between. 'The Mystical Beast of Rebellion' is the bands third album and my earliest experience with their creations.

Blut Aus Nord falls heavily into the atmospheric/ambient black metal sub-genre using a variety of tremolo style riffs which are blended in perfectly with haunting synthesizers and pummeling drums to create a tremendously fuzzy wall of sound. The effect is a staggeringly harsh ambiance, but surely one that's filled with all the gloom and wickedness black metal is known for. The music has some slower parts (Chapter V), but is almost always played at high speeds with scathingly harsh screams alongside, though each song ends with droning dark ambiance as sort of a bridge between each song. The album is subtitled, 'The Fall' and is broken into six chapters, although no lyrics are provided nor is any single word discernable, but it could be that the album centers around Satan's fall from grace.

Nowadays you'll come across the 2010 double digipack re-release, which has an additional thirty seven minute composition broken into three parts on the second disc. Likely recorded in a different studio and possibly even sometime after 2001, the music on these three songs is much slower in its overall execution and has much less use of vocals, but it retains a similarly austere effect throughout its duration.

Some will find this album to be outright boring while others will pick up on its malign nature and incredible atmosphere during its forty one minute run. Personally I've experienced this album best late at night with headphones or while driving through the countryside in near darkness, but you can choose your own adventure.