The UFO Club... probably named after some psychedelic club, in the '60s, maybe London? I dunno, the place Syd Barrett & The Pink Floyd jammed it up. Yeah.
"Chapel in my Mind" from the Night Beats split-10" (2011)
The band includes key members of both The Black Angels and Night Beats, so no doubt they're playing Austin Psych Fest.
So, Blut Aus Nord are a long-standing, well-respected French Black Metal act - focused on main dude Vindsval. Throughout their nearly 20-years history, the band has incorporated electronical styles like ambient, drone, and especially industrial.
For the completely uninitiated, I'll also point out that BM can take some effort and repeated listening - preferably to really good albums in full. The trebly sonics, lo-fi production, and atypical structures can seem strange and off-putting at first. A background in punk or noise (or metal) helps, or just an open mind. Blut Aus Nord's genre-infusions might provide a bridge into this grim and frostbitten world.
If you prefer your Black Metal introduction more fun & thrashy than serious & experimental, stick around for #6.
Fair warning: I am not a true Black Metal fanatic. I'm arriving late to the party, and am only a dabbler. The upside is concentrating on the cream of the crop (and hopefully being a decent introducer). The downside is that I don't own any of these earlier BAN records. So this exploration was as much for me as for you, the hypothetical reader of this post.
And since I have only a general idea of Blut Aus Nord's overall progression, I'm going to mine user reviews over at Encyclopædia Metallum for key themes as we go along. Let's start in the ancient mists of time... 1995.
a grim, wintery landscape - the winter theme - more of a heathen flavor - rawer sounding black metal - quieter ambiance featuring keyboards - black metal screech - like some epic wintry journey ... across the rocky mountainside during a blizzard - scenic bleakness and majesty.
Yep, that describes a lot of early Black Metal to a tee - with the prominance of keyboard ambiance already being taken further. Read about the concept of (Ultima) Thule - which clearly nods to the genre's Norway/Viking roots, as well as more metaphysical destinations.
"Sons of Wisdom, Master of Elements" from Memoria Vetusta I: Fathers of the Icy Age (1996)
The progression of the early phase continues (94% avg rating). Reviewing many fans' overall favorite, one Metallum user talked about:
soul crushing wall of noise - Endless oceans of melodies - the harrowing distortion that cloaks the record - a hidden beauty - more expansive, allowing sublime melodies to sweep - the bass still remains audible - highly melodic - reach a more progressive state - harmonious chanting - The production terrifically masks the instrumentation in surprise.
Audible bass? That's progress. A vinyl edition is finally being released by Debemur Morti. You can listen to the entire album in one YouTube video.
"The Fall, Part V" from The Mystical Beast of Rebellion (2001)
Here's where things get dicey for some fans (78% avg rating), as BAN takes a large step away from more trad Black Metal. Thus, you encounter even the good Metallum reviews discussing:
mostly instrumental riff-based ... minimalism / drone - unusual guitar chord progessions - considerable repetition and monotony - half the guitars lurching up and down - a deep buzzing drone - passages of subsonic throbbing hum or murky ambience - Constant changes of key - a certain sinister majesty befitting a fallen angel - drowned in the maelstrom of guitar noise - mind-bending (and maybe vomit-inducing) - the riffing vecomes drawn out and drone-like - Atmospheric interludes.
That's no way to turn on a hardcore Black Metal audience. The track embedded above is apparently the most oustanding and appealing. There's a quite recent re-release with bonus materials, which I think I saw at Sound Exchange.
"Axis" from The Work Which Transforms God (2003)
I'm pretty sure "Our Blessed Frozen Cells" was my first exposure to Blut Aus Nord. Their 4th album raises widely divergent opinions (84% avg rating), high quality or beyond-the-pale. From Metallum reviews:
constantly active, rhythmic and complex percussive structures - a transcendental depth - evokes a gloomy, almost post-apocalyptic dimension - the guitar sound maybe somewhat indebted to early Cocteau Twins - dissonant guitar chords ... reminded of 'Daydream Nation' by Sonic Youth - almost shamanistic, and somewhat 'Tibetan' sounding background voices - constantly spiralling guitar chords ... complex blastbeats ... quick double bass ... rather odd syncopated rhythms - textured and harmonized guitars ... distantly reminded of the German band Neu - it is atavistic yet it is complex - humanized, ethereal and mechanical at the same time.
You had me at shamanistic, Cocteau Twins-, Daydream Nation-, Neu!-reminding Black Metal.
"Chapter VIII" from MoRT (2006)
Whereas The Work polarized listeners, MoRT just made them angry (62% avg rating). Let's listen to a very negative reviewer:
a dull, industrial corpse - painfully monochromatic album - uneven industrial drum beats - herky-jerky dissonant guitar noodling - always heavily processed with electronic overtones galore - vocals sound sloppy and muddy - like being on shrooms inside automobile factory - when the actual music so robotic - more than a mere disappointment - a historic bust - intolerable.
ouch.
On the other hand, a generally positive review (85%) instructed that "The whole work is ugly, plodding, and mindbendingly weird... This is really fucking weird music. That cannot be understated." Hey! I like weird music.
"The Sounds of the Universe" from Odinist: The Destruction of Reason by Illumination (2007)
The tides start to turn back (78% avg rating), and Blut reassures the remaining fanbase with Odinist. Sayeth Metallum:
return to a more traditional songwriting - wicked antics of British occultist Aleister Crowley - a revalorizing arsenal of melodic and mesmerizing riffs - an almost Arabic texture - more melodic and somewhat harmonious - misses that devilish and industrial decay-like atmosphere - absence of the shock factor - a transition album though.
This is the one older BAN album that I almost never hear mentioned or opinionated upon. It's not a classic, or reviled... just transitional.
"The Cosmic Echoes of Non-Matter (Immaterial Voices of the Fathers)" from Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars (2009)
Now I appear on the scene, naming the sequel to Fathers of the Icy Age (1996) the #1 Metal Next 10, 2009. Although the previous album had backed away from the abyss of avant-electro-industrial "sonic miasma," MVII was widely hailed as a return to Blut Aus Nord's Black Metal roots (90% avg rating on Encyclopædia Metallum reviews).
Truly a massive, excellent double-album epic - ranging from really sweet quiet sections to explosive pummelling. Check out the whole thing!
"Chapter 1" from What Once Was... Liber I EP (2010)
This EP made it to my #16 overall for 2010. Vinyl-only, with no Liber II announced that I've heard of. The rawest BAN in a very long time - leaving EN reviewers to wonder at "filthy, furious death metal riff backed by thunderous, echoing drums" (74% avg rating).
Despite no follow-ups in that EP series, the first two parts of the 777 trilogy (???) came out in 2011. Unfortunately 777: Cosmosophy has been delayed beyond May 2012, but hopefully still this year.
In the next Top 10 installment, we'll talk about the #4 releases from Blut Aus Nord.
Check out Red Plastic Buddha over at Bandcamp. Chicagoan retro-psych folk-pop, in the vein of The Pillbugs or The Asteroid #4 - with Electric Prunes coverage.
"Seahorse" from All Out Revolution (2011)
They're currently offering that album for Free Download! Stream a full preview, order a physical CD, almost anything is possible.
Here's a Revolt of the Apes post. Recently, I realized that all these Austin Psych Fest bands had been featured over there - it was eerie. So I checked the "About" section at the site:
This site was originally created to spread the word of Austin Psych Fest 2010. It has since continued with content directly related to the bands and artists involved, content tangentially related to the bands and artists involved, and content not at all related to the bands and artists involved...
Our relationship with Austin Psych Fest is strictly unofficial and largely platonic. Our headquarters are not in Austin, or even Texas, but a small town in central Virginia.
Get ready to rock out to the Milwaukee psychedelic doom of Sleestak! They didn't just name their band after the Land of the Lost resident badasses, the entire theme of songs and albums revolves around Altrusia (ancient worldname of the sarisa-taka).
Everyone knows Enik though, right? Beige carapace, ruby eyes, so well-spoken? He understood the pylons, he knew the secrets of The Lost City. He knew...
The Mind Spiders, surf-garage-punk from Ft. Worth, TX... I'm not sure why they got the second-round advance announcement along with Meat Puppets. But they do seem like a fun act to check out.
"Don't Let Her Go" from Mind Spiders LP (2011)
From the stuff I've found around, sounds like mostly high-energy no-nonsense old-school - if that rings any bells.
"Wait for Us" from Meltdown (2012)
That's some Thriller-esque video-intro there! Overall, like a mash-up of The Twilight Zone's "The Lonely" (11/13/1959) and The Flaming Lips' Christmas on Mars (2008).
"Time Sucker" from Mind Spiders 7" EP (2010)
The EP sounds promising - also with another good one, "Worlds Destroyed." Unfortunately, the vinyl's sold out at the label. I think everything so far has come out on Dirtnap Records.
