Blut Aus Nord

Mort

Candlelight 2006

Blut Aus Nord has always been a really strange beast and this album furthers that perception.  I don't think I have heard a more unnerving and disorienting album in my life.  BAN have taken Godflesh-esque Industrial beats and fleshed them out with Oddly flowing disharmonic and bizarrely distorted guitar passages.  I feel like I am drunk and the whole world is starting to spin and I can't get my grip back on reality.  Everything about this album is unsettling and perplexing.  I can't imagine how I would be able to keep my sanity if I were on some form of hallucinogen while listening to Mort.  The only thing that keeps these 8 passages grounded in reality is the constant and dehumanized thumping of the drum machine.  The vocals that appear seemingly at random are gurgled and masked and hidden and are just as bewildering as the many layered guitars. There are no standout tracks on Mort because even though it is divided into 8 tracks, in reality it is just one musical journey that presents variations on a theme and should be listened to as such.  I am not truly sure that the new BAN can be counted amongst the black metal world or even the metal world anymore either.  However it certainly falls within the "extreme" category.  On Mort, Blut Aus Nord continues their solitary journey as one of the more interesting and unique entities within the underground.  With this album they have branched out even further from their roots musically while still maintaining a cohesive communion with the ideals of those roots.  Darkness and despair and all the unfathomed recesses of the minds putrid core are explored and they will leave you reeling without solid ground for support.  Fall into death's hideous embrace!!!!