Band: Blut Aus Nord
Title: The Mystical Beast Of Rebellion
Label: Debemur Morti Productions
Distribution: Soulfood / Sure Shot Worx
Release date: January 21st 2011 (CD) / December 3rd 2010 (vinyl)
Review: DCD / double-LP

During the first half of the nineties, France was honoured by two solo musicians that gave another dimension to (Black) Metal in its most satisfying raison d’être. First you had Vincent Urbain, who released some really excellent albums under different monikers, like Daemonium and Akhenaton [FYI: before these solo-outbursts, he was member of Death Metal formation Amaymon, that once started as Deadly Dislocated, with Adipocere-owner Christian Bivel in its ranks; he used to be member of Winds Of Sirius as well (with a nice album recorded in 1999), and currently he’s involved with progressive Death-combo The Seven Gates, a band that released its impressing debut full length almost two years ago].
The other Frenchman that sort of changed the Black Metal scene is Vindsval, who started Blut Aus Nord under the name of Vlad in 1993 as a solo-project. In 1994 he got joined by W.D. Feld and the moniker changed into the actual one. Back then, he continued with some other solo-projects too, among which Children Of Mäani and The Eye, both extremely interesting! Actually he’s involved with two great bands, Funeral Doom combo Monolithe (including members of Nydvind and Anthemon) (currently on hold) and Karras (know from the splendid four-way split with Bloodoline, Reverence and, indeed, Blut Aus Nord).

1995 and 1996 saw the light of two majestic Blut Aus Nord full lengths, Ultima Thulée and Memoria Vetusta I: Fathers Of The Icy Age, both of them released through the small (and in mean time defunct) label Impure Creations) (re-released through Candlelight USA in 2005). Those years were extremely impressing when it came to Black Metal, but both these two albums did (and still do) belong to my (all time) favourites. Then it went silent for a while, but Blut Aus Nord returned in 2001 with The Mystical Beast Of Rebellion, released via Oaken Shield. Like both former ones, this one has been re-issued very recently (December 2010) on vinyl by Debemur Morti Productions, and it’s this one that gets re-released in a most interesting edition – see further.
Some more (mini) albums were recorded (mainly on Candlelight), as well as two fantastic splits (one of them, as mentioned above, with Vindsval’s current band Karras), and in spite of differing musical approaches, all with the same semi-misanthropic feeling, yet without exception: orgiastic!
[the review on Memoria Vetusta //: Dialogue With The Stars, the last full length, is still available on the site: see update April 13th 2009 - ivan]

Debemur Morti re-release this masterwork on double vinyl, limited to only 250 copies (December 3rd last year), as well as on double-CD, including three bonus compositions (January 21st ’11). And even in case you might have the original album, this re-release is a must for every ‘fan’, if only it were for the bonus disc – see below.
The original album, with six titles, lasts for over forty minutes and was performed by Vindsval (vocals, guitars and music), W.D. Feld (drums and additional keyboards), and session bass player Nahaim. The Mystical Beast Of Rebellion brings a raw and nihilistic form of Underground Black Terror, mainly fast and furious, yet at the same time mesmerizing and oppressing. The tracks, linked to each other by short nature-ambience, are composed around rather repetitive riffs and rhythms, which include some breaks and changes in tempo. It comes with abyssal vocals that somewhat remind me to Count Grishnackh’s (Burzum), and with a slightly primitive and grim yet massive sound, turning the whole into an apocalyptic soundtrack with the most obscure and asphyxiating atmosphere.
The main tempo is fast in its lightning-speeding definition, yet one time Blut Aus Nord slows down – listen to the funereally autumnal hymn Chapter V, which suffocates and brings pleasure at the same time. A few smaller parts within the other tracks are hauntingly slow too and this experiment seems to work very well!
The bonus disc consists of three tracks, clocking between eight and nineteen minutes (thirty seven minutes in totality), and it differs a lot from the original recordings. The production and atmosphere are alike: oppressive, rough, vergeful, hypnotic, ominous, bleak. But the main difference is the tempo. These three tracks, all of them called The Fall: Chapter 7, (7.7, 7.77 and 7.777, as a matter of fact), are Doom-laden Black Ambient, mainly instrumental, by the way. Still it is ‘Black Metal’, yet with an atmosphere comparable to the Suicidal / Funereal scene, and with another remarkable element: the introduction of UK’s Old School. This means that a few instrumental passages (some (leading) riffs and a few rhythms) remind me to early Paradise Lost, Cathedral and Esoteric (instrumentally, not vocally, because the vocals remain sulphuric, venomous, demonical).
I mentioned a same-minded production, comparable to the first, one-decade-of-age part of this double-album, yet the sound is more dissonant and psychotropic than on the original disc. Besides, the addition of eerie keyboard lines strengthens the uncomfortable feeling with the most sardonic hate-sympathy. And finally there’s some more experiment this time (cf. later Blut Aus Nord) – especially the final composition is the most varying one (ever).

Finally this: in April, Debemur Morti will release the next full length, called 777 - Sect(s), named after some side-project by Blut Aus Nord, if I’m not mistaken. I can’t hardly wait!!!

95/100

Ivan Tibos.