Blut Aus Nord - MoRT
Candlelight
Post-Black Avantgarde
8 songs (47'13")
Release year: 2006
Blut Aus Nord, Candlelight
Reviewed by Alex

I have missed out on all the hype and rave about Blut Aus Nord 2003 releaseThe Work Which Transforms God. This mysterious French crew claimed to have created an ultimate frightening release which should have transformed the modern vision of Black Metal, if not God. Having figured that time has passed me by with The Work Which Transforms God, I thought to have been fortunate there was a new album MoRT for me to experience and understand why so many could not have stopped applauding. Fully expecting the avant-garde angle and accepting the minimalist approach, I would not be joining the growing crowd of admirers. With all due respect, instead of hailing MoRT as the most forward-thinking album of our times, I would label this a pseudo-intellectual blabber. Borrowing the phrase from Hans Christian Andersen’s (the most famous Danish talewriter) The Emperor’s New Suit, “The king has no clothes on”, or to paraphrase, like a child who made the above proclamation, I will call this one as I see it, despite possibly being labeled unsophisticated.

My biggest problem with MoRT (Metamorphosis of Realistic Theories) – separated in eight chapters, but united in a single thematic approach – Blut Aus Nort plays the same composition eight times in a row. Where is the “wow” in this? I was genuinely surprised about how formulaic this can become at times. Starting out with ambient dark electronics and whispery vocals, the chapter grows, incorporating unusual percussive free-form jazzy drumming, which purposefully deviates from steady and rhythmic any chance it gets. One by one guitar layers are introduced, with vocals, whenever they appear, which is not very often, being raspy, but not in your face, variety. Vocal effects and processing is ubiquitous, but the vocals themselves are buried deeply in the mix, the voice reaching to a listener from a cavern. And so this dissonant concoction proceeds, from one chapter to another, starting out quietly, gathering strength and then fading into nothingness. Album’s little bells and whistles, like some robotic voices, industrial elements, or on the opposite, ambient cleaner passages can not possibly compete with this endless pool of chaotic dissonance, never really brutal, but meandering and suffocating nonetheless.

The only winning proposition of MoRT is its layered guitar sound. The first couple of tracks I was fully getting the impression of a myriad of haggard vultures circling above the field full of rotten carrions. With this picture being replayed in my head for the good part of the album’s 47+ minutes I would upgrade this to the collective mind of our planet slowly putrefying away. Powerful, but still so incredibly monotonous, in the end I have become weary, rather than terrified or panicked.

Here is the release where mysterious weirdness outgrew itself and became obscure pretentiousness. While I do appreciate some separate single moments of this album, I wish not all of it was about low-grade mild shapeless cacophony, promoted as the future of black metal. Conformal MoRT is definitely not, but whether you are ready for this experience will have to be decided on an individual basis. I certainly wasn’t and, as evidenced by my shorter than normal review, I am out of things to say. Feel free to make your own conclusions and draw different explanations.

Killing Songs :
Alex quoted 50 / 100
Other albums by Blut Aus Nord that we have reviewed:
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen reviewed by Goat and quoted 80 / 100
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry reviewed by Goat and quoted 84 / 100
Blut Aus Nord - 777 - The Desanctification reviewed by Goat and quoted 73 / 100
Blut Aus Nord - 777 Sect(s) reviewed by Tony and quoted 76 / 100
Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God reviewed by Tony and quoted 86 / 100
To see all 8 reviews click here
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