Review by Sonny for Blut aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue With the Stars (2009)

Blut aus Nord were a band I never found easy to get into, finding the wilful dissonance of albums like the legendary Work Which Transforms God and MorT too much to take. Yet somehow I kept returning to them, as if on a subconscious level I realised there was something special here even if I didn't quite get what it was yet. I must admit to still struggling with TWWTG, the band's so-called opus, but in the Memoria Vetusta trilogy of albums I have found a vein I can really tap into with this band.

On MV2 the dissonance is still present in the underlying riffs, but the clean, overlaid guitar work is gorgeously melodic and, along with the reedy-sounding keyboards, is extremely effective as a counterpoint to the pummelling of the meat of the tracks. Regarding the keyboards, BaN's use of them here is quite restrained and they aren't slathered all over the tracks in a way that overwhelms and undermines the sound, unlike any number of ham-fisted symphonic BM outfits who've watched too many old gothic horror movies. The melodies are instantly memorable and the interwoven guitar work is probably the most obvious aspect of the album at first, yet with every single listen MV2 reveals a little more of it's hidden depths - surely the sign of a truly great musical endeavour.

Despite the more melodic approach BaN take here, there is still plenty of aggression and dissonance on offer, particularly in the vocal department and I don't want to give the impression this is an easy listen, but rather it rewards the listener the more one invests into it. As with all atmo-black there is a level of repetition, but this isn't as pronounced as some, with plenty of tempo and tone changes along the way to keep the listener engaged rather than hypnotised.

The subtitle Dialogue With the Stars may sound a little grandiose, but the music does feel as if it is being projected outwards on some grand cosmic scale, in an attempt to speak to the very furnaces of creation themselves. With this album Blut aus Nord have created one of the classics of atmospheric black metal, celebrating the majestic beauty of the universe in a way few have got close to equalling.