Style: progressive black metal, post-black metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Mare Cognitum, Ihsahn, Deathspell Omega, The Ruins of Beverast
Country: France
Release date: 28 November 2025

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Few bands innovate on the scale of genre—fewer still in several genres. Carcass perplexingly created both goregrind and melodic death metal; Ulver helped revolutionize pagan black metal and dark folk on their first two releases before trying their hand at a dozen other genres; and Blut Aus Nord wrote the first dissonant black metal record and then redefined industrial black metal, with some arguing they set the stage for blackgaze and psychedelic black metal, too. Although typically playing some form of dissoblack, Blut Aus Nord have an aversion to stylistic ossification like so many other excellent innovative bands. Hence, it comes as no surprise that after releasing the pair of Disharmonium albums in the early 20s, Blut Aus Nord have shed their skin yet again for their sixteenth album, Ethereal Horizons. 

The French three-piece, spearheaded by esoteric bandleader Vindsval¹, have cast off their slithering, atonal dissonance, revealing explosive and scintillating post-black metal underneath. Ethereal Horizons brims with intoxicating melodies in foreign modes; yes, Blut Aus Nord have turned to the dark side and are fully melodic now. The closest sonic touchstone to Ethereal Horizons is Mare Cognitum—both bands have similarly bright riffs enshrouded in cosmic airiness. But Blut Aus Nord feel more alien than Mare Cognitum’s cosmic disillusionment with humanity. The French trio don’t take to the heavens to escape Earth: they were always on another planet. The ethereal horizons that Blut Aus Nord conjure are filled with incomprehensible, inhuman lifeforms. Ethereal Horizons’ alienness is translated through Blut Aus Nord’s progressive riffage, shifting time signatures, and intricate multi-guitar harmonies. Black metal takes a backseat for the first time in the band’s history, as the 70s progressive rock influences shine through most brightly, with atmospheric blackened tremolos as embellishment. Guitar parts will bend and weave in three-part harmony with strange time-signatures, my favorite example of which is around the middle point of opener “Shadows Breath First.”

Aware of the strength of their melodies, Blut Aus Nord don’t feel the need to endlessly cycle through riffs, and on Ethereal Horizons the group will play with and build upon a single theme for several minutes, allowing the songs to escalate naturally while constantly increasing the complexity—adding layers of instrumentation and a more progressive bent to the riffs throughout. On the epic two-part finale “Twin Suns Reverie” and “The End Becomes Grace,” for instance, the Krallice-y ambient interlude bursts open into an expansive riff of spiraling guitars beneath a mixture of lilting, gothic clean vocals and muffled growls. The same melodic contour is continued for the next three minutes, yet it never feels overly repetitive, with new guitar and bass parts constantly fluttering their way into the background. After another ambient break in the track, Blut Aus Nord convert the same melody from earlier into a more convoluted, proggy version of itself, adding in guitars with massive reverb that sound like a whale in heat.

Yet despite the abundance of sublime riffs, the strength of Ethereal Horizons is, of course, in the atmosphere Blut Aus Nord cultivate. The record is a hypnagogic journey through dramatic alien landscapes, dreamy and heady. The guitar parts are tendrils exploring new worlds, and the excellently placed synth interludes are reminiscent of the otherworldly space ambient artists of the 80s like Steve Roach, Klaus Schulze, and Tangerine Dream. The production, too, contributes to the dreaminess, as it’s uncrowded and incredibly warm and soft—possibly to a fault, since the harsh and clean vocals alike, as well as the bass, are too quiet, mixed behind the wall of rich guitar textures and synths. The contours of the tracks’ silhouettes still have the snaking quality of the Disharmonium releases, but they’re comforting now. 

This creative direction isn’t what I expected or necessarily wanted out of a new Blut Aus Nord album, but after a dozen listens, it’s what I needed, a perfect complement to the uneasy dissonance of the previous few releases. Ethereal Horizons is exploratory and serene while harnessing the power of the cosmos—listen to the opening moments of “What Burns Now Listens” for proof of how celestial Ethereal Horizons can be. Without a single wasted riff or ambient section in the fifty-minute runtime—and the record actually grows stronger in its back half—this iteration of Blut Aus Nord is among their historic best. Enjoy melodic Blut Aus Nord while it lasts because we all know Vindsval will take another stylistic detour soon, but I’m sure whatever he does next will also be brilliant and alien—the Frenchmen have had a knack for capturing the incomprehensible.

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Recommended tracks: Shadows Breathe First, The Fall Opens the Sky, The End Becomes Grace
You may also like: Yellow Eyes, Thy Darkened Shade, Vauruvã, Krallice
Final verdict: 8.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Debemur Morti Productions

Blut Aus Nord is:
– Vindsval (guitars, vocals)
– W.D. Feld (drums, electronics, keyboards)
– Ghöst (bass)

1. Who finally gave his first interview in the years leading up to Ethereal Horizons. Read it here for interesting insights into one of the most creative minds in metal. ↩︎