This won’t be the first time this dictum has been voiced, but 2011 seems to have been an epochal year for black metal. Purists might argue that mainstream assimilation has only brushed the outer edges of the scene (the hipster orbit, or some daft designation) and that the assimilation is actually a false categorisation anyway: sure, Liturgy and Wolves in the Throne Room might be in the New Yorker, but the former are a special case in that they have an articulate ‘spokesperson’ and the latter are just hippies, and besides both are false metal anyway so why worry. But what this does mean, of course, is that the deeper darker reaches of the scene pick up commercial light by association. And beyond the ghoulish aesthetic fascination with the corpse-paint and church burning faction, which has a) always drawn attention and b) was never really about an interest in the music anyway, there’s no denying the increased presence of black metal in mainstream discourse, and in the relentless accursed unspooling of the end of year lists.

I tend to be fairly ambivalent about the vagaries of the mainstream eye, assuming that it’ll pass on to something else next week/next month, but I do feel curiously protective of black metal. It’s always seemed to be the poor backwoods cousin of extreme music, little understood beyond surface impressions and (and this is probably the fault of self-appointed scene guardians and spokespersons, ie those who shout/act loudest) often lumped together as a monolithic entity, devoid of expansion and stylistic nuance. Paradoxically, I guess I also like to think of black metal, like the outer reaches of all experimental music, as having that quality of excessiveness that would always resist the assimilative hunger of the mainstream – there is always a remainder, a relic of evasive otherness that resists interpretation.

So where do French black metal act Blut Aus Nord fit into all that? There’s something to be said for the way they have handled silence over their 15 year existence (firstly as a solo project of mainstay Vindsval, latterly as a 3-piece band) – they’re far from the first black metal act to adopt a self-sewn veil of obscurity, but their silence has a paradoxical quality of articulateness about it. (There’s probably something to be said for the fact that all black metal could be read as an attempt to articulate silence – the very sound could be said to be the opposite of silence: traditionally it is an all-or-nothing sound, a sonic wall in which instruments become indistinguishable from voice, and vice versa – it’s like the primal nature it purports to venerate: pick up one corner and you find everything is attached to everything else). But I think their greatest coup – and it’s a simple one, really – has been to have remained true to whatever scene diktats the hardcore adhere too, whilst innovating relentlessly.

The early records, from Ultima Thuleé to The Mystical Beast of Rebellion (and parts of The Work Which Transforms God) were probably what you would call pure black metal – horizontally vast and wild with that harsh, ripping quality that the best artists achieve. Mort introduced a different pace – slower, more diseased – with a deeper production that has remained a part of their sound to this day. That depth allowed for a more industrial expansion, and also a harsh metallic undertow that is a signature part of their sound. They also began to explore more straightforward northern European death metal sounds.

All of which brings us to the 777 trilogy, two parts of which have emerged this year, the final part mooted to appear in March 2012. As a pairing, Sects and The Desancitification are a mighty summation of everything the band have achieved to date and are really something of an achievement for a band who have been around for as long as Blut Aus Nord have. Sects from earlier this year is ostensibly the blacker of the two albums, featuring more of the wall of guitars and shrieking atavism that characterised their early work (especially on ‘Epitome I’, ‘III’ and ‘V’ – all the songs on both releases follow this naming convention); yet even these tracks have the other traits mentioned above woven into their fabric – the depth in the production, that oddly metallic edge to things; and I can hear Carcass in the choppy interaction of the guitars and even some Gorefest in the way they abruptly shift rhythms.

‘Epitome VI’ and ‘VII’ are the two tracks that act as a bridge between the two albums, the latter being as ‘bright’ a track as they’ve recorded to date. The Desancitification, as mentioned above, is, on the whole, the more mid-paced of the two albums with some almost ‘classic metal’ passages – think of the mid-section of ‘Epitome VIII’ and the striding rhythm of ‘Epitome XI’. Their other major influence is Justin Broadrick, and Godflesh’s brutal clattering rhythms are present throughout the second record, with W.D. Feld’s bass drum sounding like a block of concrete (especially on ‘Epitome XII’). A few people have also hinted at some spare post-punk influences as well, with nods to the empty spaces of early Cure albums.

Returning to that idea of 2011 being epochal in some way for black metal and the paradoxical idea of the excessive nature of extreme music, I think it’s fair to say that the impasse remains intact. The kernel of the scene (such as it is) remains as ephemeral and elusive as ever, which is as much a reflection on the means of production and reception as anything else – you don’t stumble across this stuff easily, and when you do, the chances are it’s already gone. And, just as importantly, the kernel of the music similarly remains inviolate. True, several acts, including Blut Aus Nord, have to some extent ‘crossed over’ and the chances are this will continue to happen (it’s like an efflorescence, or a temporary radiance) and the process for this remains obscure. What is certain though is that flannel aside, with these two albums and the mooted third part, Blut Aus Nord are in the midst of making one of the definitive metal-related statements of recent times. Bring on part three.

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