A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, before going Star Trek-like on black metal and boldly going where no one had gone before, France’s mysterious entity Blut Aus Nord were a pure product of their times.
As fucked up as the path later became, its sole member, Vindsval, never forgot his roots and thus conjured a series of albums called Memoria Vetusta (as a reference to the title of his 1996 second full-length) stylistically rooted in the mid-90s Scandinavian sound. But despite its classic painted artwork courtesy of Kristian ‘Necrolord’ Wahlin, the third volume in the series isn’t just a nostalgia trip. The presence, for the first time ever on a BAN recording, of an actual drummer brings a whole different and more complex vibe that requires your full attention. Quorthon’s shadow still looms heavily but compared to the cosmic sounds of 2009’s II: Dialogue With The Stars, III: Saturnian Poetry feels more earthy yet just as majestic, every second being permeated with that, dare it be said, uplifting vibe that made black metal sound so alive two decades ago.
Via Debemur Morti
