The Work Which Transforms God

French black metal grinders Blut Aus Nord have been written about as the second coming of Satan -- if Satan had a progressive approach to making a particularly European strain of black metal -- and, judging by their own comments and web site, they might even believe that themselves!. Sonically, these guys love dissonance; they love thick heavy atmospheres and feedback and they love to mess with tempos stretching out time and sending it into a void. This is supposed to be aesthetically artistic and innovative music, and it might be for the genre, but all one has to do is listen to Killing Joke's What's This For? from 1980, and strain it through early Godflesh, the vocals of the Germs' Darby Crash, and the crazy, early Burzum textures, and you get the picture. Blut Aus Nord claim their music as being truly frightening. It's not. And they have to do something about those songs titles: "Procession of the Dead Clowns"? C'mon. Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J of ICP should sue. While the hype is more than the meat, The Work Which Transforms God is a compelling and knotty listen; it squeals, plods, cracks, screeches, whirs and wails in differing shades of black. The second coming of Louis Cipher this might be, but Satan? No way. ~ Thom Jurek