777 - Cosmosophy

Blut Aus Nord are a band that offer a lot to their listeners. We had the chance of hearing them experiment with dissonance, melody, clean vocals, trip hop, ambient and even post metal. And then just like that, all those experiments came together and with the addition of Vindsval's eclectic taste and exceptional talent, Cosmosophy came to life. Usually when a band goes so far away from its roots the fans are divided in two fields. The ones that love it and the ones that hate it. With Cosmosophy that only happened partially... For instance in this website, the album has been receiving mixed reviews. I am by no means judging the other reviewers, just trying to bring an example to the table... However there are many fans that long for an album like Cosmosophy.

This band has always had a strong personality, releasing groundbreaking album after groundbreaking album. And trust me there are moments in their discography that are as heavy as it gets. This album however is without a doubt the most heavy sounding of all. It is slow paced with guitars heavier than a million albums and a drum machine that creates an eerie rhythm section. Also there is a thick layer of keyboards that enforces the album's industrial feeling. But at the end of the day, only two things can battle for the title of the most amazing component of the album. The guitar melodies and harmonies and Vindsval's clean vocals. The former feature some of those leads that only occur once in a band's discography, ranging from fierce soloing to spine-chilling slides. The latter were a surprise for me. I knew Vindsval could do clean vocals but not in such an amazing manner! He almost sings his lungs off, being too loud but not obtrusively loud. On the contrary his performance is beyond passionate, especially in Epitome XVII. I still think his vocal performance in Memoria Vetusta III is superior, but this one caught me completely off guard. The lyrics are not THAT great but they do work. If we only had them in full I could be more (or less) convinced about it. If you have no problem with wall-of-text lyrics or extremely minimal two-line lyrics (for a nine minute song), then congratulations this album is destined to be in your CD player! But seriously the musical part makes it even so you won't have any problem absorbing it.

As you can probably tell this album stands out for me. It is more diverse than one could hope for and seriously, who would say no to an album of such magnitude? I have said it before, Blut Aus Nord simply cannot let me down but this is beyond expectations. Highly emotional and definitely a grower, it is a must for every fan of melodic metal, post-metal, shoegaze and even classic black metal. And there you go with another awesome result that Cosmosophy might have. It can push you to explore different genres and broaden your horizons. Without a doubt, buy at first sight.

Favorite tracks: You know what? I think I'll go with 'All of them!'. Except for 'Epitome XV' but I am not so sure about that.

93/100.