Review: Blut aus Nord – Ethereal Horizons

Review by Jeger

Blut aus Nord – Ethereal Horizons

Record Label: Debemur Morti Productions

Year: 2025

Rating: 9.5/10

The veil that divides Black Metal from the supernatural is a thin one. To transcend this earthly realm into places only imaginable. Through portals, upon pathways and along avenues that stretch far beyond the void and carry you through unfathomable peril, through where beauty thrives or wherefrom great mysteries of the beyond beckon us upon our travels. For are we not just that? Travelers… Destination? Unknown… But it is within the sphere of Black Metal’s empirical reality where we find ourselves right this moment. I can think of no better place to be. Today, November 28, 2025, France’s Blut Aus Nord unveiled their 16th LP offering, “Ethereal Horizons”, via Debemur Morti Productions.

Blut Aus Nord is a French Atmospheric/Avant-Garde Black Metal band that got its start in 1994 alongside fellow Frenchmen, SETH and Gorgon, but Blut is a whole different mechanism. Functional to the essence of BM in its most experimental yet soulful forms. And having immersed themselves in the enigmatic world of Lovecraft for the past couple of years, “Ethereal Horizons” is the product of Blut Aus Nord being in the throes of imagination. And that product is a shimmering, glistening gem along your path towards real BM enlightenment – a blessed gnosis that transpires when one has finally developed the ability to allow for recordings such as this one to transport them away from this drab pressure cooker we call existence. To visualize and explore! To escape… Escape into “Shadows Breathe First” where ethereal is most certainly the vibe. More like the ambient stuff you put on for sleep until Blut Aus Nord proceeds to do what they do most efficiently, and that is to astonish. Imagine a series of melodies so urgent and so grande, almost siren-like, and set to power blasts and earth-moving double-bass currents. A layered sonic tapestry of what feel like chaotic passages; opposite to one another but formulated to fit together somehow when mixed.

If the future had a sound, this would be it. A sonic portrait of what transpires beyond the point of understanding. Like stepping off of a spacecraft onto another far more advanced planet than ours. Terrified and awed simultaneously. Suspense builds, bewilderment has its way. What inspires an album like this? What kind of concepts are we delving into here? Lovecraft, yes, but also the human condition, it seems, existential madness like “Seclusion” – crossing over the divide that separates what was something so beautiful but now sinister. Spiraling down further through insanity’s hourglass as each maniacal second ticks away. Uneasy about this now…

Blut aus Nord

“Ethereal Horizons” is no casual listen. It’s an album that deserves your attention, all of it. How else will you take in such drastic shifts in mood? An adventure like life itself with so many rises and falls, ecstatic highs and dreadful lows, but always stunning. Even during those aforementioned sinister parts, there’s majesty to behold. You lose yourself in records like this. Zoning out as it manipulates your psyche; striking up feelings of anxiety before you’re soothed over with waves of melody, swells of bass and warm, clean guitar parts during “The Ordeal”. Not everyone will have the patience for this. “Antichrist” era Gorgoroth is nowhere to be found here, only the profoundness of a hundred epiphanies, the power of solar wind and the mystique of, well, Black Metal… That feeling of wonder that took you on that day that you listened to Sear Bliss for the first time, or of infatuation as you experienced Enslaved or …And Oceans. You know, the kind of stuff you don’t really get with any other sub-genre.

This is Black Metal at its maximum potential. Freeform yet systematic, frenetic yet refined by the master-level of discipline exuded by Blut Aus Nord. Another panic attack – “What Burns Now Listens” – a heart-rate-accelerating, mostly instrumental piece that builds into cacophonous and eerie soundscapes: ethereal chants, ghostly chorales, low growls, ringing cymbal strikes and the dreamlike pulse of the guitars. Otherworldly but reined in by some hearty riffs here and there. 51 minutes of your life to transform or to alleviate. To transcend or to escape. Any way that “Ethereal Horizons” works on you will be the right way. A little shot of destiny to either mesmerize or have the less experienced of you scratching your heads. You can still appreciate French even though you may not be able to speak it. No matter your interest in Black Metal, this is one of the great ones. It’s innovative without coming off as pretentious and Avant-Garde, but not in an obnoxious way. For every superlative moment, there’s one of fundamentals. For every complex composition, there’s one of simple melody; all tying together into one remarkable Black Metal album.

The other side of somewhere… The mysterious realm of who knows? A quest through Space and time or through dreams and the Astral Plane. Your guess is as good as mine. This album’s true concept and purpose remain mysterious, the only truth for now being the stark reality that “Ethereal Horizons” is one of the great Atmospheric Black Metal albums and that Blut Aus Nord is one of the great French Black Metal collectives. You’ll be ready to dumb it down with some old-school Impaled Nazarene after this one. And a cold beer! Knock one back for me, friend. An album worth celebrating.