MEMORIA VETUSTA II: DIALOGUE WITH THE STARS

Designating this album as a sequel to the earlier Memoria Vetusta album is a fairly clear sign that this time around Blut Aus Nord intends to kick back and get back to its roots rather than pressing into more novel territory. As far as old school atmospheric black metal with a progressive spin goes, it's reasonably acceptable album. As you might expect from the subtitle, there's a spacey angle woven into the music here and there - nothing as way-out-there as Darkspace, but just an undercurrent slipped in via the band's adept and subtle use of synthesisers, which is never allowed to overshadow the main point of the exercise - which is to rock the hell out, old school black metal style.

That said, after digesting more challenging works by the band like MoRT I find that this one tends to pale a little by comparison; it gives every impression of being recorded as a pallette-cleanser between more experimental works, and feels a little anonymous compared to the more unique works by the band. It's good, but it's not a classic.