A rather unbelievable sixteenth full-length from genre mainstays Blut Aus Nord and, as can be judged from the cinematic cover art, again something of a shift in style. For although still mining the same kind of nightmarish otherworldly gold that they have since the early 2000s, Ethereal Horizons feels somehow less sinister and malevolent than past outings, particularly on opener and album highlight Shadows Breathe First. After a melancholic opening the black metal storm awakens as expected, albeit in a far more triumphant and epic style than before, with yearning clean vocals joining the thunderous music to surprisingly beautiful results. It's even rather catchy in a strange way, certainly the most inviting and welcoming song that the band have ever made and feeling more spiritually akin to something like Alcest than past Chthonic invocations of dread, particularly in the song's midpoint and onwards where it turns almost proggy in its instrumental exploration!

Long-term listeners will know that your correspondent hasn't always been the most vocal fan of Blut Aus Nord's formula on certain of their past releases, seeming to repeat themselves to the point of insanity with heavily diminishing returns. Yet this opening track alone is so terrific that a full discography reassessment is surely due in the new year, possibly recasting the band's previous failed efforts as steps leading up to this glorious moment of triumph! And the rest of the album follows closely behind in terms of quality, the generally epic vibes that of parting clouds revealing the face of gods to the intrepid explorers. Although as Seclusion shows, there's plenty of the psychedelic vibes of the Hallucinogen era still lingering, merging with the stately melodies of the Memoria Vetusta albums to produce something not entirely different from the band's past efforts but more than fitting in here. The general atmosphere is as profound as promised.

And it's all handled with plenty of skill. If those drums are programmed, for instance, someone went to a lot of trouble to make them sound organic; to name just one example, listen to the cymbals and kicks on The Ordeal! Which already has the sort of grasp of melody usually associated with the Tools of the world, moving with genuine emotion-laden steps with dips into relative ambience without losing the listener or the momentum gained. Even when outright blasting, as on arguably the most black metal piece present The Fall Opens the Sky, Blut Aus Nord remain shimmeringly beautiful. And the band builds on that on the following What Burns Now Listens, the synths constructing towers of melody, taking off across distant echoing vocals before the guitars resurface to counterpoint and seize attention - marvellous stuff. Perhaps longest piece present and closer The End Becomes Grace can be seen as something of an anticlimax after that (two-minute interlude Twin Suns Reverie is definitely rather pointless, feeling disjointed in comparison to the rest of the album) yet it still grips from the start and distinguishes itself from other pieces with oceanic and distinctly watery-sounding dips into ambience that feel like making planetfall on some strange, alien planet. If only Blut Aus Nord were consistently this good!