The early ‘00s were a time of sonic upheaval in black metal. Tectonic plates were shifting, stars were realigning into some configuration never dreamt of by black metal’s originators, and likely never intended by the 2nd Wave of the early ‘90s. EMPEROR silenced its existence for a time with the uber-progressive – and final – studio album, Prometheus: The Discipline Of Fire & Demise, France’s BLUT AUS NORD would drop The Work Which Transforms God in ’03, and ENSLAVED released the still-divisive Below The Lights. Into this shift strode BLODULV.

With albums simply titled I, II and III – Burial, the core duo of Grendel and Orcus (joined by vocalist Morn for I and II, Nekro for the final nail, BLODULV was clearly of a time not ready to – or even close to – surrender its white-knuckled grip on grim and chaotic black arts as laid down in the ancient tomes of its ancestors. ‘Regulus – Peaceraper’ rips through the aural barriers of I, memorable in riff-craft, elements of BATHORY and MARDUK recognizable in the battery, while ‘Odium’ lurches forth, yet sure of its footing, a confident, slow stride/stomp, spilling over the brim of the blood-filled chalice baptizing the unfaithful in their own claret.

Featuring two 7+ minute songs and one over 9 minutes in length, one might see II as the sound of a band becoming more “comfortable” with itself but be assured ‘Tyrant’ (the latter) – and BLODULV on the whole – is the antithesis of comfort, a shining blackside of a mirror of the members’ states of mind, a dark, unwelcoming corridor. Phantasmagoric at times, elusive and chimeric, the trance state is severed at around the halfway mark, plunging one into cacophonous and demented BLACK METAL scratched large on the inner skull.

Released a scant three years after the initial Kristkrossare demo, III – Burial was to put an end to BLODULV, but the quartet (because when you name your drum machine, it counts as a member – just ask Andrew Eldritch) burns bright as it did at birth, if not brighter, ‘Imperial Sanctum (Bleeding Mercury)’ positively rending, the entire Hell rendered in primitive riff assault and vocal scathe with no solo, bass and – most brilliantly – drums so far back in the mix that the entire album often sounds as if “The One And Only Sir Electro” had already shut himself into the crypt.

If you’re gonna die, make it on your own terms. BLODULV surely did, and now these reissues rise from fetid soil to pollute a whole new generation of minds and bodies.
Review By: Lord Randall

BLODULV
I
II
III – Burial
Ophidian Sun