Band:	Forhist
Album:	Forhist
Style:	Atmospheric black metal
Release date:	February 2021

01. I
02. II
03. III
04. IV
05. V
06. VI
07. VII
08. VIII

Blut Aus Nord's Vindsval created the Yerû?elem project to channel the industrial side of Blut Aus Nord. Now he created Forhist to channel the atmospheric black metal side.

Blut Aus Nord have been one of the most prolific and versatile of black metal bands. Starting out as an atmospheric black metal band, and then steadily injecting industrial and avantgarde tendencies into said black metal, with bits of post-metal and dark ambient as well. Each album had its different quantity of these ingredients, often grouped alongside trilogies, like the melodic Memoria Vetusta ones or the post-y deconstructionalist 777 or the hypnotic What Once Was... Liber. 2019 seemed like a bit of a watershed moment for the band. Not the first one, but a pretty major one nonetheless. Because Vindsval hadn't created a new project outside of Blut Aus Nord since the 90s (the one song Karras doesn't count). Blut Aus Nord was to move on from the industrial black metal sound, whereas the newly formed Yerû?elem would tackle purely industrial metal. So now that Forhist comes along to tackle atmospheric black metal, what does it mean for Blut Aus Nord?

Well, from what I can tell, Forhist is quite a love letter to the "roots" in Norwegian Black Metal, meaning that it is quite close to the already atmospheric black metal sound of early Blut Aus Nord and the subsequent Memoria Vetusa albums, but much less concerned about any sort of quirkiness, progressiveness or experimentation. Just no frills atmospheric black metal. Cold, unforgiving, dense, dark, primitive. You know the deal. Though like The Sublime before it, it is a Blut Aus Nord album in all but name, you can quite get why these had to be released under different monikers, this one more so because it's just Vindsval with no other Blut Aus Nord members.

Forhist's debut thrives on a wall of sound of dense guitar tremolo-pinking riffs, splattered with melodic synths and leads, harsh shrieks from the coldest frostbitten mountain in the Alps, pummeling blast beats and just generally a sense that you're lost on a trek in a snowstorm. Though it's all clearly more straightforward than anything done under the Blut Aus Nord name, even if it dances quite close to what was already done under that name. Forhist doesn't really do anything more than continue the line of creating compelling atmosphere that feel both harsh and melodic. With the vocals being pushed back pretty hard in the mix, to the point where there are moments where you wonder whether those are keys or clean vocals, most of the emphasis is placed on the guitar melodies, which Vindsval seems to be in no shortage of.

I don't want to linger to long on whether this should've just been a Blut Aus Nord album, since I realize I might've found it a bit disappointing, but I can't help but be even more curious for what's in line in terms of the next Blut Aus Nord album. If the experimental side had to be pushed away for Forhist, that must only mean it must be brought back even stronger for Blut Aus Nord.