siLLy puPPy Tucked away between the groundbreaking black metal release “The Work Which Transforms God” and the utter insanity of the following “MoRT,” BLUT AUS NORD dropped its first EP which would lead to a series of EP’s interspersed within the band’s prolific output of albums. While black metal has pretty much been the name of the game since Vindsval started the project as a one-man band back in the 90s, on this first EP verbosely titled THEMATIC EMANATION OF ARCHETYPAL MULTIPLICITY (SOUNDTRACKS FOR SCIENTISTS OF OCCULT SYNCHRETISM), not only does Vindsval (vocals, guitars) and friends W.D. Feld (drums, keyboards) and GhÖst (bass) scream their fascination with esoteric knowledge but take a brief respite away from the black metal world and instead focus on the industrial, dark ambient and dungeon synth sounds that fully blossomed with “The Work” album.

THEMATIC EMANATION is a fascinating procession of gloomy atmospheric stomps through five tracks that for the most part leave out the metal part altogether. The major exception is the track “Level-1 (Nothing Is)” which offers a sneak peak into the bizarre and morbidly twisted guitar torture that would be a prominent feature on the following “MoRT” which fancied the most extreme sound manipulations to craft one of the most psychedelic black metal experiences ever laid down to a recording. Other than that second track, THEMATIC EMANATION focuses on percussive beats and darkened thick atmospheres of impending dread and doom. In fact this could be called doom synth as it’s utterly snail-paced creepy. The EP is only slightly over 28 minutes long and for the most part delivers an interesting mix of variations on percussive beats and dark ambient with some guitars thrown in once in a while.

The sole exception to the dreary setting is the oddball of the bunch, the third track “Level-2 (Nothing Is Not)” which features a trip hop beat, a busy techno styled bass groove and tinny sounding drum machines. While not a bad track say if it were on a Prodigy album or another similar artist, it does sound like a fish out of water on this release although it does have a nice creepy middle section when the percussion and bass drop out. It’s actually danceable and would make a great Goth party remix of some sort!n The following two tracks take a more sinister approach. “Level-3 (Nothing Becomes)” is the freakiest. What sounds like Tibetan bells or chimes exhibit an irregular sort of oddly timed beat while a creepy drone slowly slinks in and out of tune while chanting emanates from dark places along with other styles of weirded out vocals. This actually sounds more like some the industrial band Coil would conjure up in their early years of pure demented glory.

“Exit (Towards The Asylum)” ends the EP with a deranged vocal chant and some weird industrial sounds and before you know it, the short playing time ends which is unusual for BLUT AUS NORD since most albums are close to the hour length. This is a pretty cool album actually. The metal is practically nonexistent save the one track but the band had the opportunity to display all the creepy accompaniments introduced on “The Work” album and allow them to shine in the limelight although light doesn’t actually reach this far down into the abyss. For a metal band, this trio deliver a really interesting take on dark ambient that is quite effective which is why the black metal albums sound so good as this is a vital part but even without the metal, these sounds are quite effective at evoking the bleakest emotive responses. This album is most easily found on the releases of “The Work Which Transforms God” that has this one as a bonus disc, however even if it weren’t so easily obtained as a tagged on freebie, i’d still go out of my way to track this down.