Blut, Demo 2014: Madness Reborn
As the guitar and bass duo of S.M. (also drums and vocals) and N.B. (also synth and vocals), Blut began a reign of terror in the Dorset, UK, underground with 2010’s Ritual and Ceremony (review here). Their concoctions were immediately an absinthe of ill-intended noise, a wash of murderous disaffection. Grief and Incurable Pain (review here) followed in 2011, and Drop out and Kill (review here) after that in 2012, each one more demented than the last, the coherence of Blut‘s chaos, the precision behind it, serving as one of its most vicious aspects. They owed a minor debt to Dorset’s doom lords, Electric Wizard, but their strain was more virulent and just plain meaner than that band ever showed interest in being. When 2013 came and went without word, it seemed safe to assume S.M. and N.B. had inadvertently conjured a Lovecraftian hellbeast of one sort or another that swifted them off to a darkened plane of existence littered with intestines and other sundry viscera. Turns out that’s not the case. They got a drummer. Bringing on board Shaun Rutter (should he be S.R. from here on out?), who bashed the rolling grooves of Electric Wizard‘s landmark 2007 return, Witchcult Today, and its 2010 follow-up, Black Masses (review here), probably won’t do much to lessen the comparisons between the two groups, but it has made Blut‘s grooves all the more lethal, and the three-song Demo 2014 makes that plain over the course of 44 grueling minutes of slow churn, nasty screams, dense low end and, of course, the psychedelic violence to which Blut has become so prone.
For S.M. and N.B., working with Rutter is a major change, not only in the lineup of Blut, but also the configuration. A trio’s dynamic is much different than that of a duo, and so it makes sense that they might want to feel out the shift with a demo before embarking on a fourth full-length, but to be honest, if Demo 2014 had arrived tagged as a long-player, given its own fuck-off-and-die-esque title, I probably wouldn’t have blinked. Blut‘s recordings have always been tape-worthy rough, and the rawer they go, the meaner they sound, so in the past they’ve reveled in it. Demo 2014, at least in the basic sound of it, isn’t much different. The change is more stylistic than sonic. Three cuts, “Child Killer on Cloven Hoof” (13:28), “Abuse” (7:05) and “Murder before Larceny” (23:35), find Blut still caked in noise, but somewhat less excruciating than they have been. Drop out and Kill showed evidence of a move away from pure noise and drone, so I won’t put it all on Rutter‘s joining, but that S.M. and N.B. would bring in anyone else at all speaks to their wanting to make Blut more readily able to translate to a live setting, and to make it more of a band. The songs show that as well, and while “Child Killer on Cloven Hoof” — which may or may not be a sequel to “Alcoholic on Cloven Hoof” from the last album — is still a thick morass, it also has movement to it that continues through most of its span until abrasive feedback takes hold in the last two minutes or so. Before that, however, the sludge-style roll is a genuine nod, cut through periodically with rhythmic screaming, but making its most resonant impression in the depths of its rumble and the swing that carries it across.
And taking Demo 2014 as a demo release, that is, as a demonstration, it showed Blut‘s development not only in personnel, but in developing a more varied attack. The instrumental “Abuse” is seven minutes of hypnotic drone, but the smoke-wisps of psych-fuzz lead guitar put the listener in a different mindset entirely from the opener. “Murder before Larceny” resumes more of the sludgy roll that “Child Killer on Cloven Hoof” worked with, but seems also to bring the two sides together, leads peppered into the initial movement as verses make way until, shortly before 10 minutes in, the drums cut out and an echoing feedback takes hold. A hard-edged drone takes hold and develops into a consuming wash over the next six minutes, and though by then it seems there’s no escape, Rutter kicks back in on drums at 15:55 and “Murder before Larceny” resumes a march, such as it is. More of a slog, perhaps. The tempo is down like it’s been shot in the leg, the screams that arrive soon after are depraved, and the atmosphere takes on an almost Godfleshian sense of inhumanity. What devolves from there is the final stretch of “Murder before Larceny,” as S.M., N.B. and Rutter proceed to end the march with toxic rumble and feedback that nonetheless has a sort of trance-inducing effect. Their malevolence has always been what’s distinguished them, but as they return from their year-plus in the ether, Blut show there’s method to their madness beyond the creation of searing bite and volume. That they’d turn back and make a demo is reasonable as they explore the new dynamic with Rutter on board, but if these three songs prove anything, it’s that they’re ready to continue moving forward.
