new album from B.A.N. leaked out. Impressions?

to me is really well made but too epic, I miss the disharmonic anarchy of the previous ones. Odinist still remains my favourite.

Same here my friend...

I don't like it when a band revisits older themes from their past approach to music when they were finally getting so far away from it. Odinist is also my favorite album from the band.

From Memoria Vetusta I booklet:

I think this answers the "it's a step back" comments pretty well. You wouldn't expect them to create something completely different from the first one, would you?

Oh, and Odinist was a step back too. And their most superfluous album in my opinion.

Personally, I like Memoria Vetusta II more than I though I would. But as in your case, it's not the BAN I want.

*Looks forward to Lighteater.*

Yeah, I expected much more and something completely different and original, knowing this was the Pt. II. Like when DHG took Kronet Til Konge riffs and made a Pt. II out of them with "Haemorrhage - Era One Reconstructed". Or wait, what about Virus taking "Strange Calm" and updating it? Or the unreleased Nattens Madrigal classical-ambient version? Even Dimmu Borgir, for God's sake, know how to change their For All Tid songs into something completely different, whey they play them live. And you can't call Dimmu a daring and experimental band.

In other words, "Pt. II" doesn't necessarily translate to - "let's do the same again".

Odinist was a step back if you take into consideration the album before it: that's fine by me. But then take the whole discography of the band and consider Odinist on its own terms: it's not a step back anymore. They had never done that before.

Superfluous? Oh well, that's a matter of taste. I don't think we could ever agree on this one, and that's also fine by me!

Odinist sounds like a mix of their old and new stuff, with only one really powerful song (the title one). And even that has the main riff "stolen" (and updated) from one of the tracks on The Mystical Beast Of Rebellion. I see it as a "filler" album. Nothing really interesting or original here.

I've heard the new album only twice so far, and yes, it's a(nother) step back, but that's exactly what I expected, and it was announced as such, so I don't see that as a problem. Even though I'd rather hear some another experimental album from this band. Maybe they reached their limits with MoRT? As I already said, I'm really curious about Lighteater.

http://www.metal.de/stories.php4?was=story&id=821

Vindsval talking about the desire to compose melodic music again. And MoRT indeed is probably the last "bleak" album of the band. At least for now.

Well that's a bummer, MoRT is the only thing I've heard from them that interested me.

I think Thematic Emanations was his best release, together with Mystical Beast and The Work. Those three releases totally freaked me up at their releases, I felt there was really something out of this world here, creepy and absurd ! After that, Mort, Odinist... The magic felt. I'm glad Vindsval tried a Pt 2 returning to his old viking cosmic landscapes, but still, agree with the dude before - cant wait for Lighteater =)

ps : sorry for the english !

By the way, you guys should check out Way To End. Hailing from Caen as well, kind of developping the same bleak creepy sound, but with a more operatic approach, with lots of influences hailing from the VBE-related scene, like a warmer and beautiful Apocryphal Voice. The tracks here are unmixed versions of the forthcoming album.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=404136498

So many seem to laud Odinist... I was somewhat disappointed with that one. Still awesome, but it all kinda sounded the same, and Vindsval didn't use the fretless-note-bend magic or the emotional bowed/feedback notes. Not much that gave me the chills like Work or Mort do.

As for the new one, I was expecting Part II, exactly as the title states. I've only heard "The Formless Sphere" so far (I'd rather wait for the CD release to hear the rest; yes, I still buy all my music), and I absolutely love it. I don't care much for MV Part I (monotony again), so this seems far more promising. Kinda like "Immortal Pride"-era Graveland played and altered by Vind and the boys.

But I definitely hope the guitar notes don't stay in tune for long after MV2

is it allready out???

damn I have to listen to it then...

My impressions later on

Exactly, which is why I think it's the best thing they've done. It takes all their ideas up to that point and fits them into a more cohesive and polished format. It was nothing new, more an improvement on what came before. But apparently they didn't know where to go from there, and stumbled several steps backwards...the new album is a bore. Melodic black metal isn't something I want to hear, even if Blut Aus Nord does it better than most.

Very nice! Reminds me quite a bit of another French band, Darvulia. The French seem to do dissonance better than anyone else these days. I will be looking forward to a release from them.

I like this new album a lot. Way better than the last two, which in my opinion were absolute snooze-fests. MORT was the SAME SONG played eight times, and Odinist just didn't keep my attention.

This new album brings back "songs" and melody, along with plenty of experimental sounds and atmosphere.

I may be in the minority here, but I think it's even better than "The Work That Transforms God".

Strike me down now.