Throughout history Thule represented a point of interest for any curious and brave enough to sail beyond the borders of the known world. Few returned yet the elusiveness of this legendary land in the north only encouraged more souls to seek it. Depending on who you ask and when, Thule is a lot of things. Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, Shetland, Norway but all of this actually does not matter for the symbolism became more important than the actual location. And even despite Nazi occultists' best attempts to ruin that with their gibberish like they've done with swastikas, Thule endured, eternally frozen and unfazed by trivial human.
The latest artist who used this term as an inspiration is none other than Alexander von Meilenwald, the German wizard behind one of the best black metal projects in recent years, The Ruins Of Beverast. On his sixth effort The Thule Grimoires, Meilenwald removes humans out of the equation and presents vast stretches of empty, inhospitable lands with none but us few to witness. This in itself is nothing particularly new to his work but the approach definitely is.
If we look at his previous full-length Exuvia, you'll notice the songs behaving like they're in a mantric state, repeating for long periods of time but never crossing the threshold towards boredom. The tribal-like atmosphere and shamanic hums only reinforce the unique atmosphere Exuvia is renowned for. On The Thule's Grimoires however, a much different story is taking place for this is a much colder affair with 80's like melancholy dripping from practically every song but the spiritual undertones of all his previous works remain. This melancholy stems from a struggle or rather, a lack of it between us and nature and as you can imagine, nature is "winning" and slowly retaking everything we've polluted with our presence.
The opener "Ropes Into Eden" introduces these new motifs perfectly with occasional reverb-heavy clean guitars and muffled chants emerging after a frozen sea of blast beats that dominate the opening section of the song. A spoken word interlude follows and afterwards, doom. Metaphorical doom yes but in this case I am referring to doom as a genre. Up to this record, I've never heard Meilenwald flirt with it as much as he did here. Think Monotheist-era Celtic Frost, Type O Negative or Paradise Lost. However, he goes further by implementing sounds reminiscent of The Cure, Depeche Mode and even Dead Can Dance. In my mind no track represents this shift as well as "Kromlec'h Knell" which is his most catchy song to date.
Writing that sentence is as weird as it may seem but what could've been a failure turns out to be one of the best moments on the whole album. Granted, some fans may feel very differently about it but as someone who appreciates artists experimenting, this is just scratches all the itches I did not I had. Only Meilenwald is capable of intertwining immediacy with melancholy in this manner and no matter how hard I try picturing this to you, my attempts pale in comparison with the actual results so let's move on seeing as things continue being just as interesting on the following track but for very different reasons.
After what was a strangely energetic track, we come to a droning halt. Living up to its name, "Mammothpolis" is a massive song, not because of its crunchy guitar tone, blastbeats but due to a lack of them, at least for the larger part of the song. Before the imminent climax, foreboding chants ala Sulphur Aeon at their most Lovecraft-y, synths and periodic clean guitar pluck is all you'll be hearing. It's a welcomed change of pace but I needed some time because I wasn't as impressed with it during my initial voyages.
"Anchoress In Furs" gets back into the thick of it in a big way and fans of Exuvia will especially be pleased as the vibe here mirrors it in certain key things such as the drumming and surrounding ambience. Ironically, despite it being one of the "shorter" tracks here, I find myself a bit unengaged during the outro but the spoken word part that follows signals the coming of an absolute beast of a track - "Polar Hiss Hysteria".
Simply put, this shit riffs! It riffs so hard in fact that I wished Meilenwald would write more riffs like this nimble beast and the short blazing solo only reaffirms my statement.
Of course, things are fluid and that monstrous riff transforms into even more metallic-drenched 80's goodness.
I find myself at a loss for words here and I hope you don't mind me approaching this in a more standard song-by-song fashion as I am afraid I would dilly dally too much and get lost in the sea of words I would surely churn out. Do not take my lack of inspiration here as something that translates to the record in question. In fact it's the opposite as I have revisited this record more than any other in The Ruins Of Beverast' discography. This is without a doubt due to a more compact and focused songwriting path taken as it accelerates the one hour and ten minute journey that potentially awaits you. I find this point especially important because even with this glacier of quality Meilenwald is keen on expanding, I don't visit his realms as often simply because of the demanding nature of his work but more importantly the length of his albums which I sometimes find unwarranted. However, despite The Thule Grimoires containing a few of these moments, the overall package is much tighter and riff-oriented which is why I dig it as much.
Regarding of your stance on this particular record, I do not doubt for a second that this is, at the time of writing, the best entry point for potential newcomers. What's truly fascinating is that this was not Meilenwald's intent seeing how his artistic vision and spirit continue to seep from each and every note. THAT's what makes Alexander's work stand out from all the other artists that continually redefine themselves. So if you still haven't, now would be a great time to get acquainted with this wonderful band.
The Thule Grimoires was released on January 30th through Ván Records.
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