Vinny's Reviews
It is no secret that I love me some Ulcerate. They enjoy that rarefied space in my estimation whereby I hold them in such high esteem that I would buy anything they put out without hearing it first. Like Gorguts and Immolation, Ulcerate have more than earned their props over the years and despite being the youngest of the three bands, possess a maturity that belies their years.
However, everybody must start somewhere and nobody in my top three has a flawless discography. Whilst Everything Is Fire is by no means perfect, it is an accomplished piece of technical/avant-garde death metal. We must consider that this was the New Zealander’s third record in seven years, with the previous two outings being good (if not particularly fully developed) foundation stones to build from. Listening to a bands discography in the wrong order is difficult though, especially when you consider their latter output – which I heard first - to be their best. In listening to pretty much anything before Vermis I am constantly having to remind myself that the best was yet to come and in doing so ensure that I am focused on rating output from before 2013 as being more formative releases.
It is fair to say that Everything is Fire exhibits all the technical capability we know and love from the band. At this stage in their career, they were by no means the finished article, yet at the same time they were pushing boundaries and trying new things. Whilst these do not always work (parts of the album do just sound like jumbled bashing and crashing) the overall structure is in place, albeit minus some of the finer detail I am more accustomed to with their later material.
Those trademark dissonant and mining riffs are fully present and accounted for. On a track like The Earth at Its Knees, this discordancy really thrives. My main criticism of the guitar is that it does feel removed at times from what is going on. Avant-garde tendencies aside (yes, I know this shit is not supposed to be linear) there is a real sense of disconnection in places between the guitar and the rhythm section. When they get it right (We Are Nil, Caecus, Tyranny and The Earth at Its Knees) they smash it out of the park. Saint Merat’s exquisite drumming shores up a lot of my dissatisfaction with Everything is Fire. At times on Stare Into Death and Be Still he seemed to cross into some other-worldly ability to concoct some of the most off-kilter yet utterly enthralling drum patterns. On this album he is by far the most advanced participant, with a skill set that perhaps is the reason why I get the sense that the rest of the group are playing catch-up. He is the engine behind all that happens here and in all honesty this album would just not work without him.
This album initially received an unfair three stars from me originally, which is particularly harsh as despite the above highlighted challenges this album is worthy of more. Revisiting it this time around has convinced me that there is enough identifiable quality here to link this to the wider discography that followed. Yes, I still believe they only hit their truly magical levels of cohesion on Vermis and have not looked back since, but I cannot think that many other bands in 2009 could deliver anything near the quality of Everything is Fire. I do not recall at this stage just how far they advanced themselves on Destroyers of All some two years on from this release (guess that is my next revisit that is required). If you are new to Ulcerate this would be the perfect place to start to truly chart the growth of one of metal’s finest avant-garde death metal outfits.
It is both physically and mentally draining to listen to Vermis. There's effort required here from me as a fan of death metal to simply plot what the fuck is going on across most of the nine tracks present here as they systematically pummel away at my ears with an absolute wall of noise whilst at the same time manage to send my brain into dizzying and spiralling cycles that disorientate in equal parts as they do entertain. As with anything that requires some work though the reward has to more than compensate for the time, patience and sheer concentration required to persevere with a complex (bordering on fathomless) musical entity and Vermis' trophy is the fact that there is literally years of content here for the listener to savour.
Unlocking the mastery behind the cacophonous sounds that the three piece invoke is were their fourth (are we really counting The Coming of Genocide?) album really starts to stand up as one of extreme metal's finest hours. The complexity behind the timings and the heaviness to the weight of the music are all evidence of really intelligent song writing and musicianship. Although most definitely a death metal record at it's core, this album explores the world of prog and doom to create what some scribes have described as "post-death metal". I am not as eager to place labels on things and put them into convenient sized boxes perhaps but where I do agree with other reviewers on the internet is that all of the elements described that make Ulcerate's sound on Vermis are perfectly balanced, directed with a precision that borders on engineering and formulate an output that is unique.
In the same year that this record was released, Gorguts dropped Colored Sands on the world and I spent weeks of my life toiling with both, eventually determining the Canadian's release to be superior. This was such a close run thing because whilst both exude an almost scientific mindset to their approach, Ulcerate's release needed multiple plays and with each one I had to dredge the tracks, listening carefully to try and follow the dissonance and map the progression throughout. By comparison, Colored Sands was more accessible (which is a fucking bold statement), more immediate and able to be managed in bite-sized chunks, whereas Vermis played best as a whole sitting, the component tracks of the nine on the album all intertwined somehow in building this twisted structure.
Although I think the mix is off for some parts of the record (the vocals and drums seem to suffer at the expenses of the riffs at times) the density of the record creates such a murky and immersive atmosphere that you can't help but feel lost (or trapped even?) in the experience of Vermis. There's a sense of real expansion behind the whole album, like the record is somehow creating enough space for you to process it in whilst actually just using it to crush you with more of the oppressive weight it generates. In building the record, drummer Jamie Saint Merat is integral in proceedings. He turns in a complex and yet natural shift on here and yet never dominates the proceedings, although let down by the mix on more than one occasion there's still no feel of him having to jostle for position like he can hold point perfectly and deliver what he needs to. By comparison Hoggard's monstrous and perplexing riffing drive most of the album from the front seat. His guitar pushes the aforementioned wall of noise on top of the listener and it is his work you must decipher first to truly understand the value of the treasures beneath. Kelland's vocals gasp, gurn and contort their way, serpentine-like through the album. Again, sometimes lost in the mix but consistently audible in the main to add menace to the atmospheres that are conjured.
It is impossible not to be impressed by Vermis. It is a triumph of both design and content only let down on attention to detail across the whole album in terms of the mix that keeps it at a 4.5 rating. What came after this release was a notch higher and suffered no such issues with the mixing desk but that's covered in another review.
When I was 14 I witnessed the video on Raw Power TV to the title track from Judas Priest's "Painkiller" album. I hadn't heard any Priest up until that stage despite me having a good selection of Iron Maiden and Saxon records under my belt by that age. "Painkiller" blew me the fuck away! I mean, what was not to love? Thunderous drums, a mix of gruff and shrill vocal antics and duelling lead guitars. I went straight out that afternoon and bought the album and blasted it for consecutive days for the next 3 months. All in all, not a bad gateway album to the band. The final point to make about "Painkiller" was that the record kicked the ass of most other releases in what was simply a stellar year for metal with "Rust in Peace", "Cowboys from Hell", "Danzig II: Lucifuge" and "Harmony Corruption" all dropping that same year, to mention but a few.
The real draw of "Painkiller" was the memorability of the experience, the intensity aside (which in itself was a fucking energising venture) one run through the record left seared scorch marks across your brain. For years after I could run through the entire album in my head note for note. "Firepower" is exactly the same. A mere 24 hours after it coming into my life and I can sing along with the lyrics, air guitar to near note perfection and bash my fingers bloody to the drums on my desktop. It's full of anthemic choruses and simple yet effective hooks that just pull you in.
Now, here's where the "Painkiller" comparisons stop. "Firepower" is not another "Painkiller" in terms of pace or intensity by any means (whoever expected as much is dreaming). It is however really strongly written and the arrangement is damn near perfect. Let's not forget that Priest formed in 1969. That's 49 years ago and they can still put out relevant and exciting metal almost without effort.
Try and not headbang to any of the opening six tracks, if you can achieve it you are almost certainly dead inside. Try not to make ridiculous gurning faces to any of the lead work on here and again if you succeed, check your pulse! Sad though it maybe that Glenn has confirmed his Parkinson's is now progressed enough to stop him from touring there is no doubt that he can exchange blows, pound for pound with Faulkner and barely break a sweat. Travis is as solid as ever behind the skins and although all my attention is on those fucking guitars he thumps along well enough to lynch the sound to a rhythmic core, as Hill rumbles along moulding his bass lines to the rest of the instrumentation nicely. Halford still sounds strong to my ears, not his old self by any means but he carries off "Firepower" brilliantly.
There's no point doing a track by track description here, if you have read the review to this point you'll get the idea. Criticisms? It is too long, by about 2 or maybe 3 tracks. However, you can easily suffer the dips in the quality here and there as you are rarely away from some truly great music. It does get a little samey at times too but that's forgivable to me as nobody is looking to reinvent any wheels here this may cause issue with the longevity of the record though for me. Right now though I love it, I fucking love it.
The unmistakable sound of Finnish Death Metal emanates from the speakers the instant you put Psychostasia on. That brutal approach coupled with the technical edge of death metal does emanates forth like a cosy darkness from the blackest of flames imaginable. The use of atmosphere is also notable here with a doomy edge to proceedings giving weight to the sound as well as a harrowing cut to the guitar work that adds to this dank hue perfectly.
Perhaps most notable for me are the vocals. They are a whispered menace throughout the record, a suffocating rasp that sounds other-worldly. They enhance the instruments by sitting well in the mix but also by their unique style. Likewise, the drums are key in the mix as they most definitely can be heard but they never dominate proceedings yet remain constantly in my awareness. The main driver here on the record however is the superb riffs on display. The scathing and melodic riff to The Book Of The Worm is one of the first pieces of Finnish Death Metal that I ever heard and the track remains one of my favourite tracks from the country to this day.
Inevitably, Adramelech drew comparisons with Demilich which I always felt was only half true a likeness. The technicality is there yes but the there's a lot more depth to Psychostasia and personally I visit this record a lot more than Nespithe. I feel that Adramelech more than stand on their own two feet and don't need the comparison to the mighty aforementioned band, this album was their debut full length after a couple of EPs at the start of the 90s and it already showed a penchant for songwriting and a maturity of playing that might not have been as avant-garde as the only full length from their compatriots some three years earlier, but it still remains a solid and often overlooked classic death metal record.