Press - Reviews
Various collated album reviews. Click the titles to view each review in full.
Pitchline Zine
www.pitchline-zine.com/reviews.item.php?id=001715
La primera vez que escuché hablar sobre éste grupo fue cuando leí una review (en algún medio que no consigo recordar), sobre su último disco que venía a decir a groso modo algo así como: “este material es para sentarte, cerrar los ojos y dejarte llevar…” Esa descripción capturo mi interés de inmediato y me predispuso al modo en que debía enfocar la escucha de éste excelente álbum. Independientemente del estilo musical que Ulcerate práctica ésta frase sintetiza con una exactitud extraordinaria lo que éste álbum representa.
Hacía tanto, tanto tiempo que no encontraba un álbum que me exigiera escuchar en el más estricto sentido de la palabra, que casi ya no recuerdo cuál fue el último. Gracias a Ulcerate se recupera el saludable y olvidado hábito de sentarse a escuchar un disco sin que mientras se esté haciendo otra cosa, y créeme que así y sólo así se puede llegar a apreciar la magnitud de ésta obra.
La música de Ulcerate no me atrevería a decir que es original 100% ya que a lo largo de sus canciones aparecen una y otra vez reminiscencias a grupos que todos tenemos en mente de una forma u otra, pero lo que sí es absolutamente original y convierte a éste grupo en un rara-avis es la forma en que mezcla sus influencias con elementos de cosecha propia y sobre todo el uso que hace de elementos musicales “ajenos” al metal extremo pero que han sabido encajar como hechos a medida en su música enriqueciéndola y dándole un carácter de singularidad imposible de conseguir de otro modo.
El material de Ulcerate puede llevarte a la extenuación en una primera escucha por lo sofocante e intrincado de sus temas así como por la apocalíptica y densa atmósfera que recrean a lo largo del disco, pero a raíz de las pertinentes escuchas se desvela un magistral trabajo de composición, una técnica suprema, una interpretación sin paliativos y en definitiva un sensacional trabajo de Death Metal. Lo mejor es que a base de escuchas se suaviza la tensión indigerible del principio hacia un atrapante disfrute y deleite que ninguna banda de las que hoy por hoy figuran en los puestos de cabeza puede proporcionar, ya que sólo la existencia del fiel compromiso hacía uno mismo puede crear obras no determinadas por fines más allá de los puramente artísticos. ¡¡Bravo ULCERATE!!
9 / 10
Hearwax Media
http://hearwaxmedia.com/?p=1497
By Alec McKay
Everything Is Fire may be the most unsettling listen I have sat through. Actually, sit? No, not sit, a prone rigor mortis stature is more accurate. To most eclectic listeners (occasionally putting a toe in the bubbling raw sewage that is modern death metal), these songs will seem nihilistic epics with a little Luc Lemay flair. Although, for those whose minds have become accustomed to methodical arrangements of showy technical (safe) death metal, this is a disconcerting brew of plodding sludge while simultaneously outplaying any other band in terms of speed and intensity; Everything Is Fire is many things, often all at once. Death Metal may be dangerous again.
It is by the time you reach the mournful interlude in "Withered And Obsolete" that you get over the fact Ulcerate are pretty interesting and start really feeling something from this album. No, it is not a touching moment, or even a breath of air from the encircling madness; it has nothing to prove... This is abstract death metal at it's finest. Everything Is Fire does not waste time by infusing audacious and attention grabbing shticks, no, that would imply that it cares if you notice its existence; It is a whispered floating leviathan, moving independently. Picture it as an obscene thing hanging in the sky, approach it, know madness...
Gone are the violent fragments, jarring riffs, and urgent rhythms to be found on previous album Of Fracture and Failure. "Drown Within" spends careful time and economical speed establishing its theme, its direction, and its point; each song is superfluously streamlined. The mix enables all the recorded elements to coagulate as a single monstrous mass, the vocals seemingly erupting out of the inharmonious crust. Nothing is accidental, nothing is skipped over; it feels like doom album. It feels like a sludge album. However, make no mistake, this is death metal; bleak, scorched, and scarred death metal. The fascinating element lies in the fact that this New Zealand band is not glorifying such an obviously bleak overtone; "Tyranny" has behaviour, and intrigue. "The Earth At Its Knees" is dripping with story and detail. Top tier musicianship (and Jamie St. Merat's staggering writing for the percussion section) shuns the sentimental chops of their contemporaries and is put to work at building a self contained world. Everything Is Fire is a civilization, a dynasty, a cave painting in a rockslide.
Yes, this album is a brilliant singular work, and it would be unlikely to find a death metal album that is as viscerally textured as this in 2009. The experience is militantly cohesive, where any form of variance is non existent; this may give an impression of extensive similarity between tracks upon first spin, but attacking this at intervals proves to shed light on the eschewing diversity. An album such as this relies on it's own merits over the listener's assumptions and expectations regarding it's genre. It is one of a kind, it is dangerous; handle with care.
8.8 / 10
Metal Psalter
http://www.metalpsalter.com/review_ulcerate_everything_is_fire.html
I've heard some pretty impressive death metal this year. Check out the impressive debut from Fondlecorpse, the newest from Slugathor, and the triumphant return of Suffocation. Everything is Fire is better than all of these releases, and with this album Ulcerate have single-handedly redefined and reinvigorated death metal.
Trimming a member and substantially slowing things down after their fantastic 2007 debut Of Fracture and Failure, Ulcerate have crafted a maddeningly abstract, brilliantly technical, and incredibly heavy collection of songs brimming with an atmosphere of menacing paranoia. If that's too many adjectives, think Immolation's debut plus Gorguts's Obscura slowed to an Incantation crawl. A quick perusal of other reviews will find references to Portal and Deathspell Omega.
Unfortunately is that none of these descriptions are particularly useful. If Everything is Fire has a flaw, it lacks immediacy and defies description. The first listen left me relatively baffled. I didn't feel competent to write this review until I'd listened to it ten times or so. It's a soundtrack to a nightmare.
The songs are brooding, meandering barrages of twisted, dissonant riffing. I'm not a guitarist, but to these ears this album is, for all intents and purposes, just as technical as your latest wank-by-numbers tech death album. But unlike, for example, Brain Drill, who throw dozens of unrelated shred-fests at the listener, Ulcerate always anchor their riffs in a cohesive narrative structure, and they excel at transitioning among the various motifs presented in each song.
That's my best effort at describing (and slavishly praising) Ulcerate's songwriting aptitude. I've been trying to write this review for two months. Just put on some headphones, turn out the lights, and listen. And pay attention.
Immaculately produced, Everything is Fire is dark and dense, yet surprisingly clear, and thankfully lacks the clinical studio production of much contemporary death metal. The phenomenal drumming is revealed through a thankfully natural presentation. The vocals, I should mention, are great. They're gruff and forceful and expertly navigate the busy and complex arrangements.
If I were so impressed with my own knowledge, taste, and foresight that I would declare an album a classic mere months after its release, Everything is Fire would be a worthy recipient of that designation. All hyperbole aside, it suffices to say that this is the finest death metal album of the year to date and is on the short list for death metal album of the decade. Believe whatever hype you hear and get this album.
Examiner.com
http://www.examiner.com/x-16267-Charlotte-Metal-Music-Examiner...
By Jordan Fogal
Ulcerate, hailing from Auckland New Zealand, have been a rising star in technical death metal. 2006 saw the band's release of their first full length "Of Fracture and Failure", a blistering assault of precise and twisted death metal. It was easy to see the band had some unique ideas going on, especially for the genre. "Everything is Fire" takes some of their more abstract and atmospheric themes and refines them. When you think of technical death metal, atmospheric is not usually a term that comes to mind. While there are some points that bring to mind Isis and Neurosis, most of the atmosphere feels closer to that of a Deathspell Omega album. Mixing the bleak atmospheric refrains into a swirling maelstrom of mind melting blast beats and discordant riffs, the band treads on new ground. It's like watching the world slowly, violently pulled into a massive vortex.
Drown Within begins with a huge stomach churning; lumbering riff that slowly builds up to chaos. The totally unpredictable patterns of the riffs, drums, everything in general is very oppressive. With more listens you catch the infernal beauty of what is going on. This is not something that can be digested in a few listens. Most tracks are in the 6 minute range and have insane, monstrous structures that can challenge the listener. The production has a rawer and hazy sound to it than their previous effort but all of the instruments and vocals still mix together well. The vocals serve their purpose but don't have much range. They might bore some listeners eventually or take some getting used to. The deep, grating vocals fit the bands dense sound well.
Caecus and Everything is Fire are the stand out tracks on the album for me. Caecus wastes no time by beginning with one of the most relentless assaults on the album. After the two minute mark, the firestorm begins to subside and the listener waits for the next wave. Everything Is Fire features a black metal inspired intro riff that soon dissolves into total dissonance as the vocals growl "We are lost without fate, Reap what we have sown, We diminish, all nameless." The lyrics are just as crushing and bleak as the music, painting a burning, smoldering landscape of oblivion. While hardly unique, the lyrics still bring something a little more thought provoking to mind than some of their blood soaked peers.
"Everything is Fire" will probably not receive the recognition it deserves. I stated before the album requires some focus and time to completely enjoy. Not everybody listens to death metal for a challenge. Regardless, this album is one of the top death metal releases this year and has held my attention much longer than most technical death metal bands can. Ulcerate have taken a step big forward and created something unique. Hopefully they will be rewarded for their exploration into sonic oblivion.
Check out their myspace at http://www.myspace.com/ulcerate
Imhotep
http://www.imhotep.no/?did=9091004&aid=9069488
By Marcin "Dethster4life" Lewandowski
Just when you thought you have heard it all, in comes something like that. Let's classify it: Brutal Death Metal. Better yet, PROGRESSIVE Brutal Death Metal. Yeah, whatever... Whatever label I give this unbelievable display of absolute supremacy of metal over all, does not matter.
When was the last time you heard metal music that made you go: "Shit, these guys cannot possibly be mere human beings"? Well, I just did. Seven fucking times. And I feel like I only NOW am finally getting what it MIGHT be all about. And normally, friend, I would get bored and tired of listening to an album 7 times in a row, it would all too predictable, you know, that feeling of "I get this album, I figured it out and it's time for it to be placed in the shelf. It's great but I had enough for now". Not so with Ulcerate.
You know, back in my born again Christian days, I remember my pastor would often raise the Bible and excitingly shout: "This is not like the other books, IT IS ALIVE!!!", and that is precisely how I feel about the new Ulcerate album. Once you taste it, it won't let go, it will drag you in, like a hungry black hole. It will steal your soul, hook you up to a life-sucking machine "Matrix"-style and suck, suck and suck the life out of you 'til your useless carcass disintegrates into a pile of atoms. And THEN it will go to work on you. And the fucked up thing about it is, YOU WANT IT TO DO SO.
I am just describing the feeling you get when you commune with this album, but other feelings like sadness, depression, anger, despair, fear and mystery (is that a feeling?) will envelop you and consume you through and through. I have taken the task of dissecting it into separate sounds, hooks, melodies, riffs, and believe me, it is impossible before you listen to this for at least 6 times.
The music is highly structured, chaotic, brutal, beautiful, sad and creepy at the same time. These guys don't use guitars - they use chainsaws, electric transformers, pneumatic hammers and other construction tools, or at least it sounds like it. But they must be guitars: I hear hooks, melodies, harmony, guitar wizardry at ridiculously high speeds and brutality, and every single track has it all. Everything you would want from a metal album is here, but it is so intricately interwoven with utter, horrifying chaotic brutality, you need to spin this motherfucker a few times to find these little nuggets and sugar cubes.
Yes, "Everything Is Fire" is a very, very challenging listen. It demands your full attention, don't bother to listen to it while you study, fuck, or read, do not try to fall asleep to it. It won't let you. It is jealous of your attention and won't reveal itself to you unless and until you honor it with your whole being.
Then, and only then, you will hear the sound that can be compared to somewhat (although they really don't sound like anyone else) to Nile (intricacy, technical prowess), Behemoth (brutality, heaviness), Machine Head (wailing guitars), Neurosis (convoluted songwriting, 1000-riff songs), Immolation (high pitched guitar squeals), Mastodon (see Neurosis), and Deftones (slow, guitarless, ambient passages in-between salves of brutality and speed), Krisiun (brutality, uncompromising heaviness and extreme ideas) and... I am sure you can pick many more influences yourself.
Let me say this again: Ulcerate does not sound like anybody else. Their originality is 100% Ulcerate. But, listening to them I was reminded of the following albums: Machine Head "Burn My Eyes", Immolation "Close to a World Below", Deftones "Around the Fur", Mastodon "Remission"", Behemoth "Satanica" and "Demigod", Nile "Black Seeds of Vengeance" and "In Their Darkened Shrines", Krisiun "Southern Storm", and maybe Sepultura's "Chaos A.D." and "Roots". Again, no rip off or derivation noted or spotted just made me think of those while listening for some reason.
I won't spoil the surprise for you, but for one song (my favorite): cut number 7, "Soullessness Embraced" features two awesome riffs: first around 2:30 mark, another, a BRUUTAL but catchy riff ending the song around 5:43 mark.
Ulcerate experiment with different sounds of their instruments rather than going for the same pitch throughout. Even within the same song, the guitars change: now they sound like horde of angry wasps, then they trade places with hornets, finally turning on buzz saws and chain saws. There's even one moment that reminds me of when a tree hit my power lines near the house, the stop and go, terrifying, deafening hum sounds exactly like what Ulcerate achieves on number 4, "Caecus".
Moreover, "Everything Fire" is littered with slow riffs, mid paced riffs, heavy slow and heavy, super fast riffs, melodies (not your metalcore sweet melodies, though), hooks, grooves and unbelievable brutality and speed, all complete with sudden slow-downs of Deftones/Neurosis-like ambience, melancholy and creepiness.
And damn, if I didn't have the album of the year picked already (Gollum), and now I totally have to dethrone it. At least now I know, not just think, KNOW, that no one can beat these guys to the number one slot on my personal end-year list, and I am sure on many, many others'.
This is not only an obvious album of the year - this is THE greatest Death Metal album of all time, period. Yes, I am aware of Morbid Angel, Nile, Behemoth, Immolation, Suffocation, etc., own key albums and love them all, but this still stands: Ulcerate "Everything Is Fire" is no less, but THE greatest Death Metal album of all time, period. No one comes close to these guys, no one. I wish I could give it more than 6 points.
I wish for you to be as blown away by this as I am.
Now, guess what I am going to go listen to?
Sonic Frontiers
http://sonicfrontiers.net/blog/?p=523#more-523
By Josh Haun
New Zealand's Ulcerate are really onto something with their latest album, Everything is Fire. The sound can best be described as mind-warping, discordant technical death metal, with hints of post metal atmosphere buried within the gaping maw of the musical vortex the band so effortlessly conjures up. Hypnotic and mesmerizing in a way that at times defies description, this album is the equivalent of a death metal acid trip into the farthest reaches of space.
While it is true that Everything is Fire is a wonder to behold from a technical standpoint, the members of Ulcerate don't use their impressive musical chops for anything that sounds even remotely like showing off. Rather, they are far more interested in creating all-encompassing soundscapes that come off like the musical counterpart to the murky, swirling mouth of the blackest abyss. You don't just listen to Everything is Fire, you get drawn deeper and deeper into Ulcerate's twisted, hallucinogenic world, where blind idiot gods sit upon thrones forged from pure chaos energy. This is the soundtrack to H.P. Lovecraft's Great Old Ones slowly lurching and heaving their slimy tentacles out of inter-dimensional portals and the deepest, darkest cracks of the earth, ready to take over the horrified planet.
The heavy black and post-metal influences becomes readily apparent while exploring the constantly contorting song structures of Everything is Fire, as if the members of Ulcerate hold Neurosis, Gorguts and Blut aus Nord in equally high regard. In fact, it is this ability to infuse their reality-bending assault with atmospheric subtlety and nuance that truly sets them apart from their tech-death peers. Whereas so many other bands are clinical to the point of being almost robotic in their complexities, Ulcerate are able to bring the sort of seething malignancy you'd expect to find on a black metal record and seamlessly weld it onto their tech-death framework. The result is an album that evokes black waves of oceanic musical entropy washing over you, slowly eroding your mortal soul. There is a depth of feeling and emotion to be found within the album's myriad nooks and crannies, something which is all too rare within the tech-death realm.
With Everything is Fire, Willowtip has once again hit pay-dirt with an utterly devastating yet textured and intelligent release from a young band ready to rip the death metal rule book to shreds and blast it into the heart of the black hole. Easily the most intriguing and unique technical death metal record you're going to hear in 2009.
MetalReview.com
http://www.metalreview.com/Reviews/5029/Ulcerate...
By Chris McDonald
As modern death metal continues to push the envelope of demanding musicianship, overbearingly complex song-structures, and pristine production, one eventually has to ask, "Where do we go from here?" What is left to accomplish in a genre where superficial qualities are often placed above real compositional prowess? At what point does death metal move beyond the role of mere auditory violence and become a means of genuine artistic expression?
The answer to this question lies in bands like Ulcerate. Beginning their career as a fairly straightforward brutal death metal band in their demo phase, this New Zealand-based outfit ventured into increasingly complex and esoteric territories with their debut LP Of Fracture and Failure, which happened to land them the attention of Willowtip Records. While their debut full-length explored a harsh and fairly unconventional style of death metal, I never would have believed that it would evolve into something this dark, distinctive, and utterly fantastic. Ulcerate's progression into their current state may not be too radical a departure stylistically, but that doesn't mean I was any more prepared for what this enigmatic group had in store for me this time.
Everything Is Fire is, without question, one of the bleakest albums I've ever heard. Every aspect of this work, from the cataclysmic music to the distant vocals and unrepentantly nihilistic lyrical themes, feels vivid and alarmingly convincing. Even someone unwilling to appreciate the artistic merit of death metal would be hard-pressed to argue that the guys in Ulcerate approach their craft with almost unnerving sincerity. There is absolutely nothing remotely tongue-in-cheek or feigned about this album, and this is what makes it so simultaneously frightening and powerful.
Music-wise, Ulcerate forgo the dry production and self-indulgent musicianship of their peers in favor of something less immediate but massively intense. Imagine the leering dissonance of Deathspell Omega channeled through the overactive maelstrom of Gorguts and delivered with the off-kilter savagery of Immolation, and you have at least a basic idea of what to expect. But obviously written descriptions cannot really do this album justice. Throughout the entirety of this disc it feels like the band is trying to musically simulate the apocalypse-whirlwinds of incredibly precise snare rolls and blastbeats back a constantly shifting bedlam of atonal chords and furiously discordant tremolo riffs, occasionally broken up by brief moments of quiet reflection before the looming pandemonium returns. The way the band seamlessly transitions into the calmer moments of clean guitar and jazzy rhythm work greatly increases their effectiveness, and these intermissions are all the more impressive considering how well-suited they feel in the context of the punishing overall sound.
And punishing it is. In case you hadn't guessed, Everything Is Fire is a brutally unforgiving listen. Even for someone well accustomed to the more challenging strains of death metal, this record will take some time to show its true colors. But let me assure you that it's completely worth the effort. Ulcerate's ability to craft unexpected hooks and jaw-dropping instrumental dynamics is even more amazing considering how unstructured the songs initially seem. The two guitar tracks rarely mimic each other in the riffing patterns, each exploring and repeating their own individual themes while occasionally reuniting to deliver a bone-chilling tremolo flourish or jagged harmonic in unison before descending back into the ordered chaos. When the band does flirt with actual melody, such as the segments of haunting serenity offered in "Withered And Obsolete" and "The Earth At Its Knees," it feels like a brief pause in a furious thunderstorm when the sun finally manages to penetrate the clouds, offering a fleeting glimpse of relief before being swallowed back up again in the uproar of lurching grooves and sudden tempo shifts. A fairly murky and raw production places the vocals and percussion more in a supporting role, despite being admirably performed; this is undoubtedly a guitar-centered album, and as such the guitars are given enough room in the mix to shake you with their force while still revealing their innumerable subtleties, while the merciless drums seemingly follow a path all their own. In short, Ulcerate are not only masters of their individual instruments, but of focusing their collective abilities to create music that transcends the limits of its respective genre to become something greater.
Let me stress again; do not take this record lightly. Those looking for anything less than a demanding listening venture would be well advised to search elsewhere for their death metal fix. But anyone willing to properly invest themselves in this album will know that Ulcerate have delivered something amazing and, dare I say it, visionary with their efforts here. Rarely do I hear extreme metal so deep and engrossing, so chaotic on the surface and yet so meticulously calculated underneath. Aside from being as brutally heavy as anything you'll hear this year, Everything Is Fire is a bold look into the darkest abysses of the human psyche, communicated through music so technically articulate and seething with rage that it commands your utmost attention. So lock yourself in your room, turn the lights off, get some good headphones, and experience this album, as it demands to be experienced.
6/6
Chronicles of Chaos
http://www.chroniclesofchaos.com/reviews/albums/2-5762_ulcerate...
By Jackie Smit
If the idea of a musical summit featuring Meshuggah, Suffocation and Immolation as the main players sets your pulse racing, then you need to heed my advice and run, nay sprint to your nearest record purveyor and get your hands on the sophomore album by New Zealand's Ulcerate. Liberally blending the aforementioned acts' best bits into a surprisingly unique and coherent alchemy, to label _Everything Is Fire_ as brutal is a gross understatement. The eight songs contained here are visceral to the point of sounding apocalyptic, and what makes them even more so is the vein of tar-thick atmosphere that seeps into every crevice of the disc's fifty minutes. Victoriously atop this smouldering heap of sonic rubble stand the guitar duo of Oliver Goater and Michael Hoggard who mangle, contort and twist practically every one of the album's myriad riffs to where they take on an almost otherworldly quality. Not to be outdone, Jamie Saint Merat's work behind the drumkit is nothing short of breathtaking. His onslaught is relentless, dynamic, never settling on a single rhythm for longer than is absolutely necessary. The fruits of their labours -- eight songs that as a rule all exceed the five minute mark -- are virtually faultless, each simmering with personality that makes them both memorable and practically demands repeated listens and analysis. Among these "We Are Nil" is a current personal favourite, but to be honest it's nigh on impossible to choose. What is glaringly obvious though is that in an ideal world _Everything Is Fire_ should serve as a vivid warning to every death metal legend and superstar: there are a new set of contenders in town and they have enough talent between the four of them to dethrone a great many of the so-called genre leaders.
9/10
Teufels Tomb
http://www.teufelstomb.com/reviews/ulcerate-everythingisfire/
Fuck.
Really, that is all that can be said to describe the sophomore effort by kiwi technical death metallers ULCERATE. FUCK.
Wait, no. That's not accurate at all. Let me try something better. Just give me a second.
Wait for it... wait for it....
HOLY FUCKING SERRATED BLADE SOAKED IN BATTERY ACID SAWING THROUGH THE SHAFT OF THE POPE'S ERECT, ROTTING MICROPHALLUS!!!
ULCERATE has compiled one of the best god damn albums I've heard all year, if not the best. See, kids, this- THIS- is how you write a technical death metal album. Just ignore the fact that the album sounds like it was named by a Russian immigrant for a second, will ya? It has skill, it has technique, it has all that shit, but EVERYTHING IS FIRE has something more. It oozes no, it hemorrhages fucking atmosphere. The darkness prevalent on this record is so thick, so dense, so impenetrably bleak and dirty that you will want to carve the skin off your dick and use it for a lampshade while furiously impaling your balls with an iron stiletto heel, all whilst screaming "FUCK ME HARDER MR. MAGOO, FUCK ME HARDER."
ULCERATE has upped the ante from the last time they reared their collective, ugly, menacing grimace in our direction. EVERYTHING IS FIRE can best be described as the unholy triple union of IMMOLATION, GORGUTS, and CROWPATH with the brooding, netherworldly gaze of PORTAL witnessing the blasphemous consummation. You have IMMOLATION's sense of technical, melodic rhythm, GORGUTS' complex, multi-faceted structure, and CROWPATH's sprinkled, inventive drumming and dirty sludge (echoing elements of INTRONAUT's progressive workings) with a wall-of-sound effect that would satisfy the biggest PORTAL and MITOCHONDRION fans.
The riffs are chaotic, massive in complexity, harmonic in structure, and would easily make Bob Vigna wet himself in delight. Jamie Saint Merat's drum performance is tight and immense, creating a cacophony of percussion that will appeal to all fans of technical drumming. And new vocalist Paul Kelland fits the music much more than previous vocalists: he emits a coarse, mammoth growl that sounds like the closest approximation to a human mastodon that our pitiful vocal chords will ever achieve.
EVERYTHING IS FIRE is so mind-warpingly intense that it could probably render you sterile. Seriously, I think my left nut just exploded. To say this is a mandatory purchase would be a massive understatement of an order so vast it would be obvious to braindead children. If you haven't picked up an ULCERATE album before, EVERYTHING IS FIRE is the album to do so, no excuses allowed. Bow to your new god.
Live for Metal
http://www.live4metal.com/reviews-733.htm
Review by Steve Green
Is there such a category as Dissonant Death Metal? I bloody well hope so as that's exactly where I'm lumping Kiwi's Ulcerate. I can cope with the Death Metal side of the band quite easily, but the constant barrage of twists and turns and technical nuances is way above my comfort zone. Imagine a nagging hangover which will never go away. The pounding on your skull is never-ending, except that the pain appears in different positions at ever opportunity and you feel more and more nauseous as the process continues. That's how Ulcerate make me feel. Trapped in a world of non-stop pain and brutality.
On the upside, their musicianship is fantastic, particularly drummer Jamie Saint Merat who is just jaw droppingly amazing. I'm also blown away by Ulcerate's use of atmospherics and textures, especially the slower drawn out sections. The ebb and flow of styles has a completely natural feel and none of the clever shit (ie: the crazy twist and turns) feels forced. Fuck, even though most of it goes way over my head, I'm impressed nonetheless. I'm sure the musos amongst you will be creaming yourselves over this beast.
Grind and Punishment
http://grindandpunishment.blogspot.com/2009/05/...
A name change may be in order for these Kiwis because their third album and Willowtip debut does anything but singe an acid hole in your stomach lining, In fact, this may be the most soothing death metal album I've heard in eons.
I missed the band's prior two offerings (there's a reason this isn't called Death and Punishment) but I'm starting to think I need to broaden my musical horizons a skootch.
Drawing from Neurosis' murky palette of constantly shifting grays spiked with lambent flashes of burnt umber concussion fulminating through the eye of every storm, Ulcerate manage to distill the familiar tension/release pattern of Isis and their ilk through a distinctly death metal prism. I don't think I've heard a death metal album this expressive and emotional since the late, unsung Mindrot's cacophonous bloodlettings. On the technical front, the band packs all the chops of a prime Nile, but has the common courtesy to play at a recognizable tempo that allows appreciation of their musical mastery.
And Ulcerate know how to orchestrate both a good song and a compelling album experience. Smack at the fulcrum of Everything is Fire, "Caecus" alights the stairs of the celestial tower before razing the limitless horizon with a blastbeat holocaust finish. The dry sinew and snapping tendon sound of "Tyranny's" bass line is could launch a thousand burning ships in its own right.
Where a lot of your patience testing lesser Isis clones will talk about their music as a journey rather than a destination, Ulcerate clearly have a goal in mind. Everything if Fire doggedly leads you through its labyrinthine moods and tones on the way to the title track, an eight minute tour de force that recapitulates and then overshadows everything that went before, moody interludes slaughtered by Ragnarok riffing only to spiral to even more glorious cyclopean peaks. It's the soundtrack to Lovecraft's night terrors.
This is not the kind of band where you download a track or two to listen to at your leisure. Everything is Fire is the kind of album that demands your full attention and repeatedly listens and rewards your devotion with worlds of emotion and majesty.
Diabolical Conquest
http://www.diabolicalconquest.com/reviews/ulcerate...
By Roman Temin
Looks like the 'brutal death metal' [my least favorite redundancy] genre is finally starting to grow up... in fits and starts, anyway. A couple of years ago, Defeated sanity put out Psalms of the Moribund, an album that was single-mindedly pummelling, with slam riffs aplenty, but also surprisingly cerebral, with plenty of subtlety and lots of fresh ideas included. Now we get this, the second full-length from New Zealand's most famous non-hobbit residents, Ulcerate. A much more refined effort than their debut Of Fracture & Failure [2006], Everything Is Fire represents what could potentially be a major wake-up call to the band's peers in the 'BruTech' community - a rather vociferous suggestion that maybe Gorguts were on to something when they violated all the long-held traditions of death metal with Obscura a decade ago.
Indeed, Everything is Fire features ample Gorguts-isms, along with influences from a variety of other forward-thinking extreme metal pioneers, such as Immolation, Deathspell Omega and Blut Aus Nord. The riffing on this record centers largely around a variety of alternate-picked harmonics, frequently shifting back and forth between consonant and dissonant chord voicings, and using an expansive tonal range. There's very little on this album that would resemble traditional death metal riffage - no power chord chugging, no Bolt Thrower style harmony leads, no galloping palm-muted straight-8th-note runs, and no solos whatsoever. Despite all this, the record is remarkably brutal and, in many places, genuinely unsettling. But it's obviously not the ham-fisted 'I'm gonna bash this bitch's head in, then gut her and rape her emptied corpse' style of brutality that so many Suffocation wannabes have polluted our ears with over the years... more of a 'the world is slowly crumbling around me, and I'm powerless to stop it' type of brutality. Don't be mistaken, there's still plenty of thick bottom string attacking, but it's almost exclusively coupled with fluttery upper-string chord play and ringing arpeggios. Everything is Fire is, at its core, a dense flurry of sound that demands the listener's undivided attention before it can give itself over and be fully absorbed.
The songs on this record are arranged in a linear, refrain-free style that's becoming increasingly popular in extreme metal. Much in the same way as Deathspell Omega's recent efforts, each of these eight compositions treks through multiple movements of varying tempos and moods which, if you follow the lyrics [a bit tough since the vocals are buried in the mix], do a pretty impressive job of reflecting the shifting tenors between Paul Kelland's verses. The esoteric structuring, coupled with the heavily layered riffs [most of which are differently accented through each repetition, either with tonal augmentation or amorphous time signatures] make this an album with a very steep 'learning curve'. It would require a superhuman effort to absorb everything that Ulcerate throws at the listener in one sitting. As of the writing of this review, I've listened to this album probably 30-35 times and I'm still picking up on various nuances. This is even true of those post-rock-tinged 'mellow' passages, where the band seems to take cues from the likes of Neurosis, inserting furtive melodic panaches into the wall of sound - elements that make me wish a 5.1 or 7.1 mix of this album existed. It's impressive enough on record... but if these guys can pull it off in a live setting, it would be an accomplishment worthy of Guinness [if not the record book, then at least a round of brews]. Half of the bands to whom Ulcerate can draw a direct comparison don't play live at all, and the other half are limited in the number of songs from their catalog they can pull off in a live setting without stripping them down significantly. But there's not a single song on Everything is Fire which can effectively be minimized in such a way.
There's still room for improvement here, make no mistake about it. In their ambition to create a uniquely dense and challenging record, Ulcerate do at times make missteps when it comes to arrangement. This can be witnessed a little under 3 minutes into the opener "Drown Within", where there's a remarkably sloppy transition between two very different riffs, as though several bars worth of music was mistakenly cut from the song. This occurs a handful of times throughout the album's 50-minute duration, hampering what is typically a very fluid collection of songs. It's still a massive improvement over the band's debut, which contained all kinds of slipshod arrangements. Here's to hoping that Ulcerate can fully ace this test in time for their next album. Because if they do, we may have to rewrite the death metal history books to accommodate a new standard-bearer for excellence in the genre.
9.3 / 10
Metal as Fuck
http://www.metalasfuck.net/zine/reviews/2009/ulcerate...
Thankfully not yet another breakdown band!
Although I have been unfamiliar with the work of Auckland band Ulcerate, I can safely say they are a band I will be keeping a close on eye on in the fututre. And for good reason! Their recent release Everything is Fire is a deep, layered and sophisticated extreme metal release, without having to rely on the current formula of over-the-top speed and/or sudden repetitive breakdowns.
Everything is Fire lays out before the listener a recording that is mature and extreme far beyond its years.
The robot-like drumming of Jamie Saint Merat, whose fluid flows and jumpstart blasts underpin the rythym section of the band, as he skillfully lays the foundation for the stringed section to perform thier aerobatics. The twin guitar attacks of Michael Hoggard and Oliver Goater simultaneously swirl and stab through the oft-times chaotic layering of the music. These guys break through the wall to punctuate with cleverly timed solos, "acoustic" sections, and just plain neanderthalism.
The bass, or should I say gravel-grinding work of Paul Kelland, whom also fronts the vocal duties, unhinges any high-priced dental work you may have had. His vocals are also of a deeper register, ranging from a throaty growl to a unsettling bellow as he venemously spits the lyrics with direction and intent.
Standout tracks for me would be Withered and Obsolete, Caecus, The Earth and its Knees and the title track Everything is Fire.
Drawing more from the books of Athiest, Cynic and Cephalic Carnage and thankfully staying clear of what seem to be de rigeur at the moment, Ulcerate give the extreme music world cause to both celebrate and foul their collective trousers.
Teeth of the Divine
http://teethofthedivine.com/site/reviews/ulcerate-everything-is-fire
By Erik Thomas
After the clinical tech death assault that was Of Fracture and Failure, New Zealand's Ulcerate has made a few changes to their sound and thankfully replaced vocalist Ben Reed (bassist Paul Keland now performs vocals) and the end result is yet another simply killer Willowtip release and one of the most striking death metal albums of 2009 (and beyond).
Whereas Of Fracture and Failure was a more surgical dervish that hinted at some twisted Deathspell Omega throes, Everything is Fire fully embraces the atonal slicing of Deathspell Omega and adds the murkier, backwards discordance of Immolation making a death metal album that's an oppressively claustrophobic listen and seethes with blistering dissonance and tangible malevolence at every turn.
From the opening lurch of "Drown Within" it's obvious that Everything is Fire is not a nice, clean tidy tech death metal album. And when the song does eventually explode it's a vortex of undulating, squealing riffs and unpredictable percussive patterns that's hard to wrap your head around in one listen or even many casual listens. The lengthy tracks that comprise Everything is Fire need to be absorbed completely as the sonic voracity of every note literally seeps into every vein and pore of your being, deeper with each listen. Tracks like the monstrous "Withered and Obsolete", "Caecus" with its mind fucking ambient refrains (cementing the Deathspell Omega influence), and utterly chaotic climax, scrawling shitstorm of "Tyranny" and the compeltely schizophrenic, psychotic structures of the title track all deliver those rare, indescribable moments that make you challenge your expectations of what death metal is and should be in the future.
The rougher, muddier production suits the style shift perfectly as do Kelland's more suitable, gruffer vocals, which are smartly mixed to be in the background somewhat. And thusly Everything is Fire is that rare Altars of Madness, Effigy of the Forgotten, type of death metal album that raises the bar and sets the standard for the genre for the next few years, though not everyone will immediately feel that way.
Metal Obsession
http://metalobsession.net/ulcerate-everything-is-fire
While I do like to spread my musical activities over a variety of genres, there is always one haven that I come back to - Death Metal. The genre contains everything I like in heavy metal - heaviness, technicality and generally, musicianship. I've got bands like Psycroptic there, Necrophagist, Decapitated and Quo Vadis too, and by the time the first track of Ulcerate's 2009 album 'Everything is Fire' had finished, I knew it was also joining my collection - a full blown brutal death metal album, verging on a perfection that can never quite be attained.
On writing this review, I asked myself what exactly does constitute a classic death metal album to me, and the answer I came up with was diversity. While its basis should clearly be on heavy, brutal music, a variety of influences in death metal has always stood-out as a highlight and sets certain bands apart from the rest. During the 50 pulsating minutes of 'Everything Is Fire', Ulcerate demonstrate a host of ideas including rigorous technicality, atmospheric mood changing riffs, post-metal segments and forward thought derived through experimentation on all instruments.
The riffs and progressions by both guitarists are fascinating throughout the album and easily surpass what you would expect if you judged the band on the 'outsider preconception' of death metal. The key to their success is that neither guitarist contradicts or works against the other. They have fierce sections with subtle interludes too. Put simply, both guitarists in their perfect harmony, always, deserve your attention. The frantic pace set by drummer Jamie Merat is also worthy of note, which in its progressive manner, truly challenges the listener and helps to provide a kaleidoscope of visualisations for you to digest. And the vocals in their oft demonically low-end range add massive depth and even more character/brutality to the album.
I would like to go back and pick up on the 'forward thought' point I made earlier, as this is especially where the band shines through when compared to recent releases that I've heard in the genre. The music created on 'Everything is Fire' contains subtle technicality, bold experimentation and overtly progressive, atmospheric riffs, which leads me to my humble and hopefully not too ridiculous opinion that the Ulcerate brand of Death Metal is the new benchmark - the direction that the genre should work towards next.
Everything is Fire is a challenging listen. It has taken an eclectic mix of the past, and mixed it together with some new ideas that the band themselves have introduced. The album will open your mind to their intelligent creative concepts and let you hear the future in your ears.
9/10
Concrete Web
http://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/...
By Ivan Tibos
Ulcerate debuted in 2007 with Of Fracture And Failure (Neurotic Records), but this album couldn't convince me completely. This second studio album, however, stands for a huge progression within the band's musical history. Everything Is Fire lasts for fifty minutes and brings the same kind of Grindcore / Death Metal, but simply better. First of all, the songs have more draft. Almost all compositions have an additional mathematic-technical intelligence, without that enervating and exaggerated over-mixed hooking and breaking (a sickness many bands suffer from nowadays). Besides, several tracks contain the nicest tempo-changes and experimental intermezzos. Secondly, the performance is much better. On Of Fracture And Failure I missed some kind of cohesion, but Everything Is Fire shows a less clinical band. The details are better worked out, and so are the different lead- and rhythm elements. And tertio the sound and production: clean but not over-polished, safe but not cheap, and more 'complete' than Of Fracture. The average duration of the tracks is pretty long, at least for Grind/Death-stuff (between 5:23 and 7:52 minutes), and that's a risk, but Ulcerate easily succeed to keep these sonic assaults interesting. Unexpected yet sometimes surprising tempo-changes, technical whirlwind guitars, devastating drum patterns, pounding bass lines and rough grunts, some experiments and a weird symbiosis of emotions and chaos, recorded to please every open-minded Death / Blast / Grind freak!
84/100
Sonic Dice
http://www.sonicdice.com/2009/04/17/album-review-ulcerate-everything-is-fire
By Rich E
Now this was a real surprise to me. Having had a brief look at the press release and seen that it had been put with the 'Black Metal' camp, I braced myself for some blood-curdling squeals and tempestuous tempos. I was wrong. Neither would I say that these four guys from New Zealand could be put with the brutal death metal lot just as easily. Their sound combines texture with melody; with minimalist playing and maximum shredding, to create an atmospheric and punishing record.
Last month, I noted of the lack of decent Italian death metal bands to have made an impact in UK, with the exception to that rule being Fleshgod Apocalypse and their new album 'Oracles'. I could probably say the same about Ulcerate. In fact, I'm not sure if I could name any New Zealand-based death bands without having to try and look them up.
'Everything Is Fire' has all the experimental and doom tendencies that propel the dark and ambient side of metal from bands such as Neurosis (as can be heard on 'Drown Within'), to the more 'straight forward' post-metal sounds of Isis. But this is expertly woven into a death metal fabric, with Jamie Merat's shuddering drumming and the often frantic but virtuosic guitar playing (as on 'The Earth At Its Knees'). Michael Hoggard and Oliver Goater's guitarwork complement each other well. The two seem to share the same goal, with neither guitarist pushing in a different direction which can often lead to unbalanced dynamics within the band.
'Everything Is Fire' is definitely a modern death metal album but, without leaning too much on playing or grinding the fastest at all times, the band create a huge sound that transcends contemporary atmospheric and post-metal yet retains much of the furious playing and low-end grunt.
4/6
Archaic Magazine
http://www.archaic-magazine.com/article.php?aid=46074
By Dave Waite
Ulcerate's 2007 debut full-length "Of Fracture and Failure" was a technical death metal work out of truly epic proportions, disregarding that shitty pro-tooled to fuckery, clean cut approach for a far denser and darker sound that was (and is) more akin to Immolation or "Obscura" era Gorguts than the mechanical, Nicky Clarke sponsored wankery that seems to infiltrate every airwave. Even more disjointed than the debut, new album "Everything is Fire" throws all conventions soaring through the air yet still maintains that very song-driven approach that enables them to stand out as an entity unto themselves. The Immolation influence can still clearly be heard looming throughout the albums backbone but is now mixed with a sense of mangled experimentalism a la Deathspell Omega, which in turn enables these eight songs to crawl that extra bit deeper under the skin. Far from mere second rate copyists Ulcerate inject a whole different sense of brutality into their music that is very much their own, letting the material take on its own natural form rather than flooding it with endless bouts of soulless self-indulgence. A wonderfully organic production enables the faultless musicianship to maintain a very human form, showing in true light just how sickeningly good and diverse these musicians can be. Whether it be their lightning fast blasting ("Drown Within"), mammoth grooves in time signatures that would give Stephen Hawkins a headache ("Everything is Fire"), or dropping things down to an unearthly crawl ("Caecus"), Ulcerate let their obvious dedication to both their art and their instruments shine through, which in essence makes this the awe-inspiring death metal album it really is.
Necroslaughter
Translation from German...
http://necroslaughter.tk/2009/03/ulcerate-everything-is-fire/
One of my absolute favorite albums is and remains the classic Gorguts From Wisdom To Hate "(2001 to Seasons Of Mist), which is damn nasty, dissonant melodies, with incredible brutality and an evil mood an incredible atmosphere, that of his peers examined. Only in the aspect of evil and incredibly dark mood it created bands like Immolation or Ingurgitating Oblivion to the intensity of Canadians ranzukommen. A combination of the two repeated elements, dissonance in Extrema grundbösen attitude and I would not really expect more großartig, technical bands usually tend to Frickeln in inhumane tempos, melodic arcs, or both, and correct evil, dark death metal is, unfortunately, has become a rarity.
All the more surprised I was when I next work of ULCERATE could hear! On just their second plant "Everything Is Fire" Latzer the four guys from Auckland there a chunk of unbelievable hatred, misanthropy and nihilism that one might think, the apocalypse had already begun. So (!) Sounds like the soundtrack to the world now!
At a high technical level on a good 50 minutes of "Everything Is Fire" ever in terms of the Songdienlichkeit and atmosphere worked. The technique is never an end in itself and drag the songs in any forced Progressiveness. Rather the opposite is the case: In doomiger methodology, the riffs are often so disastrous long repeats that another, more disturbing aspect to the already very frighten music companion. Here are some phrases and themes of the melodies skillfully recorded and again with variations worn by the song, such as in "We Are the Nile."
Another compositional masterpiece of the genre of Death Metal ULCERATE create with their skillful play not only with the tempo, but also the dynamics. Thus begins the opener "Within Drown", for example, relatively low and increases in a Cresendo of horror ever further, until it is in a veritable blast-eruption peaks. "Tyranny" is also sent by an increase in covers and a fade, but the middle also includes a portion of the dynamic stark contrast appears almost fragile - until it turns into a thick carpet-noise-over again. And this rug is available in various places on "Everything Is Fire" again! The band sometimes creates a so dense and intense sound that is hardly put into words. And the incredibly disturbed effect of the music falls apart, despite the incredible density never a vulgar noise wall.
Besides the music, the sound of the CD, the evil and sinister atmosphere. The instruments themselves have a very warm and organic sound, especially the drum sounds like a real instrument and not according to a sewing machine. So warm and organic and so hateful and dark, it's a pleasure!
Apart from the incredibly good and intense music here reminds me of the artwork on the CD positive. Even if the cover is very abstract, it is to match the music, away from skull-and-Satan shit cliches that would otherwise have not, unfortunately, as a synonym for the dark and evil will be seen. Very nice variety!
For me, "Everything Is Fire" now has an intelligent genre classic, even if I have a drawer for these "Dark Death Metal" is missing.
Fans of Immolation, and Gorguts, Morbid Angel and the late Hate Eternal ULCERATE should in any case antesten. Who's with dark, dissonant Metal technical and can not do, should in any case, the fingers of the disc can, they could leave irreparable damage ...
Aversionline
Aversionline.com
Having been a big fan of New Zealand's Ulcerate since their demo days, I was quite excited when their latest full-length, "Everything is Fire", showed up in the mail from Willowtip. This time out their bassist is handling the vocal duties, and they've also got one new guitarist, but thankfully their sinuous take on death metal remains unchanged: So you can expect eight generally lengthy compositions that are jam packed with tactfully technical musicianship consisting of hectic flurries of colorful percussive flare and loads of dissonantly mangled riffs with an overall sense of thick, churning energy that really creates an intriguing atmosphere. And to be honest with you, while I initially felt that a hint more restraint may have amped up the power factor on their last effort, "Of Fracture and Failure", that material has really grown on me since that time, and the more I think about the Gorguts comparison that I made when I wrote about that record, the more I realize that Ulcerate was already taking that weird, warped, fucked up, Gorguts-styled discordance and - in my opinion - doing something a little more emphatic and moving with it. I know such a statement is complete heresy for many, but... what can I say? I stand by it, and this material absolutely follows suit. Yes, there's something chaotic and over the top about the band's songwriting style that doesn't always create that immediate impact, but there's also a completely relentless sense of darkness and feeling amidst everything they put forth, and I really admire the absolutely furious intensity that they balance with just enough breaks of slower, slightly more tangible rhythm segments. When all is said and done, Ulcerate is an outstanding band that has yet to disappoint, and I wholly recommend everything they've recorded to date, while continually looking forward to hearing more.
...this burning inside cannot be defined. Our empty convictions erode in time. Stand on the edge of abandon, and stare into the searing sun. Forfeit now, for nothing we know. Everything is fire.
The CD's listed as a pre-order at Willowtip, but as far as I can tell it's already in stock at numerous distros (and digitally), so I assume orders should be shipping as they're placed.
Allmusic.com
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:kifoxzu0ldse
by Phil Freeman
New Zealand's pretty small, so it's no surprise that its metal scene is proportionately intimate. That being said, Ulcerate are competitive with the best bands from anywhere on the globe. Viva globalism! Their music combines the brutal, downtuned riffing of traditional death metal (think Immolation or Morbid Angel) with the dissonance and shifting time signatures of Gorguts and slow, atmospheric passages reminiscent of Isis. None of the eight songs are less than five minutes long, and the album-closing title track nearly hits the eight-minute mark. The track titles, for the most part, tell a story not of gore but of fatalism and disillusion ("We are Nil," "Withered and Obsolete," "Soullessness Embraced"). Bassist/vocalist Paul Kelland declaims in a guttural roar that's more subtle than the usual monster noises, and his rhythm section partner, drummer Jamie Saint Merat, combines the percussive intricacy of Isis with the ability to blast the listener through the wall on a tidal wave of double kick drums. Meanwhile, Michael Hoggard and Oliver Goater sculpt one intricate scaffolding of jagged, art-metal guitar after another, avoiding whammy-bar excess (and, indeed, traditional solos) in favor of almost postpunk discipline. Their use of repetition seems to owe as much to Shellac as to Suffocation, and their ability to move the music forward at what seems like a crushingly slow pace while in fact playing quite fast is hypnotic. This is a seriously impressive album by a band that deserves an audience far beyond their tiny homeland.
4 / 5
Metalreviews.com
http://www.metalreviews.com/reviews/detail.php3?id=5207
Whoa, now this was a surprise. Hailing from New Zealand, Ulcerate have been tagged by certain ignorant internet users as Deathcore, which is probably the sole factor keeping them from being the name on everyones lips. What the band actually are will take a little more exploration, but the only way you could call them Deathcore is if you also called, say, Gorguts or Morbid Angel Deathcore. Ulcerate play a form of intense, technical and brutal Death Metal that forms a dark and compelling atmosphere; pretty unique in their field although there are shades of the aforementioned legends lurking in the background, as well as a hint of Origin and a pinch of Necrophagist. Songs vary between five and seven minutes in length, and are very complex really, this isnt moshable stuff, this is sit-down-with-your-eyes-closed-and-space-out stuff. Absolute and utter concentration is vital if you want to get anywhere near to understanding whats going on here, such is the sheer amount going on in each track.
The players, at a level of technical mastery few can hope to surpass, are simply wonderful, whether its vocalist and bassist Paul Kelland, the excellent Jamie Merat on drums, or the astonishingly good Oliver Goater on guitars. Merat never simply blasts but indulges in a variety of clattering percussion styles, reminding me of Pete Sandoval at his best. Goater, however, never riffs as much as creates strange sounds, the guitars often sounding like they are taken from Post-Black Metal bands like Blut Aus Nords more experimental works. Thats actually a good way to sum the band up: MoRT, but Death Metal, with better percussion and less annoyingly abstract overall of course, its far from describing the band to a T, but it does give you a sense of their interesting individuality. What are really special are the moments, such as partway through We Are Nil, where the band switch to clean melodies and sound like Isis for a heartbreaking second, adding that special drop of atmosphere, or the subtle switch to Jazziness on Caecus, reacting brilliantly with the overall feeling of dread. Listening in a dark room late at night, I was stunningly creeped out by the sudden chilling ambience at the end of Earth At Its Knees, and the powerful start to following track Soullessness Embraced made me jump. Everything Is Fire is the sort of album that sucks you deep down and doesnt let go, if you take the trouble to really listen and get involved.
Although its an exhausting listen, something that you have to build yourself up to, and is far from accessible, Everything Is Fire is a stunning piece of Death Metal. Original, atmospheric, genuinely horrific and technically supreme without being too obtuse Im starting to find parts of the album perversely catchy in their heaviness after the repeated listens Ive given it Ulcerate have here created a monster that will shock newcomers to the genre and excite veterans, and they deserve every accolade they receive for it, assuming they get any... This is one band that youd be an idiot to ignore if you want more from Death Metal than the grunt nblast which gets the headlines.
Killing Songs:
We Are Nil, Caecus, Tyranny, Soullessness Embraced, Everything Is Fire
90 / 100
Terrorizer.com
http://www.terrorizer.com
We at Terrorizer like to shout about good music from time to time, so when we heard Ulcerate's new album, 'Everything Is Fire', come dripping out of the stereo speakers, office cronies subsequently lost their shit and we simply had to tell all you guys!
This is Ulcerate's second full album, their first being 'Of Fracture And Failure' which came out courtesy of Neurotic Records/Willowtip in 2007 - In 2009 they are brought to you via Willowtip/Candlelight.
Formed in 2002, this band have had more lineups than Baltimore Police Department, though current members Jamie Saint Merat on drums and Michael Hoggard on guitars remain from the original squad, back when the band was named Bloodwreath in 2000-2001.
There is no argument, these guys can play; the album is as honest and organic as death metal gets, it's superbly produced and well structured, combining the sounds of latterday Hate Eternal with the horrific and cavernous atmospherics of Deathspell Omega or Portal. But you can hear that for yourselves right?
...So brace yourself, dear listener, for a sonic beating of the highest order, Ulcerate are toxic and terrifying, defining the word 'brutal' without having to shove it in your face..
Aversionline.com
http://www.aversionline.com/blahg/2007/09/13/ulcerate-of-fracture-and-failure-cd/
Having been most impressed with the demo material from Auckland, New Zealand death metal act Ulcerate a few years ago, I was looking forward to checking out their debut full-length, "Of Fracture and Failure" (on Neurotic Records), when it showed up in the mail recently. I referred to the general tone of their demo recordings as "a mix of Cryptopsy (but not that over the top), a dash of Suffocation, some of the Florida classics, and even a few more modern shredding riffs akin to the Polish scene" - which still stands to some degree, as this is still thick, brutal material - but they're definitely leaning in that more "over the top" direction these days in terms of infusing a greater deal of explosive technicality and chaotic songwriting arrangements. I'd also throw a Gorguts mention into the mix now, though, because along with the aforementioned characteristics comes a certain air of churning dissonance and just, well… weirdness that really works in the band's favor. While I tend to be turned off by these types of frantic and frenzied compositional tactics, Ulcerate proves to be a top-notch act in that regard by continuing to provide enough little fits of breathing room for the listener to latch onto unexpectedly atmospheric twists or flat out crushing grooves - not to mention the fact that their playing is excellently tight (the drumming is fuckin' great) and the production values are nice and beefy. It might be a slightly more enjoyable listen were they to ease up and restrain themselves just a hint more often, but I'm still quite pleased with this effort, and would expect the band to start garnering quite a bit more attention based on the merits of their material. Well done...
Empire of Death
http://www.empireofdeath.com/
With a remarkable delay (what a notice, talking about Neurotic Records?!) here it is, the debut album for Ulcerate, band who succeeded to reach a bit of popularity thanks to 'The Coming of Genocide' ep. That release gave to the death metal and brutal metal crowd an original band, with very clear ideas in mind, performing a mixture of brutal-death metal with Immolation influences, full of technique and cleverness. After having heard what those guys were able to do it was normal thinking about a great work for the first full-length release, maybe something able to take the music they made on the ep and develop it in a more consistent and skilled way. And that's what 'Of Fracture and Failure'exactly is, a brutal album, very personal with modern ands futuristic sound. Yes, you read well. For the band is not enough taking the cliches of brutal music, which start to be a bit boring, but starting with the very first release they demonstrate lot of attention to the originality, creating 9 songs of unheard violence, perfectly balanced between brutality and intelligence, harmony and brute force. Ulcerate start again exactly where they stopped with the previous release, but in the same time they push to the limit: Immolation's influences are now more present (very good choice), the songs are more intense, and we can find a little bit of madness that reminds of Meshuggah; the result is incredible. The sound is more complex and difficult to assimilate: I can swear I was really surprised the first time I heard the album, and i needed lots of times to understand "Of Fracture and Failure", but be sure, if you are patient and brave, you will never stop to listen to it. Technically speaking, the guys were professionals yet on "The Coming of Genocide", but on the new release they show all they can do with the instruments (listen to the rhythmic section): the riffing is twisted and convulsed and show true violence and versatility, neither the drums nor the bass lines are banal or boring, and Ben Read loves to spew pain and insanity in the ears of the listener, alternating intelligible growls and sharp screamings. The cd starts in the better possible way, with the amazing "Praise and Negation", a concentration of brutality and (il)logic that will blow you off: the beginning sounds like an homage to Immolation's "Close to a World Below", and then the guys speed up with devastating blast-beats, psychotic and asymmetrical riffs, artificial harmonics and so on, creating a solid wall of sound. Ulcerate want to demonstrate that they can play other killer songs, and so here it is: "Ad Nauseam", alternating typical brutal passages and cold solos reminding of Meshuggah. "The Mask of the Satyr" is as heavy as a panzer and it destroys everything, but sometimes the band begins to play hypnotic guitar phrases very modern, and some plotting palm-mute passage. "Becoming the Lycanthrope" and "To fell Goliath" are heavy songs with dark guitar riffs, with an unpredictable development, heavy as a giant. With the long "Martyr of the Soul", these guys from New Zealand bring us one of the most difficult and complex songs of the entire platter, with inconceivable drum patterns, incredible time changes and amazingly sharp riffs. In this song too is easy to see the Immolation and Meshuggah's influences, but they are not plagiarists at all, they have personality and can really play well. After a little break with the instrumental "Failure", it's time for "The coming of Genocide", with a new incipit and still more violent than lots of other songs. The platter ends with the masterpiece "Defaeco": it's unthinkable to describe such an insanity in song-writing, all we can do is sit back and let us be blown off by the fury of Ulcerate.
"Of Fracture and Failure" is a really good work, Ulcerate are an intelligent band that wants to try, even if sometimes we might think that with little less complex songs the result would have been more easy-listening. Anyway "Of Fracture and Failure" is a masterpiece, we couldn't expect more from a debut album, Ulcerate hold the future of brutal. If you want to see this future, "Of Fracture and Failure" is for you.
Deadtide.com
http://deadtide.com/reviews/albums/page.php?id=4073
Reviewed by Keefe [ positive ]
Fear the grinding Kiwi death machine. This is fucking incessant, unyielding and beautiful. A musical canvas splatter-painted with fragmented guitars and heavy-artillery blasts of some of the tightest rhythm out there. Imagine a more focused or reigned-in Dillinger Escape Plan. No free jazz or breakdowns, just chaos incarnate with the double bass and blast beats constantly challenging the tempo threshold. Amazing. Like a bad PCP trip... but fun.
Ulcerate have aptly named themselves. I can feel a sour spot opening up inside my stomach as I type. If I turned the volume up just a bit I bet I'd get facial contortions. Fuck. These guys are good. Call it extreme ADHD HC. Do not listen to this shit on the road unless your car has a roll cage.
Standout Tracks
press play and relinquish all control
Decibel
http://www.decibelmagazine.com/reviews/oct2007/ulcerate.aspx
Reviewed by Shawn Bosler [ positive ]
Pulling the trigonometry
Even though we've come quite a ways on the schizometer from the kind of controlled cacophony that Canuck fuckers like Cryptopsy specialize in, it's hard to talk about a band of utterly spasmodic, ultraviolent, extreme-ADHD, stick-on-one-riff-for-more-than-two-seconds-and-your-brain-implodes metalworkers like Ulcerate without mentioning the mighty 'Topsy. Whether it's those death-tech masters or French prog gods Magma, when a band is led and envisioned by the drummer, in this case, Ulcerate's drum magi Jamie Saint Merat, get out your abacus: It's number-crunching time!
On Of Fracture and Failure, these New Zealanders'debut full-length, Ulcerate cinch themselves as underground tech-spazz godheads. Nine excellently-played, excellently-produced songs of total tsunami-swirling mindfuckery that kill and kill again before you even know what hit you or before you even determine if the wormhole-digging blurs were, like, real riffs or just some meth-driven guitar wank.
Closer inspection reveals a definite, and (most importantly) deliberate method to their madness: Songs like 'Ad Nauseum'and 'Failure'slither between huge jelly-jigglin'groove riffs a la fellow New Zealanders Dawn of Azazel and Immolation's warbly weirdness and jagged, mega-dissonant, stuck-on-fast-forward, cyborg-raping-human burns. New raw-hamburger throatist Ben Read does an excellent job maintaining balance and cohesion with the dual-guitar/bass-drum melees. Appropriately, the album cover art (allegedly created by Merat) features some octopus-looking, Lovecraftian alien creature that much like these awesome, but hard to digest jams just may remind you of the unstoppable Sigourney Weaver nemesis. Tech freaks: Bring your sleeping bags; there's a lot here to study (and freak on). In fact, that may be the only complaint: There's too much to chew on, sometimes at the price of repetition.
Disagreement.net
http://www.disagreement.net/reviews/ulcerate_offractureandfailure.html
Once upon a time, there was a band from New Zealand, all fed up living in a country that was musically only assimilated to lo-fi indie sounds from the Flying Nun label, so they dug a hole straight through the Earth and ended up in the Netherlands where they were signed to Neurotic Records. While this is technically not really impossible (if you care to live in a Jules Verne universe), it isn't of course the way it happened. But imagine my surprise when I first listened to the second album from Ulcerate, and later found out that they were from kiwi island, and not from the American East Coast.
Ulcerate play their technical death metal on an incredibly high level, and even leave bands like Immolation or Dying Fetus behind them. The band combines the sheer aggression and brutality of the genre with the crazy progressiveness of math metal bands, and more than once, they sound as if Meshuggah had decided to become a death metal band. From time to time, especially on their longer songs Failure and Defaeco, there is room for breathing, but apart from that, Of Fracture And Failure is a forty-five non-stop ride through polymetric odd time signature shifting math death schizophrenia. The thing is, this works so much better than all the Converge and Dillinger Escape Plan clones, because Ulcerate never have any hardcore elements, which in my opinion makes bands more accessible.
This is true progressive music written and performed by true artists. It may be noisy as hell and hurt your ears, but everyone who feels ready for a real musical challenge should check out the brilliant Of Fracture And Failure. Ulcerate prove that there is more to New Zealand than filming juvenile fantasy movies and charming lo-fi pop.
Global Domination
http://www.globaldomination.se/reviews/ulcerate-of-fracture-and-failure
Reviewed by The Duff 9/10
Well, it had to happen sometime - the fusion of tech death and post-rock, this ain't something unique to New Zealand (the home of band Ulcerate), but just something that was bound to occur eventually given enough time. The best thing about it is, though, is that it hasn't been done in the most obvious sense on "Of Fracture and Failure" (I was expecting the lush soundscapes to creep in, but instead found everything to be kept very ugly), resultantly giving one of the best tech death albums I've heard - on par with Spawn of Possession's "Noctambulant", an album I'm fucken nuts about, and definitely something I thought unlikely to be leveled any time soon.
What Ulcerate deliver on their debut full-length is essentially razor sharp, vicious guitar lines combined with discordant, unusual riffs much akin to Immolation, sections that remind me specifically of Hate Eternal (never thought I'd see the day I'd mention Hate Eternal as a major influence, seeing as they're not the most original of bands), some slower-paced death metal grooves and the dark ambience provided by bands such as Neurosis (as well as some thrashy moments on the rare occasion - see "The Mask of the Satyr").
The shorter songs on this album are amazing; short and focused kicks to the skull, filled with countless tempo changes, confusing and oft-kilter rhythms, and riffs comprising a potent mix of both brutality and groove; the furious pace is pretty much constant throughout the album, although there are some really relaxing (if very dark) moments that allow one to breathe (chiefly found within the longer tracks). The guitars throw you all over the place, and yet the process via which the riffs have been assembled has been very well thought out; this album flows extraordinarily well. I also seriously admire the way in which the band lures the listener into thinking the music's going one way, only to lash out with something completely unexpected.
The drumming on this disc is astounding, as Jamie Saint Merat (who also covered the artwork) sounds like he's on a mixture of steroids and amphetamines, yet is so limber that his performance comes across as exceptionally tight without sounding anywhere near over-exertive. His repertoire of techniques is extensive to say the least, and his transitioning from one style of playing to the next very fluid, at the same time he mixes things up with such variety that he seldom appears to repeat himself - a very inventive player who, as impressive as the guitars may be, makes this album the gem that it is!
The vocals are quite common, but varied - Ben Read is clearly talented, just nothing truly exceptional (unlike the rest of the band). The production couldn't be more fitting; best described as "fuzzy", it offers the necessary edge for the more vicious guitar onslaughts whilst offering an almost accommodating, warm tone throughout the rest.
My one gripe with "Of Fracture and Failure" is the song "Martyr of the Soil", which is just too fucken good that it makes the other two lengthier tracks appear a little less remarkable (as if they are simply two normal length tracks each with an added, really cool atmospheric fade-out that makes them pass the six/seven minute mark) - a bit of a shit gripe, I know, hence why this scores a:
9 drummers with Duracell's up their nostrils out of 10.
Gutteralzine.net
http://gutturalzine.net/reviews/ulcerateeng.htm
Reviewed by Gore 93/100
Technical Death Metal coming from New Zealand? To be honest, the only extreme metal band I know which is from New Zealand is the satanic Death Metal band Dawn Of Azazel. Ok they have for metal circumstances an exotic origin. But if you want to know how they sound like, that's easy to divine, if you noticed that the band released this album on Neurotic Records and if you take a look at the last few releases of the label, you should know what you can expect. Extremely blasting, weird and technical Death Metal. But labeling the band as another soulless technical Death Metal band wouldn't be fair and a big mistake, because the band knows how to write real great varied songs without losing any brutal and technical elements of the music. The simplest way to describe the music would be if you imagine a mix between bands like Psycroptic and new Visceral Bleeding on Hate Eternal speed, with many experimental song structures. The tight musicanship is only breathtaking and the band is still able to write songs, which are sticking in your head. This is really rare for many new technical Death Metal bands today. But that doesn't mean, that "Of Fracture And Failure" offers easy silent music. The stuff here is really aggressive, fast, brutal, hectically and it would multiply the chance to become a heart attack for every average music consumer. In short, the most songs are composed of extreme blast beat attacks, in the veins of Hate Eternal. But the whole thing here isn't that straight to the face Death Metal like Hate Eternal are playing it, its way more experimental. Sometimes the many breaks and tempo changes can induce you to lose your nerves. But always if the music is too stressful, the band attached some really brilliant quiet chill out parts into the songs. Anyhow, the band reminds me in these moments on non-Death Metal bands like Converge, Burst or Neurosis. So this album isn't only for Death Metal freaks. Also Grind and Mathcore fans could have a nice time with this full length album. Especially the vocals are more in the Grind & Hardcore vein than in Death Metal. But singer Ben Read is bawling, screaming and growling in such a great aggressive way, that it seems like he screams for one's life. I don't see any reason, to rate the vocals in a negative way, because they really fitting perfectly to this kind of sick music. The current "none plus ultra" label for technical Death Metal Unique Leader Records should come up with some new good releases soon if they don't want to be overrun by Neurotic Records. Because talking about the point of quality, Neurotic would definitively win the battle at the moment. Unfortunately I don't have any information about the previous releases of the band, so "Of Fracture And Failure" is my first musical trip with the band. But I'm really happy, that I made this experience. So if you have been disappointed about technical Death Metal releases recently, just check out Ulcerate and I guarantee that you will enjoy this album, as far as you're into extreme hectically, aggressive and technical Death Metal and when you're open minded for anomalous sounds. Also the great artwork and the amazing designed booklet are other reasons to buy this album. Of course the CD comes with a limited slipcase, which is typically for Neurotic Records. For all the people, who are still irresolute, the playtime of this release is much higher than average albums in this genre. Over 45 minutes of pure technical Death Metal as it should be. This is extreme technical, freaky, fast and brutal as hell without sounding mediocre or boring. Ulcerate breathing new life into the scene and if friends of psycho technical bands like Odious Mortem, Atheretic, Psycroptic, Visceral Bleeding or Hate Eternal miss out this piece of work, they will bite the dust with the certainty, that they have ignored a great band. I hope that none will be so dumb and that I will get the chance to see this band live on stage soon. My conclusion is that this album is the perfect soundtrack to let off frustration after a fucked up working day.
Masterful Magazine
http://masterful-magazine.com/review_result.php?wynik=detail&rodzaj=recenzje&id=1817
Reviewed by Wouter 8/10
New Zealand's Ulcerate are another entry in the technical death metal scene and that their debut is released through Dutch tech death specialist label Neurotic Records therefore comes as no surprise. Combining technical death metal, akin to Spawn Of Possession and Psycroptic, with modern post-metal (Neurosis is an influence), Ulcerate breathe a fresh wind through a genre that is otherwise steeped in unwritten rules. Ulcerate's material is loaded with sheer brutality, unexpected tempo-changes, interesting rhythms plus tons of groove to boot. Drummer Jamie Saint Merat is the star of this disc; providing a groovy, non-stop barrage of blastbeats and relentless fills and rolls, while also drafting up the spectacular artwork that adorns this disc. Guitarists Michael Rothwell and Michael Hoggard fit together extraordinary well, in the process delivering riffs that flow naturally while always putting listeners on the wrong foot, by going the polar opposite of what one would expect to hear next. Ben Read is a bit unspectacular behind the mic, his vocals are adequate enough for a band like this. However, some interesting vocal lines could potentially lift the material to an even higher standard. The pace of "Of Fracture and Failure" is generally very high, but the band includes moodier, calm sections in their longer cuts that give the album quite a dark aura. The production of this album is clear with enough rough edge around the guitars to give them the necessary punch, while retaining a warm sound for the remaining instruments. "Of Fracture and Failure" comes highly recommended for fans of modern technical death metal. Another great find by Neurotic Records.
PyroMusic
http://www.pyromusic.net/index.php?p=reviews_revi...
Reviewed by Spiritech 8.3/10
To use a cliché, the New Zealand Metal scene has gone from strength to strength in the last few years. Auckland's Ulcerate, who have been at it since 2003, are another in a long line of quality Extreme Metal acts from across the ditch. The band's initial demos caught the attention of up-and-coming Dutch label Neurotic Records, who have released their proper debut full-length, 'Of Fracture And Failure'.
Featuring current 8 Foot Sativa members (geez, those guys seem to be everywhere in the Kiwi Metal scene!) Ben Read (vocals) and drummer Jamie Saint Merat, Ulcerate are hardly novices. Relentless, efficient musicianship and tight songwriting are what drives Ulcerate's uncompromising brand of Death Metal. The band showcase plenty of influences, which perhaps shine through a little too strongly occasionally, but it's far, far from plagiarism.
The music sounds so immediate and vital it doesn't matter though. 'The Mask of the Satyr' is relentless and 'Becoming the Lycanthrope' sounds like an ungodly mix of Suffocation, Meshuggah and Hate Eternal, only combined with the band's emotionally-charged personality. 'Praise And Negation' has an Immolation crossed with Necrophagist intensity and the more clinical sections of 'Ad Nauseum' recall Meshuggah, but with a twist. 'Defaeco' has a more brooding intensity to it that ensures it never loses your attention during its eight minutes.
The band does precious little wrong. The vocals are a vicious combination of throat-lacerating screams and growls, showing real depth. There's great variety in the riffing, and the drumming is tight and creative, with some truly devastating fills and ferocious blast-beats unleashed at regular intervals. The musicianship is quite technical, (see 'Martyr Of The Soul) with complex changes in tempo, unsettling use of dynamics and intricate, often stop-start riffing, but not to the point where it becomes distracting, or detracts from the actual songs.
This is a very accomplished effort: forceful, precise Death Metal with its own identity. It's little wonder that Ulcerate are winning over Extreme Metal fans everywhere. With 8 Foot Sativa about to release a new album, here's hoping Ulcerate don't become an afterthought. These guys are on to something here.
Terrorizer magazine
Issue 161 / Sep 2007
Teufels Tomb
http://www.teufelstomb.com/reviews/ulcerate-offractureandfailure.html
Reviewed by Necro-Tron [ positive ]
Recently Willowtip struck a deal with Neurotic Records to rerelease domestic editions of several of their records here in North America. Some of these reissues have included recognizable releases like Psycroptic's Symbols of Failure and Spawn of Possession's phenomenal Noctambulant. The deal also included a few other releases that most metal fans may not be familiar with, such as Ulcerate's Of Fracture and Failure.
Hailing from New Zealand, Ulcerate play a brand of technical death metal that has about as much fury as a wildebeest on crack, fucking a hippo with a mechanical, cybernetic hydraulic penis like there was no tomorrow. That penis, by the way, has a buzz saw that ejaculates acid. Take an extremely pissed off technical death metal version of Crowpath and their near-wall of sound technicality, sprinkle it with light spicy elements of Gorguts and Immolation's drumming, and place in the vocal seat a disgruntled version of The Red Chord's Guy Kozowyk who seems to have his style set permanently to death growl mode. Then season it with a very modern production that takes its cues from the Devin Townsend school of production aesthetics and you have Of Fracture and Failure.
It takes awhile to get used to, but the music more than grows on you after the first few listens. Of Fracture and Failure is an extremely intricate record that runs the gamut from jazzy, ethereal moods to chaotic cacophonies and other sonic blitzkriegs. Jamie Saint Merat's drum performance is crushing and complex, with a varied range of techniques that keep the performance from falling into repetition. Ulcerate's dual guitar assault possesses an extremely catchy sense of brutality that becomes more addictive than the most potent, vile tasting beer out there. They pack a fuck load of ugly into those riffs but the way they play with your head will more than keep you coming back, like a snaggle-tooth addict looking for a fix. Ben Read's growling screams are perfectly fit for this type of carnage, sounding pissed off and about as moody as the guys from Watchmaker. I've never heard Read in his other band 8 Foot Sativa (which Merat also plays in), but I'll be damned if they don't accommodate Ulcerate aptly.
Ulcerate is another quality export from New Zealand, alongside other acts such as Dawn of Azazel. Of Fracture and Failure is a must for any death metal fan looking for an extremely heavy technical experience and is an excellent addition to both Willowtip and Neurotic's stable of musicians.
Vampire Magazine
http://www.vampire-magazine.com/article.php?aid=43422
Reviewed by Dave Waite
Doing more twists, turns and somersaults than a gut full of rotting vindaloo, New Zealand's premier brutal death metal outfit Ulcerate blast through new album "Of Fracture And Failure" with a degree of musicianship that has to be heard to be believed. Sounding like a cross between Hate Eternal, Immolation and Cryptopsy all in one go, Ulcerate are a mixture of technical finesse, dark atmosphere and sheer, bloodied intensity that manage to just stay this side of chaos.
After being totally blown away with their "Coming Of Genocide" EP (see review in the archives) thanks to their technically advanced, 'song' orientated approach to death metal, it is fantastic to hear that their debut full length has not lost any of it's vehement potency. Just how these guys even begin to figure out where these songs are going remains something of a mystery, switching time signatures/riffs every two seconds yet maintaining a solid, powerful groove that without would sound like a disjointed (albeit well played) mess. Opener "Praise And Negation" and second track "Ad Nauseam" set things off to a most brutal start with the guitars spewing forth discordant, sinister riffing and drums blasting at speeds that would even give Origin a run for their money. Superbly executed in every sense, the low to high grunts of vocalist Ben Read help give these intense musical workouts the sense of structure needed to prevent the stop/start rhythms from getting lost in translation.
If your ears have been good enough to let you get to the end of the album without bleeding or packing in all together, then you will find some sort of solace (though not much) by way of final track and album highlight "Defaeco". Incorporating slower tempos with a more darkly atmospheric edge the huge sprawling chords and clever song structuring bring out everything that is so special about this band in just eight minutes of pure death metal mastery. Although in its entirety not there quite yet, "Of Fracture And Failure" is, for Ulcerate, their next monstrous step towards refining a sound that will separate them from the many tech death metal bands out there, and judging by this, boy do they warrant it.
Vile Magazine - Print publication, out mid-2007
http://www.www.vilemagazine.com
Reviewed by Thomas Fura 5/5
Is this cd from 2006? Yes. Do I care? Not really. Reason being, this death metal act hailing from Auckland, New Zealand have written an absolutely uncompromising, raging and unique album that debuted to a less-than-deserved amount of attention. I've been listening to death metal for 12 years, so I've heard a lot and get bored with most.but when I pressed play on this cd, It instantly made me jump up in my chair.
Right out of the gates, Of Fracture And Failure sets the mood for total annihilation. Scorched-earth vocals combine with calculus equations reinterpreted for the fret board, and the drumming is far beyond the too-often used "machine gun" description; if you played this cd on a loud enough system, I'm pretty certain that the drums would cause enough seismic activity to send California to the bottom of the ocean.
What makes this album so great is that Ulcerate take the outstanding death metal base they built with their debut The Coming Of Genocide and have aggrandized the sound by forging it with the technical, frantic urgency of bands such as Creation Is Crucifixion or The Dillinger Escape Plan as well as the disorientating, soul-numbing drone of bands like Isis. No other bands sound like this right now, and I'm pretty sure that even if they tried, they couldn't top this.
I can't stress enough how great of an album this is, especially if like me, you hunger for a sense of creativity and distinctive style in the bands that you listen to. The only advice that I can give you in this review is that you go out and get this cd. I don't care how you get the money; sell your furniture if you have to. Buy it, put it in your player, turn it up loud and let Ulcerate pulverize you until your organs turn into a soup-like homogenate. Dare I say, if you ignore this album, you should think twice about calling yourself a fan of extreme metal.
Five of Five stars.
Aversionline.com
http://www.aversionline.com
8/10
Fuck yeah, this is more like it! An excellent demo of brutal, moderately technical death metal from New Zealand. Guttural growls with a few higher screams layered in the background, a great mix of tempos that includes some odd time signatures as well as all the death metal staples, thick rhythms with a little dissonance, a tasteful amount of tremolo picking that doesn't get too tiresome, etc. Imagine a mix of Cryptopsy (but not that over the top), a dash of Suffocation, some of the Florida classics, and even a few more modern shredding riffs akin to the Polish scene. I'm definitely into this. They throw around a lot of changes, but they can write songs that are fluid enough to feel coherent and well arranged, it's crazy enough to jar you, but not so over the top that it becomes a mess. There are some really fucked up leads in "Second Death" that have a weird sort of obscure jazz fusion sound, but the playing is twisted so it sounds warped and unusual, and I like that. The recording is very fucking good for a demo as well. There's room for improvement of course, but believe me when I say that I've heard a great number of death metal records over the years released by the largest underground labels that do indeed sound worse than this demo. The drums are really crisp, which works to accent the tightness of the performance, but they're also really dense. The guitar tone is thick and textured with a good level of control, the vocals are dense and not too loud in the mix, and the bass peaks through enough to add to the tracks. If I could make any alterations I would smooth over a few inconsistencies in the drum sound, give the bass more prominence (without muddying things up), and see what happens from there. But they're off to a great start. The CD-R comes in a slim jewel case with a professionally printed booklet as well as artwork on the CD face, and the layout looks great as well. Clean text, nice artwork… even the band photos are well handled. The lyrics don't do much for me, but I'm not turned away by them: "Abysmal tongues blaspheme the stigma of the dead hand, Condemning those who drink the blood that drips from the crucifix of Golgotha, Abysmal tongues bless the standard of the strong, And command the bearer from the text divine..." This is about as good as I can imagine a death metal demo getting. I'd highly recommend picking this up, and I'd expect this band to get signed very soon. Nice work.
[Notable tracks: The Coming of Genocide, Second Death]
Deadtide.com #1
Reviewed by Peter Johnston
Ooh, this is good! Ulcerate's demo The Coming of Genocide is very simply horrific and heavy as all fuck death metal. Managing a sound that nestles between Immolation, Nile and your favorite speeding brutal death band, this New Zealand act destroys just about everything with the four songs here. Favoring the faster paces and a penchant to use some very sour guitar lines (hence the Immolation nod), the music here is very one of a kind and refreshing, especially considering how heavy and technical it is.
Finally, despite the "demo" status of this album, the band has put it together with fantastic artwork and pristine production, fucking cheers to that!
Damn, I'm dying to see what Ulcerate does next. Pssst, Relapse, you'll want to sign these guys for as many albums as you can get!
Standout Tracks: All
[Notable tracks: The Coming of Genocide, Second Death]
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Deadtide.com #2
Reviewed by Kyle Huckins
Ulcerate are crushing technical death metal from New Zealand, and they are nice enough to compile their first two demos on this disc that I have here now. Allow me to break the review up accordingly.
The Coming of Genocide
This is the band's 2004 demo and it is the first four songs of the disc. The guitar tone reminds me very much of Immolation, and the vocals add to the resemblance as James Wallace sounds a lot like Ross Dolan. The songs are all nice and fast, written with the intent of crushing all in their path. A brilliant production adds to the fun as the bass needs to come through well to make this work. The drumming is quite mad too as Jaime Saint Marat is trying his best to impersonate an octopus with an amphetamine habit. They also throw in a little Decapitated just for spice. They can play and they can crush, though they prefer to do both at the same time. I can't totally fellate them due to the resemblance to Immolation being almost total, but this is a really crushing slice of death metal that I would recommend highly. I just hope on future material they distance themselves from Immolation a bit. Not too much since those records are mighty, but just a little.
2003 Demo
This is the band's first demo and it is the back half of this CD. The production isn't nearly as good on this demo, though the songs are quite murderous. The pitch of the snare sounds a bit higher which is throwing me off a little. The music is very much in the same vein as The Coming of Genocide, though it is not as polished. That said for a first demo this is truly homicidal stuff. The first song also shows off the fact that the band can actually play slower material when it so chooses. However I think they rarely see the need, just like me. My name is Kyle Huckins, and I approve this album.
They also threw some multimedia stuff on here, but it always crashes when I try to watch it in my machine so I can't tell you what the deal is with it. Sorry guys, hope the full length kills like the demos do.
Grindead Zine
Reviewed by Uffe Nylin 4.5/5
Ever thought about how the musicscene in New Zealand could be like? Well, if you have I guess you are one step ahead of me since New Zealand for some reason has been one of those countries that I never related to this kind of music, or any music at all (sorry inhabitans of New Zealand, nothing personal :)). Well, Ulcerate will definantly open up a whole new vision for me when it comes to New Zealands musiclife. This is Ulcerates second demo titled "The coming of genocide", truly a fitting title for this vicious onslaught of technical brutality. Musicians like the ones in Ulcerate sure is hard to find, everything is flawless, I would like to call this "intelligent" and technical death/grind that has tons of suprises in store for the listener since you dont really have any idea what will happen next, but although its very technical, its still catchy enough to make you remember particular parts in each song.
Categorizing Ulcerate would show not to be an easy task, but after listening and trying to analyse this is as well and honest as possible, I would like to say that this sounds like Gorguts meets Cryptopsy (the new stuff and with that I mean the music, not the vocals) meets Origin. Its technical (as I've mentioned many times in this review already), mostly fastpaced, but still shifting and never grows boring. Vocals are agressive growls, not ultra"br00tal", but personally I think it dosent have to be ultra brutal to be good.
A very cool and suprising thing with the soundproduction of this demo was that although its totally D.I.Y., its still very good, clean and professional as hell, even better than many cds that has been recorded in professional studios. One other thing that showed that these guys have class is the highly professional artwork and the booklet even containing lyrics (some kind of antichristian/apocalypse/ society related stuff). Would've been nice if more bands could use some money to get some nice coverart, booklet etc.
This album gets 4,5 out of 5. I'll do anything in my power to spread the word about Ulcerate since this band really deserves to get out there! If you are into technical and advance death/grind you should check out these guys and if not, you should at least check out the samples on their page to hear what great musicians these guys are.
Metalcrypt
http://www.metalcrypt.com
Reviewed by Chaosphere 4/5
Brutal death metal can be a tricky genre to get right. Overdoing the technicality and savagery can result in music that goes right over most people's heads and sounds like the musical incarnation of schizophrenia, while not enough can lead to something that makes absolutely zero impacts. Ulcerate have managed to straddle this thin line quite well with their second demo effort, and thrown a killer self-production job into the bargain. Seriously, this sounds like it was done in a decent quality studio, not in a bedroom over a couple of weekends. The drums are crystal clear, the guitars tear at your face with vicious precision, the bass rumbles mercilessly and the vocals boom over the top (although sometimes they're a bit too loud, which is the only gripe I can think of). The packaging, too, is top notch - pro-printed insert, full colour label on the CD-R, and killer artwork done by the band's multitalented drummer.
As for the songs, they're quite surprisingly distinctive. There's a definite set pattern here, with an even distribution of high-speed tremolo shredding underpinned by meticulous blasting, some slower - almost doom-death - parts which burst back into high speed, and of course some insane guitar solo's. That's not to say it's devoid of melody, since some of these riffs will stick in your head quite well. In particular, the opening riff-set in the title track, the crunching outro of "Unhallowed Ascension" and the equally crushing finish of "Second Death" stand out in this manner, as does the lead guitar abuse in the last two songs. The bass generally follows the guitars, but occasionally ventures into its own counterpoint sections, but is always an audible undertow holding the chaotic, unpredictable nature of these songs together. Changes occur fairly regularly too - one section will flow quickly into a different tempo without warning, and a lot of these parts have a very jagged, angular feeling offset by the more straightforward moments.
Overall, this is a very clinical, yet savage release - fairly typical of the better modern brutal death bands, which means fans of examples such as Deeds Of Flesh, Gorgasm, Nile and Hate Eternal will find much to enjoy here. To get hold of a copy, just email the band on ulcerate AT gmail DOT com, or visit their website for further details.
Supreme Brutality.net
supremebrutality.net/reviews/thecomingofgenocide_cd.php
Reviewed by Per Laursen 4/6
It's not like an every day event hearing death metal from New Zealand but I recently had the pleasure of receiving the new four track demo "The Coming of Genocide" from brutal death metallers Ulcerate and there's really no reason to deny or drag it out: this band kicks major fucking ass.
Right from the opening track "The Coming of Genocide" it's clear that we're dealing with a band with some serious potential. Ulcerate seem inspired by combos like Immolation, Suffocation and Deeds Of Flesh and it does shine through a little but only in a positive way and the Immolation references are especially undeniable in the fourth and final track "Second Death", but I wouldn't describe Ulcerate as being a copycat 'cause they clearly have their own ideas. Furthermore, I must say that I'm really impressed with the professional layout and design of the booklet. If Ulcerate continue with the professionalism they've shown with The Coming of Genocide, then it should just be a matter of time before they get signed. And honestly I can't wait to hear more from these New Zealanders.
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Supreme Brutality.net #2
I reviewed The Coming of Genocide demo from the upcoming New Zealand based death metallers Ulcerate back in 2004. Listening to it today it still sound as great as it did then. Now it's been re-released by Italian label The Flood Records and with good reason I'd say. Besides the four songs originally on the demo the four tracks from Demo 2003 has also been included.
Musically Ulcerate is operating in the same territory as combos like Suffocation, Immolation and Deeds of Flesh. The influences are definitely there, but the band never tends to sound like just a blueprint of the aforementioned though the Immolation references are clear at times like in "Second Death". Ulcerate clearly know how to write some good songs. The band understands to vary things and keep it interesting by adding lots shifts in the music. Moreover Ulcerate also know the importance of having a solo here and there. No doubt these New Zealanders are good at what they do.
The sound is fat and powerful so you never really notice that the album is a collection of demo material. The CD version of The Coming of Genocide is a great appetizer while we wait on the debut full-length out on Neurotic Records later this year.
