Phonebook Eater 6/10

“The Destroyers Of All” shakes skies, oceans, and the earth with it’s abrasive sound.

Ulcerate is a Technical Death Metal band from New Zealand, and they’ve been increasing in popularity since their debut, and even more with the sophomore “Everything Is Fire”, which was very much acclaimed among fans of the genre. The follow up, third studio album “The Destroyers Of All” tries of course to outdo the previous album, and for some, it has.

This third album has a mature sound, great production, stronger experimentation and more ambience. “The Destroyers Of All” is a mix of the hammering rhythms and brutal impact of Brutal Death Metal, the complexity and shape-shifting Technical Death, and a curious and very effective influence of Atmospheric Sludge Metal and some Doom as well. The songs are generally more stretched out than “Everything Is Fire”, allowing the ASM side to have a pretty consistent role in the songs’ flow; the heavier moments are alternated with the slower, tenser ones. But it could never sound like Neurosis or anything like that, since there’s no repetition and there’s tons, tons of chaos. The tech side is definitely the stand-out one, thus the music is some of the most chaotic and complex things you’ll hear this year. Hammering drums, abrasive guitars and extremely guttural growls are the main ingredients of this dark recipe.

The atmosphere and tons are dark and apocalyptic, and the slower parts have a lot of bleakness to them. But the sound that comes out during the more violent parts shakes the most inner guts of the earth, of the oceans, and the whole skies, even within few minutes in the album. But my main issue is that it is a little too chaotic, so much is going on that at the end of the track nothing remains in your head, as you can’t remember anything of what just happened. This reminds me a lot of Deathspell Omega, the Blackened version of this kind of disarray, and I’m personally not a fan of what I’ve heard from that band so far. This kind of music needs so much concentration, maybe it is a little too much for me.

Memorable moments are included in “Burning Skies” or the eight minute “Omens”, where there’s a pretty interesting build-up. The title track has some interesting moments and a good structure overall, but like I said, after multiple listens I still feel like I haven’t listened to much.

Overall, a decent album, maybe not exactly my type of music, but I completely understand why many like it. It is most definitely of the best quality, and I completely respect that.

Conor Fynes 'The Destroyers Of All' - Ulcerate (8/10)

Although much extreme metal being released nowadays seems to be content with emulating the works of past giants, there will always be those bands out there that try to turn the concept of a given genre on its side and redfine what it can do. Although this can sometimes lead to peril for the band, when done well, it leads to a fair deal of excitement, as is the case with New Zealanders Ulcerate and their latest work, entitled 'The Destroyers Of All'. While it is made clear from the highly distorted riffs, technical drumming and deep growls that this is indeed a death metal record, Ulcerate crosses the boundaries more than once, creating a work that has many of the characteristics of the prescribed genre, but still manages to skim the edge of something different altogether.

When listening to 'The Destroyers Of All', the biggest thing I notice are the guitars. For much death metal, I find that the main purpose of the riffs is to add to heaviness and- in many cases- the technical aspect of the music. Ulcerate is different in this aspect for the fact that the guitar work here is neither particularly brutal throughout, or fast-paced. Although it would be foolish to say that there aren't some looming moments to offer here, the guitars instead offer sounds that rely more on dissonant chord structures, complex timbres and eerie use of feedback. From my personal musical background, the closest thing Ulcerate's guitar work here sounds like is the latter period of Deathspell Omega; experimental, atonal, creepy and sometimes downright disconcerting in nature. All of this works in Ulcerate's favour. When first oging into this record that seemed to have people so excited, I was not expecting something other than a typical (albeit good) death metal record, and the band proved me wrong.

Apart from the relatively experimental guitar work, the rest of Ulcerate is fairly straightforward for the death metal genre. Some great technical drum work of Jamie Saint Merat and washed out but functional bass playing fills out the rest of the sound with the added heaviness the guitars didn't seem to worry about. The most generic thing about the band are the vocals however. While Paul Kelland is a fair enough growler, his grunts here lack the power and emotion to add much to the music.

Ulcerate's 'The Destroyer Of All' is therefore a fairly interesting creature for death metal. With equal parts death metal and something else altogether, the band has crafted an hour's worth of dissonant music that certainly grinds against the nerves at times, but for the time being, the album has given me back some faith into what I perceived was a dying genre.

UMUR "The Destroyers of All" is the 3rd full-length studio album by New Zealand, Auckland based death metal act Ulcerate. The album was released in January 2011 by Willowtip Records. I´ve followed Ulcerate since the release of their debut album "Of Fracture and Failure (2007)", which is an album I really enjoyed. The band´s sophomore release "Everything Is Fire (2009)" incorporated post metal elements to the band´s signature dissonant brutal death metal sound, but while the album certainly is a both well played, well composed and well produced affair, it somehow didn´t completely click with me like the debut did. So I wasn´t sure what to expect after I learned about the release of "The Destroyers of All".

The band have settled on a three-piece lineup. There have been no changes in the lineup since "Everything Is Fire" and I think it´s obvious when listening to the music on "The Destroyers of All", that there is now continuety in the way things are done. "The Destroyers of All" is not a copy of "Everything Is Fire" by any means though and Ulcerate have challenged themselves and their fans greatly on this new release.

The music is still a twisted, dissonant, cacophonous sounding version of brutal technical death metal which at its roots is greatly influenced by Gorguts and their extremely influential "Obscura (1998)" album. There´s also a strong influence in the music from the dissonant structured chaos of experimental black metal acts like Deathspell Omega and Blut Aus Nord. The post metal elements, which were introduced on "Everything Is Fire", are even more prominent on "The Destroyers of All" and something that rivals the bleak depressive atmosphere of mid-nineties Neurosis is a big part of Ulcerate´s sound.

The band seamlessly blend all influences and music styles into a sound of their own and it´s actually one of the biggests strengths of "The Destroyers of All". It all sounds very natural and like the band do this with ease. That´s of course just another testament to the extremely high level of musicianship on display here. Ulcerate are a tremendously talented bunch. Not only does the music feature odd time-signatures, loads of tempo shifts and worldclass technical precision drumming, but the very core of what makes music great IMO, is very much present on this album too. Songwriting that challenges, moves you and gives you a kick in the butt when that´s needed is something Ulcerate masters to perfection. Sure the vocals are a tiny bit one-dimensional. The deep growling vocals seldom leave much of an emotional impact, but they actually fit well with the generally bleak atmosphere. The intrumental part of the music is dynamic and can take you from blasting technical chaos to bleak slow post metal parts in seconds. The song structures are adventurous and the album is definitely not an easy listening experience.

Personally it´s taken me a couple of months to fully crack the code to the music, and I anticipate that it´s an album that will always challenge and puzzle me. It´s the kind of album where I´ll never be completely familiar with all details and therefore it´s an album that will provide me with endless hours of discovery and listening pleasure. "The Destroyers of All" has so far been one of the most interesting new albums I´ve listened to in 2011 and a 4 - 4.5 star rating is fully deserved.

UMUR Everything is Fire is the second full-length studio album by New Zealand technical/ progressive death metal act Ulcerate. Lead vocalist Ben Read and guitarist Michael Rothwell who were new in the linup on the debut album Of Fracture and Failure (2007) have already left Ulcerate again and Everything is Fire was recorded as a three-piece with bassist Paul Kelland also taking over the vocal duties, Michael Hoggard playing all guitars and Jamie Saint Merat manning the drumkit.

The lineup changes will have some effect on Ulcerate´s style but the music on Everything is Fire is unmistakably the sound of Ulcerate. The dissonant chords and notes played by the guitars and the chaotic technical drumming are trademarks in the group´s sound. The new things on this album compared to the debut is that Ulcerate incorporate some slow post metal sounding parts into their brutal death metal. The pace is generally slower than on the debut making Everything is Fire a darker and more heavy album. The vocals by Paul Kelland are unfortunately not as powerful and varied as the vocals by former vocalist Ben Read and that´s a real shame as Ben Read´s contributions to the debut were considerable and a real asset to Ulcerate´s sound. Paul Kelland´s deep guttural growling style doesn´t set itself apart from thousands of other death metal vocalists and while they are not bad they are certainly monotone and a bit tiring IMO. The music on the album is of high quality though and the vocals are not downright annoying just a bit trivial so my impression of the album is still very positive. There are eight songs on Everything is Fire all between 5 and 8 minutes long. Like on the debut you shouldn´t expect too many melodic or instantly memorable parts on the album but the songs win after repeated listens.

The production is a bit darker than the production on the debut. It suits the songs well and makes Everything is Fire an even heavier album than it already is. The vocals are a bit low in the mix which is a typical post metal feature and I wonder if the post metal elements in the music has also influenced the production.

Everything is Fire is a great second album by Ulcerate. While there are many recognizable elements that gives away the fact that this is an Ulcerate album there are enough new features on the album to set it apart from the debut in a positive way. I can´t say I´m happy about the shift on the lead vocalist spot though but I guess it´s a matter of taste. A 3.5 star rating is deserved.

UMUR Of Fracture and Failure is the debut full-length studio album by New Zealand technical/ progressive death metal act Ulcerate. A new lead vocalist Ben Read and a new guitarist Michael Rothwell have been added to the lineup since the demo days. Especially the inclusion of the former has great impact on the sound on Of Fracture and Failure. Ulcerate started their career releasing two demos Ulcerate (2003) and The Coming of Genocide (2004) which both showed great promise. Relentlessly brutal death metal but with a few twist and turns to make them interesting to fans of progressive death metal. The two demos were released in a combined package on the The Coming of Genocide (2006) compilation album. Allthough both demos showed great promise it´s not until this debut album by Ulcerate that we really get to hear what they are made of.

The basis in the music on Of Fracture and Failure is brutal death metal but the guitars play alot of dissonant chords and notes in addition to the chaotic technical drumming by Jamie Saint Merat so this is no standard death metal act. Intense and complex rythm patterns bordering the manic shifting between mid-paced and ultra fast blast beating in a second. This is no easy journey and those who crave melody in their music should not come near this beast. Well there are actually a few places ( and I mean very few places) where Ulcerate incorporate a melodic bit into their chaotic sound and I think it suits the music well with a bit of variation. The vocals by new vocalist Ben Read are definitely worth a mention too. He utilizes both low guttural growling and more high-pitched aggressive sneering. Within the confines of the genre he is a great vocalist with a varied style. A real asset to the band. I can´t help comparing his style to the almost eerie schizophrenic vocal style of Matthew Chalk ( formerly of Australian progressive death metal act Psycroptic). Ben Read doesn´t quite reach the hights of Matthew Chalk but he comes pretty close. There are nine songs on the album and with almost no melodic hooks or instantly memorable parts this is an album that takes time to get into. A bit of patience will be rewarded though as twisted themes and hooks begin to appear after repeated listens. I enjoy that the album is inaccessible upon first listen but unfolds after many listens. To those who want music that is instantly recognizable this will be a hard one to get through though. After having said my praises it is in the variation department that Ulcerate can improve their style because their technical skills and general songwriting is flawless. A very innovative and professional act.

The production is professional and powerful. Clean but not too clean which gives the music the right raw sound.

Of Fracture and Failure have been a real treat for me to listen to in the last couple of months since I purchased the album. As I mentioned the album didn´t impress me right away but has grown on me. It was like I had to get in the right mood to appreciate it. I´ll recommend Of Fracture and Failure if you enjoy brutal progressive death metal with lots of dissonances and a chaotic atmosphere. Bands like Gorguts, Crowpath and the most chaotic side of Nile could be reference points but Ulcerate have done the hardest thing for a new band and that´s creating a unique style. Of Fracture and Failure fully deserves a 4 star rating.