UMUR "Shrines of Paralysis" is the 5th full-length studio album by New Zealand death metal act Ulcerate. The album was released through Relapse Records in October 2016. It´s the successor to "Vermis" from 2013 and features the same three-piece lineup who recorded the predecessor.

"Shrines of Paralysis" is relatively similar in style to the dissonant and technical death metal featured on "Vermis (2013)". It´s a style of music the band introduced on their second album "Everything Is Fire (2009)" and have developed and refined since then. Ulcerate are strongly influenced by mid- to late 90s Gorguts and that act´s creative use of dissonance and desire to push the boundaries of death metal. It´s dark and ultra heavy oppressive music, and even when the band play faster, the overall sound is still gloomy and heavy.

It´s pretty surely an aquired taste if the listener is able to appreciate the band´s vision as the heavy use of dissonance is probably an obstacle for some. Viewed more objectively Ulcerate arguably succeed well with their ideas though, and "Shrines of Paralysis" is generally an adventurous, massive, and gritty journey into darkness. The band are technically very well playing, and although the growling vocals are one-dimensional and a bit emotionless in nature, they do get the job done and apply another layer of bleakness to the listening experience...

...and this is bleak, bleak, bleak. Not even a small ray of light will ever be able to penetrate the thick dissonant darkness of the material on the 8 track, 57:44 minutes long album. "Shrines of Paralysis" features a heavy, detailed, and raw sounding production, which suits the material perfectly, so upon conclusion "Shrines of Paralysis" is another high quality release by Ulcerate. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Stare into Death and Be Still" is the 6th full-length studio album by New Zealand death metal act Ulcerate. The album was released through Debemur Morti Productions in April 2020. It´s the successor to "Shrines of Paralysis" from 2016 and features the exact same trio lineup who recorded the predecessor.

Two words and one influence have always been among the descriptors of Ulcerate and that´s inaccessible, dissonant, and Gorguts. While Ulcerate have managed to stay relevant and continue to release albums in the years since their inception in 2002, they haven´t strayed too far from their original formula or from their obvious Gorguts influence on any of their previous releases. What they have done though is develop their sound slowly but steadily from album to album, and adding more and more of a unique touch to their bleak and dissonant technical death metal style and that´s what has happened again on "Stare into Death and Be Still". One more step out of the shadow of Gorguts.

When that is said this is still strongly Gorguts influenced technical death metal, featuring dissonant twisted riffs and open chords, complex and challenging technical rhythm work, and some deep growling vocals, which this time around has become slightly more intelligible. I won´t remove the inaccessible label from my description of the music, but "Stare into Death and Be Still" is to date the most accessible release from Ulcerate and I hear more memorable and catchy moments here than before. The songwriting is more focused on those qualities and while this is still bleak and brutal music, it features a little less of the impenetrable darkness of some of the predecessors. It´s actually quite atmospheric at times and occasionally leans towards post-metal territory.

Ulcerate generally seem a little more interested in opening up their intriguing take on technical death metal to the listener, and it´s not done by compromising their integrity or the brutality of their music. It´s small details like a semi-melodic hook, an intelligible vocal phrase, or maybe a heavy groove, which is a bit more catchy and simple than usual. A good example is the title track, which is an incredibly creative composition, featuring many intriguing riffs and rhythms and an atmospheric middle section. But while it´s certainly a complex and challenging song, there are also some more simple features, which makes it at least occasionally accessible.

"Stare into Death and Be Still" features a crushingly brutal and heavy sound production, which is perfect for the material and helps the tracks to shine. This is an album for those who are interested in a different take on technical death metal. Forget about conventional power chord riffs, guitar solos, or regular drum patterns. When you cross the threshold and enter "Stare into Death and Be Still" you are in for an adventurous ride that´s sure to challenge the conventional ideas of what death metal should sound like. A 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved.

siLLy puPPy Having formed as far back as 2002 in the northern New Zealand city of Auckland, the technical metal wizardry of ULCERATE has become an extreme metal lover’s paradise of thick caustic guitar riffing dissonance that dishes out some of the most hellish and demanding tech death meets sludge metal that rode the wave of the surreal tech death craze that included bands like Gorguts, Portal, Mitochondrion and Pyrrhon. Add to that the jangly blood-curdling guitar sweeps found in progressive black metal acts like Deathspell Omega and you could be guaranteed to scratch that tech death morbidity itch with any of ULCERATE’s output which began with 2007’s “Of Fracture And Failure.”

Following the band’s last album “Shrines of Paralysis” which saw the light in 2016 comes the aptly titled (for 2020) album STARE INTO DEATH AND BE STILL and considering the album was released in April of 2020, it’s unlikely the album prognosticated the tumultuous chain of events haunting this calendar year with the most noticeable headache being the Covid-19 global pandemic. Like many such tech death acts that strive to unleash the most fiery caustic acrobatics of complexity and detachment possible, ULCERATE has found a new lease on life by crafting a less suffocating album that walks a tightrope between the heavy bombastic dissonance and downtuned dread of the previous offerings and adds a bit more atmospheric prowess in the form of melodic counterpoints and production clarity.

STARE INTO DEATH AND BE STILL in many ways is business as usual with that brutal atmospheric tech death scourge of midtempo sludginess with percussive laziness alternating with mind-numbing drumming wizardry but something seems more focused on this sixth album by ULCERATE, a band that i have never quite wrapped my head around despite owning the majority of their discography and giving proper attention for the clicking process. Something about this band has always turned me off whether it be the cadences of the dirge-like plodding of the martial rhythms, the depressive chunky riffs or the brutal bombast of the metal pummeling the senses with dissonant bleakness after a nuclear bomb drops. STARE INTO DEATH AND BE STILL is the album for me that final appeals to my tech death sensibilities and it seems the extra attention to the atmospheric counterpoints of the wind-swept guitar sweeps and fine-tuned compositional constructs are just what the doctor ordered. I can relate to this one unlike the ones prior.

One of my major hurdles regarding the appreciation of ULCERATE’s tech death has clearly been the vocal style of Paul Kelland. For no clear reason his growly vocal style has rubbed me the wrong way like an infested sore filled with hatching maggots An irritating and enervating factor which while unexplainable still provided the wrong “frequency” of death metal vocal bliss for my ears to appreciate but that too has changed on this one.. Something shifted on STARE INTO DEATH AND BE STILL where all the elements of ULCERATE’s prior musical style have aligned like a rare syzygy of astrological bonanzas that offer a bright future as shown in the cards. The clouds have lifted and although a bleak depressive sky still exists beyond the veil, its’ the kind of turbid orotundity that fires on all pistons thus showing how the tiniest of details in a band can be enough to make you a hardcore fan or a diehard deserter. For all my efforts ULCERATE has been the latter until this release reversed that course.

Hovering around the same hour’s playing time as the band’s previous efforts (save the debut), STARE INTO DEATH AND BE STILL finds the band maturing in a way that allows the sum of the parts to see a much bigger picture and how one musical methodology was tweaked to allow a much clearer synergy of the cast of caustic characters behind the wheel. At long last, despite my best efforts i can now say i’m in the ULCERATE club with this new album that so very much encapsulates the zeitgeist of the contemporary madness the world collectively experiences in this most surreal of calendar years. ULCERATE trods on like a sober observer of death and destruction delivered through the seasoned musical sounds of the guitar, bass and drums. In a world where this style of murky, atonal tech metal seems to be overplayed, somehow ULCERATE has surprised me and crafted an album that takes the band into higher levels of competence. Nice!

UMUR "Vermis" is the 4th full-length studio album by New Zealand, Auckland based death metal act Ulcerate. The album was released through Relapse Records in September 2013. "Vermis" was engineered, mixed and mastered by the band´s drummer Jamie Saint Merat, who is also responsible for the cover artwork. I guess living as far away from other civilizations as people from New Zealand do, teaches you a DIY way of thinking and acting.

In many ways Jamie Saint Merat is an incredibly gifted artist, which is certainly also true when it comes to his drumming, which is varied and skillfully executed. Ulcerate is a three-piece and the other two guys in the band, Paul Kelland (Bass, vocals) and Michael Hoggard (guitars), are equally talented. Together the three of them produce a dense, chaotic sounding, twisted, dissonant and complex type of death metal with post metal leanings (still with a very obvious Gorguts influence). That was also the case on the band´s 3rd full-length studio album "The Destroyers of All (2011)". Stylistically the two albums are very much alike, but the more organic sound production on "Vermis" sets them apart. Other than that I don´t hear much development of their sound, and that might be a minor issue, but when the music is delivered with fierce conviction as it is here and the tracks are generally intriguing throughout, there is ultimately little to complain about. The growling vocals could probably have been delivered a bit less monotone and maybe a bit more varied, but again it´s a minor issue, and they ultimately get the job done.

The band excel in creating chaotic despair ridden atmospheres. Pictures of barren wastelands and post war urban decay are instantly created in my mind. This is not happy music to put it mildly. It´s not fiercely aggressive either (although it´s very energetic and busy) but rather monumental and gloomy. The balance between chaotic dissonance (played in ultra fast tempos, with split second breaks and time signature changes) and atmospheric (but never even close to being melodic) moments is effectful. Upon conclusion "Vermis" is another strong release by Ulcerate. I think I favour "The Destroyers of All (2011)" over this one, but a 4 star (80%) rating is still fully deserved.

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.