I should really know better than to listen to Ulcerate on an empty stomach. But here I am, writing this with nothing in me but coffee and a waning will to live.* For those not keen, Ulcerate is a highly technical atmospheric death metal band out of New Zealand. Their sound is widely attributable to drummer Jamie Saint Merat's prodigious tempo-changes and post-production work, and guitarist Michael Hoggard's employ of dissonant guitar effects and frenetic playing style. Their like if Gorguts and Portal got sucked into a cyclone somewhere out in Kansas, and while they were both suspended in mid-air a blade of a nearby windmill became dislodged and impaled them both. Later after hearing about the tragedy on the news, Neurosis singer Steve Von Till decided to write a song in the slain bands' styles. And that's it. That's their sound in a nutshell. There is no other possible way of describing it.
Stare into Death and Be Still is Ulcerate's sixth album and continues the band's mission to be uncompromisingly disorienting and dense. "Exhale the Ash" features bucking, serpentine guitars and a haunting atmosphere, while "Stare Into Death and Be Still" is penetratingly ominous with sharp, crenellated chord progressions and a battlement of ruthless tempo-changes, and "Inversion" has a dark allure to its snaring hooks and tarry shuddersome grooves. The tracks that I found myself enjoying the most are a little front-loaded here, but that doesn't mean that the entire package isn't a gale of catharsis, woe, and mind-dissolving complexity. Trust me, there are guaranteed moments on this album when you're going to feel like you're in a plane that is spinning out of control and about crater into the ground, orphaning whatever lower lifeforms you've sequester at your home. Remember to eat something an hour before giving this album a spin, or barring that, clear a route to your toilet and leave the seat up.
Get a copy of
Stare into Death and Be Still from Debemur Morti Productions,
here.
* The latter of which is not at all attributable to the album I'm reviewing, but a reaction to the general state of the world and me in it.
