ULCERATE - The Destroyers of All CD
Willowtip Records
Genre: Death Metal
Rating: 4/5
Find that open spot in what's left of your Tech Death overdosed on ADD medication mind. New Zealand's ULCERATE play the type of death metal which will have you seeing trails, worshipping inhumanity and they don't do it at hyper speeds. I got hooked onto this band with their 2009 sophomore release Everything is Fire. It took months for me to finally get into it. Since then my attitude with newer DM bands (tech death or brootal) is that speed and power are nice but I'd rather be blown, away that is. What makes ULCERATE interesting, which is putting it lightly especially on this new one, is that the guitars and bass are held down in a death doom mode. It's their drummer, Jaimie Saint Merat, who adds in various blastbeats, fills and jazz technique which produces an unorthodox style. I've always considered them GORGUTS meets GODFLESH in a dark alley. Their sound will not have you dancing or banging your head. ULCERATE are of a quality sound which is more of a listening pleasure. OK you might do some "air drumming" but that's it.
The Destroyers of All is haunting and heavy as represented with opener "Burning Skies". While Merat impresses behind the kit, Paul Kelland's vocals are animal like as he slowly picks away at his bass strings. Guitarist Michael Hoggard provides layers of melodic dissonance to the point where you'd think this was, dare I say, shoegazer. "Dead Oceans" picks up some momentum but is really an exercise in drummer overindulgence as frenzied guitar ambiance cascades over like glass crashing. Hoggard also provides some lower chord funeral doom. In fact most of this has an almost drone melody to it . I'm sure someone will drag out the NEUR-ISIS reference especially on a song like "Omens" with it's early ass dragging dirge which then turns into spaced out noodling. If you can make it all the way to the final cut then I'd say your seat in some post apocalyptic nightmare is assured. Just like on their previous release, ULCERATE end things with a climatic title song that seconds itself as all encompassing death doom shovel to bury you.
Label: http://www.willowtip.com/
Myspace: http://myspace.com/ulcerate
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