Ulver - Blood Inside
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Free Music Notes for Blood Inside
Free Music Review: SURGICALLY PRECISE!
Hit: 5 Stars
Ulver's music took a dramatic turn after they released Themes from William Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell. The Blake album sure opened lots of new doors for them and allowed them to experiment with deeper and non-metal musical ideas, most of which were electronica, jazz, and minimalistic soundscapes, utilizing a plethora of tones with different colours and dynamics, inventive production and recording techniques, operatic as well as spoken and whispered vocals from Garm, and so on. They also engaged themselves in writing movie soundtracks for which they became quite famous in Norway (becoming the composers of noted Norwegian movie Uno which was surpassed only by Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter). Besides the soundtracks and EPs, Blood Inside is their first studio album since 2000's amazing Perdition City.
Blood Inside, as all other Ulver releases, varies from its predecessors in pretty much every respect. First of all, the music is less electronic (though electronic elements still play a vital role in their songcraft) and considerably heavier than most of their recent work. An impressive array of guest musicians including guitar virtuoso Mike Keneally grace the album adding their invaluable touches to enrich the already dense musicality of Ulver. Aside from the intact Ulver style of music, there are innumerable instruments interwoven with each other, be it real or programmed drums, 30's jazz style piano and percussion, saxophone, violin and classical music excerpts. Vocal-wise, Blood Inside features Garm on every song, where we hear him going from a really low register to scary operatic vocals exhibiting his perfect range as a singer. Judging by the lyrics and the information in the booklet, this is also quite possibly Garm's most personal album to date, as he dedicates the album to his children and family. The lyrical work on the album mirrors Garm's feelings, ideas and conflicts of his inner world. The fact that they are open to any interpretation on the listener's part makes them all the more accessible (for those familiar with Ulver's music).
Add to this the services of legendary producer/sound engineer Ronan Chris Murphy whose collaboration with artists like King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, Tool, and Steve Morse has earned him a well-deserved reputation. Though it was Garm and his friends who produced most of the album, Murphy has also assisted them in the studio with impressive results. The album contains thick threads of tonal colour and depth, revealing themselves in layers with each listen.
Impossible to pick favourites, there is much diversity to be found on Blood Inside. "Dressed in Black" begins with grey synth lines placed over a dense rhythm that has a nice cadence to it. A wicked electric piano emerges out of nowhere and segues the song into "For the Love of God" which puts Garm's godly vocal range in display and evokes powerful images of war. There's a militaristic vibe going on in this track which is hard to pinpoint - but I can hear it. Big orchestral arrangements and a slick percussion give way to a nifty guitar solo that was something most Ulver fans hadn't heard in a while. Mike Keneally plays the guitars on "Christmas", a song that blends a myriad of nuances and puts them into the compositional framework. The Hammond organ in the intro of "Blinded by Blood" creates a peaceful harmony which suddenly dissolves into dissonant sounds in the background while retaining its laid-back vibe. This sounds like a track from Devin Townsend's Terria masterpiece with Garm providing indelible vocals. As a matter of fact, I hear a good many other bands (also as unique as Ulver) on this disc, not musically but moreso in the way all these incompatible elements are woven into each song. The coda for "It Is Not Sound" is taken from J. Sebastian Bach, whilst the kinetic drumming mixed with weird electronic soundscapes wouldn't seem out of place on the last Arcturus disc. Less obvious similarities would be the sad violin piece on "Your Call" in the way it contrasts the flow of the music. This is evocative of the stuff on Garden Wall's Forget the Colours. The most chaotic cut is the jazz piece at the end of "In the Red" where a hectic saxophone takes the lead amidst tons of loops and programmed drums. Granted you may not hear these bands when listening to this disc, because everyone pretty much knows that Ulver is one of a kind. As I've tried to suggest in this review, Blood Inside is a very demanding record, but a very good one at that.
Free Music Review: Absolute Greatness
Hit: 5 Stars
This album is really a stunner. Kris Rygg's vocals are absolutely amazing. I would rank this as his all time greatest performance, which is saying a lot since his work with Arcturus is fabulous. I hope Simen can fill his shoes properly. The music is almost over the top at times but never reaches the point of being over done. I think the opening track, though more subdued, is my favorite. This is mainly because the lyrics are so profound and prophetic. Ulver and even Arcturus, when Kris was with them, have a way of being profound and absurd at the very same time. It is like eccentricity and philosophy are being intertwined. I imagine this is very hard to pull of, but Ulver have perfected it with Blood Inside. Every track is unique and a real treat for first time listeners. I couldn't help but laugh at some of this, as at times the music is quite comical. This doesn't lessen the strong impact of this album. I cannot imagine how someone who is a fan of ulver could be disappointed with this release. If you are unfamiliar with ulver, or the Norwegian avant-garde scene, then you really need to do yourself a favor and buy this album. When Ulver and Arcturus stop making music, I will move to Norway and force them to make more music. Free Music Review: Caution!
Hit: 4 Stars
Ulver fans, you should really give this some heavy listening before you decide its no good. When I first heard it I was ready to sell it the same day, but I kept listening to it more and more and now it's become a better album the more I listen to it. The best part about the album though is that Garm sings on every track which is what I have been waiting for.
1. Dressed in Black - Not a very strong opening track. Very dull at the beginning and it doesnt pick up until the end with some wierd electric sounding noise/music. (4/10)
2. For the Love of God - At first I didnt like this one at all, but it grew on me and now its one of my favorite tracks. Jumps around a lot but turns out to be a good song when you come to like it. (7/10)
3. Christmas - This is the best song on the whole cd. A good solid beat with great vocals. Has some interesting thematic parts too. If more songs on the cd were like this it would be an amazinf cd. (10/10)
4. Blinded by Blood - This is the most beautiful Ulver track on the cd. If I believed angels were real then the way Garm sings on this one would only be classified is that of an angels. Second best song on the cd in my opinon. (10/10)
5. It is not Sound - The lyrics and music of this song have a very strong Depeche Mode feel to it. This is an interesting song because the end is filled with tons of different music. The end reminds me of the end of the last track on Arcturus's The Sham Mirrors. (6/10)
6. The Truth - I immediatly hated this song when I first heard it. It jumps around a lot and barely keeps the same vibe, but its funny because now, after listening to it several times, I love it. Once again, the end is the best part of the song in my opinion. Very different drum solo in the middle. (8/10)
7. In the Red - I dont like this song much. The singing is great, but the music sounds like it belongs in a mystery movie. It does change though and it turns into some wierd 40's jazz like thing which is kind of cool. (5/10)
8. Your Call - Not much to this track. It has some slow music in the beginning then gets strange. The telephone ringing gets a little annoying at the end. (2/10)
9. Operator - VERY different track from Ulver. Very fast paced. Not much to say about it except its fast, but the vocals are cool so it turns out to be an ok song. (6/10)
I would like to call this cd expieramental from Ulver, but I cant really seeing as every cd by the group sounds different. I was hoping for more of a Nothing/Catastrophe feel to the songs when I heard there were going to be vocals on all the tracks, but it still is enjoyable and can only get better with more listens.
Free Music Review: Ulver really stands out with "Blood Inside", a musical masterpiece
Hit: 5 Stars
First off, it has only been about 4 or 5 hours since I purchased this album, and I can already tell i'm going to need a lot more of those hours to get this album to fully sink in. However, I know that this is certainly going to be something I will love.
I love Garm, and everything he does. I loved him in Borknagar, loved him in Arcturus (The Sham Mirrors was his best work), i'm loving him in Ulver, and I can't freaking wait for Sindrome's album "A Killer View". However, onto "Blood Inside". This album has so much going on in it that at first it is really hard to get into. For example, on one of the first tracks I heard, "It is Not sound", it changes from an almost electronic, industrial dance beat to a neo classical opus and of course Trickster G's wonderful vocals complement this so wonderfully. YES, this is weird, very weird. In fact, this album is just plain BIZARRE. But, it's well worth it, and very good.
I can't even imagine how many different instruments and sounds were used on this album. At some points I hear telephones, Strings, blips and bloops, synths, pianos, guitars, drums, electronic beats, eerie soundclips, and operatic vocals.
Garm's (Trickster G's) vocals are fantastic on this album, just like on Arcturus releases. His vocals truly shine on "Blinded by Blood" and "Your call", two of my favorites on this album.
There is no way to compare this album to any other band, or place it in a certain genre. Secondly, there's also no way to give any standout tracks, because this album requires the opinion of the listener fully. If your new to Ulver, like I am, try this out. It's different, sure, but very exciting. Thanks for reading.
Free Music Review: Please enter a title for your review
Hit: 3 Stars
It started out very interesting, a bit of electronica noise, the ominous feel of black metal without the heavyness or distortion, but pretty soon it became repetitive, solely atmospheric and reminding me a whole lot of GYBE, which is definitely not a good thing. I spent most of the second half of Dressed In Black wishing the song would hurry up and end. The constant crashing cymbols and gong dominating the sound get old really fast. The second track is pretty similar, a bit more ambient trip hop maybe, and it has some soloing which reminds me of The Mars Volta. Christmas changes things up a lot, it's kinda classical salsa-pop, but in a weird unique Ulver way. The vocals remind me a lot of National Skyline. It almost sounds like it could be a remix of a National Skyline song. Blinded By Blood is more atmospheric and less song-like than the first three tracks. I kept waiting for it to get started, but it never went anywhere. It Is Not Sound almost sounds like dj electronica sampling type music. The classical parts feel all fragmented and inorganic, they don't give a sense that there's any actual songwriting going on, even in an atmospheric mood music kind of way. This album is starting to sound like what I imagine Squarepusher collaborating with Therion would sound like. Nothing about In The Red or Your Call stands out, they just continue the odd mood of the album. Operator is built around a siren/alarm type noise which is successfully intergated into a musical framework. The unconventional structure of the music on this album is certainly creative, but originality stops being a worthwhile pursuit when you're forsaking everything about music that made you like it in the first place to achieve it, and there are points on this album that feel like that to me. Overall this is far from being a best album of 2005, but it may be the most interesting and unique.