Ulcerate - Everything is Fire

July 21, 2009

Reviewer: Matt

I’ve heard some pretty impressive death metal this year.  Check out the impressive debut from Fondlecorpse, the newest from Slugathor, and the triumphant return of Suffocation.  Everything is Fire is better than all of these releases, and with this album Ulcerate have single-handedly redefined and reinvigorated death metal.

Trimming a member and substantially slowing things down after their fantastic 2007 debut Of Fracture and Failure, Ulcerate have crafted a maddeningly abstract, brilliantly technical, and incredibly heavy collection of songs brimming with an atmosphere of menacing paranoia.  If that’s too many adjectives, think Immolation’s debut plus Gorguts’s Obscura slowed to an Incantation crawl.  A quick perusal of other reviews will find references to Portal and Deathspell Omega.

Unfortunately is that none of these descriptions are particularly useful.  If Everything is Fire has a flaw, it lacks immediacy and defies description.  The first listen left me relatively baffled.  I didn’t feel competent to write this review until I’d listened to it ten times or so. It’s a soundtrack to a nightmare.

The songs are brooding, meandering barrages of twisted, dissonant riffing.  I’m not a guitarist, but to these ears this album is, for all intents and purposes, just as technical as your latest wank-by-numbers tech death album.  But unlike, for example, Brain Drill, who throw dozens of unrelated shred-fests at the listener, Ulcerate always anchor their riffs in a cohesive narrative structure, and they excel at transitioning among the various motifs presented in each song.

That’s my best effort at describing (and slavishly praising) Ulcerate’s songwriting aptitude.  I’ve been trying to write this review for two months.  Just put on some headphones, turn out the lights, and listen.  And pay attention.

Immaculately produced, Everything is Fire is dark and dense, yet surprisingly clear, and thankfully lacks the clinical studio production of much contemporary death metal.  The phenomenal drumming is revealed through a thankfully natural presentation.  The vocals, I should mention, are great.  They’re gruff and forceful and expertly navigate the busy and complex arrangements. 

If I were so impressed with my own knowledge, taste, and foresight that I would declare an album a classic mere months after its release, Everything is Fire would be a worthy recipient of that designation.  All hyperbole aside, it suffices to say that this is the finest death metal album of the year to date and is on the short list for death metal album of the decade.  Believe whatever hype you hear and get this album.

TRACK LISTING

1.  Drown Within
2.  We Are Nil
3.  Withered and Obsolete
4.  Caecus
5.  Tyranny
6.  The Earth At Its Knees
7.  Soullessness Embraced
8.  Everything Is Fire

Total playing time:  50:41

Release Date: April 7th, 2009
Label: Willowtip/Candlelight
Records

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