Ulcerate

Kronos Comments: On Sampling Bias and the Seedy Underbelly of the Australian Metal Scene

By Kronos on September 14, 2014 in Australian Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal, Djent, Groove Metal, Metalcore, Post-Rock, Unsigned Bands, Death Metal, Deathcore, Djent, Metalcore, Post-Metal, Technical Death Metal, 25 comments

“Just about every day, Angry Metal Guy pushes out a review of an upcoming or recently released album, producing press for the album whether we love it or hate it. It exposes readers to a lot of material, but disadvantages artists who aren’t putting out music at any given time. Given a small temporal window, this creates a very biased sample of the music scene. I love reviewing albums, but a lot of great and criminally overlooked bands are in between releases right now, and it kills me to see their hard work go unseen. So in order to rectify their invisibility, they’re being talked about here, where my shitty opinions have the outsized soapbox needed to fling themselves out onto the populace like fetid water from a fire sprinkler.”

Pyrrhon – The Mother of Virtues Review

By Kronos on March 27, 2014 in 2014, American Metal, Death Metal, Progressive Death, Relapse, Reviews, Death Metal, 5 comments

““New York City’s PYRRHON emerge with a mind bending album of surrealistic death metal for fans of Gorguts, Ulcerate & Portal!” Brave words, promo guy, brave words. I as much as I admire your confidence, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. When you invoke Ulcerate and Gorguts in order to hawk your wares, you’ve certainly caught my attention, but lying won’t go unpunished. Besmirching the name of my favorite band of Kiwis is a cardinal sin, so either Pyrrhon has their shit really together, or an overzealous Relapse employee is going to find rat feces in his Cheerios tomorrow.” We at AMG disavow any knowledge and/or awareness of food tampering or promo vendor harassment.

Gorguts – Colored Sands Review

By Noctus on October 18, 2013 in 2013, Canadian Metal, Death Metal, Reviews, Season of Mist, Death Metal, 10 comments

“Let me know if you can find a metal band that utilizes dissonance and technicality to a large degree that doesn’t cite Gorgut’s masterful work as an influence. I’ll probably be waiting a long time so I’ll bring a good book – it’s called “The Band That Pioneered Dissonance and Technicality in Death Metal” and it has the word ‘Gorguts’ repeated over and over. But it’s that huge sense of respect for the band and the enormous anticipation for this release that made it such a tricky one for the legendary act. 12 years is not only a long time for hype to build around a record, but it also gives newcomers and pretenders a chance to overtake the legends should they prove unable to live up to their own mammoth legacy. After all, a lot of bands are remembered for their creative peak, even when they can’t maintain that level indefinitely. So perhaps Obscura and From Wisdom to Hate era was their peak and all they’ll really conjure up this time is a solid record, right?” And here is the other neglected gem we wanted to get to, but didn’t until now. You’re welcome!

Ulcerate – Vermis Review

By Jordan Campbell on September 4, 2013 in 2013, Death Metal, New Zealand Metal, Relapse, Reviews, Death Metal, 5 comments

“Ulcerate’s emergence was rather inauspicious. Their first work, The Coming of Genocide, didn’t hold much promise. It was pretty standard for mid-aughts uber-blast brutality, assaultive to the point of redundancy. But there were some gnarly guitar squalls nestled in their amateurish blastfuckery, and on their first true album, Of Fracture and Failure, things started to get wild. Then, Everything is Fire happened, and things got real.” First Carcass and now this? It’s all big releases, all the time and and Jordan Campbell is on the job with his always insightful musings.

Record(s) o’ the Month – August 2013

By Angry Metal Guy on September 1, 2013 in Blog Posts, Record o' the Month, 21 comments

After July’s lull, it’s important to remember that there are some big releases that hit in August (though, it seems like the big hit is coming in September: Haken, Týr, Carcass, Ulcerate, etc.). This wasn’t the worst month ever, that’s for sure. There was some really amazing stuff going on here, actually. Still, there really was no serious competition for the top spot this month. Nej, indeed, it was pretty obvious all along that Swanö was going for the win with his new project Witherscape.

Dodecahedron – Dodecahedron Review

By Angry Metal Guy on February 4, 2012 in 2012, Black Metal, Dutch Metal, Reviews, Season of Mist, Avante Garde, Black Metal, 17 comments

“When I was first cutting my teeth as a reviewer over at the long defunct Unchain the Underground, I had the distinct honor of reviewing Blut Aus Nord’s 2003 opus The Work which Transforms God. I recall it distinctly being one of the most difficult reviews I ever had to write. The music the band created was new, extreme, pummeling, challenging and ultimately difficult on a level which few records I’d ever heard before were. It offered up an extremity for which I was not prepared. I could tell, though, that it was a revolutionary record. It was something special; incredibly special… extreme, abstract, brilliant, innovative and done in a way that I was not ready for. I really, really hated it.” Nearly one decade later, what the hell will AMG do with Dodecahedron?

Things You Might Have Missed 2011: Nader Sadek – In the Flesh

By Angry Metal Guy on January 10, 2012 in 2011, Death Metal, Reviews, Season of Mist, Things You Might Have Missed 2011, 4 comments

For me 2011 was a year devoid of a death metal record that really knocked it out of the park. While Vomitory produced a pretty damn solid album, and Diocletian and Ulcerate were really good, but they didn’t exactly get me writhing around on the ground in ecstasy like a lot of other people seemed to have experienced it. So when I was digging through my unopened promos, I stumbled upon Nader Sadek’s debut record which came out in 2011 from Season of Mist Records. And let me just say that I wasn’t even mildly prepared for what I was going to get. I’ll give you a hint though: it was 100% win.

The Black Dahlia Murder – Ritual Review

By Angry Metal Guy on June 14, 2011 in 2011, 4.5, American Metal, Death Metal, Metal Blade, Reviews, Thrash Metal, Melodic Death Metal, 24 comments

Ah, it’s that time again. A new The Black Dahlia Murder record, full of At The Gates riffs and Trevor Strnad’s dynamic and characteristic vocals! Right? RIGHT!?!? Well, let me start with what I said last time in reference to the current trajectory of the band given their longevity and discography:

Ulcerate – The Destroyers of All Review

By Cerebral Bowlesy on June 7, 2011 in 2011, 4.0, Avante Garde, Death Metal, Doom Metal, Epic Metal, Hammerheart Records, Reviews, Sludge, Willowtip, Death Metal, 6 comments

Being a well on the way to aging angry metal nerd, I have a stomach that is not quite as leadbellied as it used to be, and many of my friends and acquaintances are under similar circumstances. There’s only so much beer and whiskey a stomach can handle before it gets a little acidic (although I continually go back to testing the limits every now and then). Hence I’ve been quite amused by the band name Ulcerate since they stormed the realm of heavy music with 2009’s Everything is Fire, which was one of my favorite albums of that year. The title track of that album was very impressive (one of my favorite metal songs of recent memory), as well as the rest of it (that album is nasty!).

Obscura – Omnivium Review

By Angry Metal Guy on March 22, 2011 in 2011, 4.5, Death Metal, German Metal, Progressive Death, Progressive Metal, Relapse, Reviews, Technical Death Metal, 11 comments

March has really been one hell of a month, hasn’t it? To think after Amon Amarth and Vintersorg we get to follow it all up with Obscura’s Omnivium. If any record counts as the most-anticipated of the year, Obscura is probably getting pretty close to that level. Having released in 2009, what was really a hell of a surprise for most listeners (including people who’d purchased their previous record) in Cosmogenesis, these technical death metallers built on their Necrophagist cred (and sound) and on the legacy of the mighty Death with their technical, progressive death metal, complete with awesome fretless bass attack. So, while this isn’t really a record that can fall victim of the sophomore slump (being the band’s third record), it certainly is an album that could fall victim to overly heightened expectations. And, I must admit, this Angry Metal Guy certainly had heightened expectations