Ulver Album: “Blood Inside”

Finally! This album is overdue; I've been Ulver-thirsty for some time now. I guess I got spoiled with so many EP's in 2002-2003. Although Ulver's next musical accomplishment is always unpredictable, this album feels like more of a natural evolution than their previous transitions. "Quick Fix of Melancholy" and "Svidd Neger" started adding more violins, pianos, and things like that to the mix. I didn't think the band's production and polished sound could get any better, but it seems like it did on this album. Everything just sounds so acoustically fine-tuned like the architecture of an orchestra hall.

"Dressed in Black" starts out with a heavy, frequency-shifting tone, slowly adding piano, Garm's voice comes into the mix, eventually transforming into a lavish instrumental section that keeps building up, and then breaking down into a wacky piano loop, slowly fading out with some ambient sounds.

"For the Love of God" this song is just hard to explain. It reminds me quite a bit of the Perdition City style. Somehow it just feels like a big, futuristic, busy city at night, going through a subway tunnel and on the street and Sometimes only the imagination can explain what Ulver sounds like. Maybe the lyrics help this imagery out: "Going down faster than the light / Going down deeper than the dark"

"Christmas" has got to be the best song. It starts out with some faded, almost drab sounding bells, with a very faint, yet warm sounding violin melody. It gives the beginning a very cold feel, like Christmas is too cold to enjoy this year. Then the familiar (but so unfamiliar) wild Ulver beat begins, including Garm's sailing vocals, continuing with the bells, adding plenty of horns and wild percussion. It is very upbeat and if you liked the more upbeat songs in Perdition City and Theme's from William Blake's the Marriage of Heaven and Hell you're sure to like this. The song ends with some faded vocals and the dull bells reappearing.

"Blinded by Blood" is a very ambient, relaxing track. Reminds me a little of Silencing the Singing. There's some minimal, yet drawn-out vocals which seem like they're basically being used as an instrument here. The end of it sounds like a creepy little music box from a haunted attic.

"It is not Sound" is actually kind of noisy. Not much to say about the first portion of the song but then a very interesting little haunted-circus type electronic melody starts forming, ending with a calm violin melody. Guess Garm had to throw that in there after not doing Arcturus for a while. It's quite entertaining.

"The Truth" is interesting, some parts of this will really stick in your head. Some parts are quite noisy and almost have an industrial type feel, There's also a real quiet part with Garm's sort of wailing vocals with a memorable little melody on top. This one is pretty difficult to explain, it goes all over the place. Then it inconspicuously transforms into "In the Red," what an excellent transition from the previous song. I just love the dark, creepy feeling in this song with heavily echoed vocals and electronic pulses, almost seems like random words are being called out at certain points. All of a sudden the song is "ruined" by bombastic, out-of-control, unexpected horns and I think I even hear a xylophone in there, and it sounds like an old 1950's magic show or something. This part is extremely wild and innovative, and a blast to listen to, too bad it wasn't a bit longer.

Next is "Your Call" which is the song everyone will check their cell phone to make sure it isn't ringing. It starts out very ambient until Garm's vocals kick in, and the song kicks off with great momentum. It goes through a few different changes, and ends up with just a lone phone ringing for a little while, and then you get the answering machine only for the next song, "Operator" to unexpectedly explode into your ears; this song is probably the most wild on the album.

So, in conclusion, if you like Ulver's other electronic works, this is definitely going to add to that, and if you want to get into them this is a pretty good place to start. Ulver continues to do what they do best, each new album being as unexpected and innovative, yet polished and well-rounded as the last.

Despite the fact that Ulver displayed a notable penchant for flagrant genre hopping right from the get go, with the wildly oscillating _Bergtatt_, the stripped back acoustic folk of _Kvelldsanger_ and, most jarringly, the ear melting opening of hells gates on _Nattens Madrigal_, this is most likely where the rule book went out of the window and their apotheosis as experimental music titans was complete. Distilling the sound used to such effect on _Perdition City_, _Blood Inside_ sees Ulver completely, spectacularly break free of metal roots and create something almost without peer in modern music.

The nine songs presented here are dense, lush and intricately composed, neatly shunning predictability but retaining accessibility thanks to the gorgeously, blessedly clean vocals and their lilting, modern delivery. The music has an electronic base but integrates elements of jazz (slightly), rock (blistering rhythms and one guitar solo), atmosphere and ambience, and prog (insane out of place cod-classical keyboard solo, numerous other touches). the attention to detail is stunning and the lack of conventional structure actually adds to the strength of the songs: despite the uniform sound and dense production, the tracks are actually quite disparate, and the lack of predictability makes hearing each one like unwrapping another present.

Specifically, 'Dressed in Black' is a low key, deceptively melodic opener, showing off the full production and warped beats, especially about 3/4 of the way through when it opens up into a chaotic percussive section. 'For the Love of God' is a gem, and unclassifiable slice of eerire keyboard, surprisingly upbeat tones and vocals, and an unexpected guitar solo. Something about it evokes movement (perhaps on a train?). 'Christmas' is basically astounding, mixing classical samples with driving beats, an aggressive, upbeat style and heart wilitng crescendos later on (those wordless vocal harmonies!). The song is practically danceable, for crying out loud! 'Blinded by Blood' is my favourite, an epic textural journey, ornate in delivery, featuring choral parts and weird backwashing effects, creepy melodies and an atmosphere that reminds me of quiet church or crypt. The melody and delivery of the male vocals reminds me of Mike Patton, but overall I've never heard anything so beautiful. You get the picture then, although I should briefly single out 'Operator' which is an utterly insane journey through a speedy, almost rocking proggish dance-athon (???).

Ok, as I've subtly hinted at above then, I really like this album. I do believe it has a lot going for it. The songwriting is uniformly strong, the production a crystalline, technical wonder. The vocals are good and really add a lot to the music. The best feature though is that, despite the admittedly ambitious reach and scope of the record, every arow finds its target. That is, each miniature experiment works out well, even with the occasional bizzare out of place interludes, which work well in the overall scheme thanks to their jarring quality. One shouldn't really expect a band to be able to branch out in so many different directions at once so succsessfully, so Ulvers achievement here should not be taken lightly. The vague overall concept, which seems to be about hospital fear or Christianity (or both...I mean, sanity is out of the window by this stage) helps as well, keeping everything together without really intruding on matters. I'll wrap up now then, but this album is an experimental, accessible, delicate and delicious marvel, and I hope this review outlines why, to some extent. One thing is for sure: I used a lot of parentheses, for some reason.

Finally the new Ulver full length has made it's way into my eager hands. Since 2000s massive "Perdition City", they have released no less than 3 EPs and 2 movie soundtracks. While I've enjoyed each of these releases with varying degrees of enthusiasm, this is the one I've been waiting for. You never quite know what you're going to get from an Ulver album. I mean these guys started off as a folky black metal band, before transitioning through acoustic folk music, raw as hell black metal, an industrial album based on the works of William Blake and then finally into a drum and bass fused 70s progressive soundtrack entity. Confused? One listen to "Blood Inside" probably won't make things much clearer for you. This is a complex album filled with exquisite tunes, bizarre sound effects, harmonised clean vocals, operatic symphonies, trip hop, TV soundtrack etc. etc.

It may all seem slightly overwhelming at first, but Garm (Trickster G, Kristoffer Rygg or whatever else you want to call him) knows exactly what he's up to. After a few intrigued repeat spins, "Blood Inside" has reached out and grabbed me, and now refuses to let go. What initially appeared to be a rather messy, over-ambitious album with moments of clarity has turned out to be something wonderful indeed. I have no idea how long it would take to write an album that has this many differing aspects all combined to make one cohesive experience, but Ulver has delivered the goods and exceeded my already weighty expectations.

Highlights come thick and fast, but the two-punch knockout of "Christmas" followed by the beautiful "Blinded by Blood" tops the list. The only downside of the album for me is the occasional madness that occurs on tracks such as "It is Not Sound" and "Operator", but this not completely successful experimentation can be at least partially excused considering the amount of successful forays into unique territory found within this gem.

I'd really love to tell every single reader to go out and buy this album right now, but truth be told, I highly doubt that the majority of metal fans will dig this the way I do. If you have an interest in music in general and are open-minded enough to enjoy something completely different and (gasp) non-metal, then check this album out. Just be aware that you will need to give this the time it deserves before it will make sense. Fans of Ulver's later releases should snap this up blindly as "Blood Inside" is uncompromising creativity at its most captivating peak.

For 25 years, I've selectively purchased and become familiar with hundreds(or thousand+ ?)of albums. Only a relatively small percentage of these have been enduringly satisfying. Ulver's Blood Inside astonishes me because I haven't become bored of it! It's still on my iPod Shuffle and I still relish it in its entirety after more than 100 hearings while I exercise.

Absolutely great!

Ok, so this album made me want to do 2 things at once right after I first listened to it: run and put my head though a wall then go and start the CD all over again and listen to it on repeat. This is a CD for the "thinking man". You actually have to listen to this CD, not just hear it. There are so many layers woven into every song. They utilize every instrument on the face of the earth to make this album and then some that probably were not intended for use as an instrument.

You can not really compare this group or CD to anything or one that you have heard before because no one sounds quite like this.This is definitly some of the best expiremental music out there today.This CD is just plain great. Nuff said.