Relapse Records - 2013
Ulcerate is a band that requires tremendous amounts of patience to truly grasp. Over the course of their career, they have become an incredibly complex band, though not in the usual uber-technical way most metal bands tend to go. Instead of piling in surgically precise fretboard destruction, they have opted for a more "atmospheric" route that is ominous and foreboding. Their mix of Immolation, Gorguts, Neurosis, and Deathspell Omega oozes of a darkness and uncomfortable feeling that most bands could only dream of achieving. The music for Vermis is perfectly realized by the artwork, in it's stark and bleak and overall grimy feeling. This is an album that wants you to writhe in the dirt a bit.
Vermis is a challenge upfront due to it's lack of conventional hooks. There are truly no "catchy" riffs or groove to hold onto, relying mostly on dissonance and atmosphere. The one advantage of this album over it's predecessor is that there are a few more dynamic shifts. The Destroyers of All spent a good deal of time in slower, murkier waters and restraint whereas Vermis does see the band inputting more death metal back into the mix, especially with some of the faster tracks like "Clutching Revulsion" and "Confronting Entropy". It's the tracks like "Weight of Emptiness" and the sprawling "Cessation" that the dynamics within the song start to bloom, offering frenetic bursts of intensity alongside almost post-death ambiance.
Once you breach the learning curve though, the rewards begin to appear. The subtle moments of grimy beauty begin to rear their heads. That one monster guitar riff you didn't notice the first few times through, or how the intensity begins to culminate only to switch over effortlessly to a slower, atmospheric drive only to ramp itself back up again ("Await Recission").
Vermis takes the listener through a realm of foreboding darkness that is ultimately their strongest work to date. While there will be just as many people that just will not "get it", those of us who seek the nuances below the surface of this album will reap the benefits for a long time to come. A tough album to sell but one that will captivate you with it's textures.
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