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Ulver
Perdition City


4.0
excellent

Review

by Per Ardua Ad Astra USER (30 Reviews)
January 18th, 2005 | 584 replies


Release Date: 2000 | Tracklist


Not enough can be said about the many transitions in musical direction Ulver have gone through, throughout their 11 year career. After their release of Themes from William Blake's marriage of Heaven and Hell in 1998, it had become obvious that Ulver had parted ways with the folk and black metal that they were already so well known for.
Following this release came Perdition City in 2001, released on Garm's record label, Jester records. This album solidified that Ulver had gone away from metal and had no intention of returning.

Lineup...
Trickster G. (Garm) : Vocals
Tore Ylwizaker : Programming
Special appearances by...
Håvard Jørgensen : Guitars
Bard "Faust" Eithun : V-Drums on 'The future sound of music'
Ivar Johansen : Drums on 'Nowhere/Catastrophe'
K. J. Pedersen: Drums on 'Porn piece or the scars of cold kisses'
Rolf Erik Nystron: Saxophone on 'Lost in moments' and 'Dead city centres'
Oystein Moe: Bass on 'Lost in moments'

Tracklisting...
Lost in Moments
Porn Piece or The Scars of Cold Kisses
Hallways of Always
Tomorrow Never Knows
The Future Sound of Music
We are the Dead
Dead City Centres
Catalept
Nowhere/Catastrophe


This album takes the listener on an adventure through different genres of music all blended together by vocal climaxes and interesting trip hop beats.
With the opening track, Lost in Moments you enter into Perdition City with some electronics before breaking into a saxophone and vocal duo which borders on modern contemporary Jazz, setting an example for how this album is to turn out. Unpredictable.
Porn or the scars of cold kisses seems to be the aftermath of 'Lost in Moments.' This song contains sad and depressing pianos combined with trip hop beats and occasional guitar licks. It takes on you a rollercoaster, coming to it's climax when Garm's vocals take over the song. Solid track. This mood stays the same right through Hallways of Always. These two tracks essentially sum up the atmosphere and mood the album, dark and depressing. Parts of this song could easily be used for rap/hip hop beats.
After somewhat of a filler in Tomorrow never knows, we get to The Future sound of Music which is one of the best songs on the album. It still contains the depressing atmosphere of the album, but continues the journey through 'Perdition City' onward with it's excellent use of electronics, and using a sampled Choir really helps with this song.
With We are the Dead we get another filler, just some electronica stuff with Garm whispering over it.
The last three tracks are by far the best on the album, once Dead City Centres takes shape it sounds like music right out of a 1900's crime busting movie. It's a bit difficult to explain, so that just gives you another reason to go listen to it.
Catalept starts off with some raging violins which carry through the whole song, occaisionally accompanied by some electronics. This serves as an opener for what is far away the best song on the album, Nowhere/Catastrophe. This track borders again on contemporary jazz, along with trip hop beats and fitting electronic samples, all topped off with Garm's vocal climaxes in this song. There are even some electric guitars in this track but without Garm, this track is nothing. This song is absolutely brilliant and a great way to end the album.

Strengths...
Garm's vocals are absolutely brilliant, if you are familiar with Ulver's previous works than this is no surprise to you but this man has one of the most amazing ranges in music i've ever heard.
Very good use of electronics
They go outside of just trip hop and electronica here, using saxophones on two of the tracks.

Weaknesses...
Some of the tracks take a bit too long to develop into what they are
Too many instrumentals, Garm's got a great voice and they should take more advantage of it

Best tracks...
Nowhere/Catastrophe
Dead city centres
The future sound of music
Lost in Moments

Overall, 4.3/5



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user ratings (1096)
4.1
excellent
other reviews of this album
Nick Mongiardo (4.5)
Boasting excellent synth beats and dynamic instrumentation, Perdition City exists as not only one of...



Comments:Add a Comment 
Arrakakaka
December 30th 2005


685 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

No one reconizes this album on MX? Ulver was superb folk black metal, but their newer side is orgasmic.



Pertay good review, by the way.This Message Edited On 12.29.05

Tyler
Emeritus
January 25th 2006


7927 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

I love this album, it's so relaxing and well done.

dUSK
February 25th 2006


94 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

This is an amazing album. Probably one of the best Electronica pieces I've ever heard. If The Future Sound Of Music actually is the sound of all future music, I think I'd be in heaven.

StreetlightRock
April 30th 2006


4017 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

I heard Kveldssanger and absolutely adored it, so I gave this a try and my god I was dissapointed. Perhaps I just can't appreciate the sort of music, but so much of it seemed like filler and drone to me. It was pretty much the two weaknesses mentioned in the review that ruined it for me.

lost_profits
August 25th 2006


59 Comments


The 3.9 average for this album on Sputnik is way way too low. It's a 4.8 at least. The electronic side of Ulver is every bit as powerful as the black-metal side....and the electronic side is absent of electric guitars...Gives you an idea..
The perfect night-time album.

jrowa001
January 14th 2007


8752 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

i like this album. but blood inside is better cuz theres more vocals. their black metal albums are pretty good too

TheNumberless
October 4th 2007


26 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

this album is too perfect to be perfect.



I like songs like "tomorrow never knows" and it should be one of the weaknesses of the album, like the reviewer said, but it is not, the weaknesses are:



We are the Dead

Dead City Centres



and the best tracks are:

nowhere/catastrophe

Lost in Moments

tomorrow never knows

future sound of music



still good:

porn piece or the scars of cold kisses

hallways of always

Metalikane
February 19th 2008


851 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

This totally clicked with me tonight. Rating upage!

Hawks
May 4th 2008


95325 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

This is one of the two non-metal albums by Ulver that i actually like. The other being Shadows Of The Sun which is one of their best albums ever.

Angmar
May 4th 2008


2688 Comments


Svidd Neger pwns all later Ulver.

Hawks
May 4th 2008


95325 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

I think that albums sucks tbh.

Angmar
May 4th 2008


2688 Comments


FAIL

Hawks
May 4th 2008


95325 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

If you think that albums is better than this or Shadows Of The Sun you're crazy.

Metalikane
May 4th 2008


851 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

He speaks the truth. Despite the absence of vocals, I've listened to Svidd Neger more than all of Ulver's albums. It's beautiful.

Hawks
May 4th 2008


95325 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

I dont know what im not seeing in that album. Maybe i'll try and listen to it again. I still dont think anything Ulver will do from now on will beat Nattens Madrigal though. Thats probably my favorite album ever.

Metalikane
May 5th 2008


851 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Maybe it's due to lack of vocals. I dunno. I just clicked with me. I personally like all post-bm Ulver better. Their black metal albums are great, but their newer stuff holds my interest a lot longer.

Hawks
May 5th 2008


95325 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

The only post-Black Metal albums of theirs that i can tolerate are this and Shadows Of The Sun.This Message Edited On 05.05.08

Metalikane
May 6th 2008


851 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Aww, but Blood Inside is sooo good. It is weird as shit though, so I can see why some may not like it.

Wizard
August 6th 2008


20574 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

Well, I'm totally blown away by this. Given it 5 or 6 listens over the past 2 days and I can't believe the amount of thought that has gone into every detail, blip, beep, sound effect etc. Garm is my new music hero!

fireaboveicebelow
August 6th 2008


6835 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

check out Svidd Neger, it's a non-electronic soundtrack, probably in my top 3 Ulver records



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