Ulcerate
Cutting the Throat of God


4.5
superb

Review

by 0BSCURA USER (5 Reviews)
June 27th, 2024 | 124 replies


Release Date: 06/14/2024 | Tracklist

Review Summary: The Ulcerate Record We Need AND Deserve

Ulcerate are, objectively, one of the most consistent groups of today’s generation of death metal. Across seventeen years, and now, seven full-length albums, their sound has remained singularly malevolent, focused, and eponymous. Many bands and artists these days are (or claim to be) influenced by Ulcerate, but nobody sounds exactly like them. Cutting The Throat of God not only continues Ulcerate’s consistency, but successfully ties together hallmarks of every era of their career; there’s cavernous, moshable, distantly melodic riffiness a la Stare Into Death and Shrines, coupled with the frenetic, blistering energy and complexity of Vermis and the untamed, visceral fury of Everything is Fire and Destroyers of All.

It’s a tour-de-force of experience and expertise, and Jamie St. Merat’s self-production skills have reached an undeniable zenith on this record to boot. From the ringing clean tones that introduce opening track and second single “To Flow Through Ashen Hearts” up to the wildly frenetic triple-time reached during the peak of “Further Opening The Wounds” (which, in my humble opinion, is an intensity the band hasn’t showcased since perhaps Vermis), every second of this record is just as meticulously layered and orchestrated as any Ulcerate record ever has been. And, incredibly, there’s dynamic range! The soundstage stays deeply three-dimensional at all points, and thank goodness, too, because the songwriting and individual performances are a delectable treat both to long-time Ulcerate fans and people who just appreciate well-crafted death metal.

“The Dawn is Hollow” in particular is a multi-phase aural attack. Initially, it opens with grooves and upper-register riffing reminiscent of tracks like “Yield to Naught” and the title track from Shrines... up until the first chorus takes over and the song begins to call back to Vermis, Michael Hoggard laying down simultaneous chords and palm-mutes with Jamie effortlessly shifting from double- to triple-meter double kick while Paul Kelland’s cavernous roar echoes across barren skies. And then, the track shifts its sonic focus again, cutting the distorted guitar and applying modulation to some of the most nauseating-sounding (complimentary, don’t take that the wrong way) vocals he’s ever put to tape. It’s a suspenseful building of potential energy that the listener can sense with the end of every meter, and when it’s finally released, it’s with the glorious intensity of atomic fire. Oddly enough, this track is potentially the most “accessible” song on the album, generally sticking to consistent melodic and rhythmic structures and even bringing the song’s first riff back for the outro (which, for Ulcerate, is rather uncommon), greatly enhancing the song’s already-strong dramatic effect.

Accessibility is not the focus of this album, however. This is not Stare Into Death 2: Stare Harder, no sir. “To See Death Just Once” is one of the densest songs in Ulcerate’s entire discography, packed with impenetrable brambles of spatially-discordant guitar, rumbling bass, ringing cymbals, and furious, machine-gun double kick. A few riffs hit high-register dissonant screeches barely heard since the likes of Vermis’s venerable “Dead Oceans,” others are washes of black-metal-adjacent tremolo picking, others still are distantly, pyrrhically triumphant in their melodies.

I could take away some score for this album being “formulaic” to an extent, but I feel like that would only properly apply if the formula wasn’t written by Ulcerate themselves. This is, undeniably, an Ulcerate record; not a Deathspell record, not an Ad Nauseam record, not a Krallice record, not an Artificial Brain record. Their disso-death genome is unique to the point that despite open Ulcerate influence being juggled among all of these bands, Ulcerate continues to be uniquely Ulcerate.

It’s not a perfect album. Some sections I consider to be slightly overlong, even in songs I highly enjoy, and some sections I feel didn’t have enough time to be appreciated properly compared to their surroundings. But it’s an Ulcerate album with barely three years’ turnaround from their last one that’s not only better, but reaffirms their place as one of the undisputable “greats” of the tech- and avant-death metal genres. Cutting The Throat of God is a must-listen for Ulcerate fans and a damn good starting point for the unfamiliar, on top of easily being one of the best death metal albums of this year (perhaps even decade, even if we’re not halfway through it yet).


user ratings (434)
4.1
excellent


Comments:Add a Comment 
0BSCURA
June 27th 2024


77 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

y'all are weirdos for thinking this is their "most accessible" or has bad songwriting tbh. get better ears. spin "further opening the wounds". \m/

Eakflanderyof
June 27th 2024


5932 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Lmao

evilford
June 27th 2024


67272 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

At least it's better than giving this a 2.5 rev

0BSCURA
June 27th 2024


77 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

yeah i'm not gonna pretend i was at the top of my writing game for this one lmfao i'm sick as fuck rn. nyquil be hitting

evilford
June 27th 2024


67272 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

Tbf i didnt read it super close and I guarantee you I am a worse writer

Hawks
June 27th 2024


94772 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

Review is dece but we need a Jac review ahrd even if he will never do it. :[

MO
June 27th 2024


24130 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

slays

evilford
June 27th 2024


67272 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

Jac is the hero we need but not the hero we deserve

Frost15
June 27th 2024


3718 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off

Nice rev! At last someone stating this is not Stare 2 at all. So much better than Stare for me. My fav Ulcerate so far.

EveryDayHate
June 27th 2024


19 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off

nicely written! Thank you for the review

evilford
June 27th 2024


67272 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

I'll pos for the simple fact that it's becoming trendy to vocally disparage ulcerate

MTObsidian
June 27th 2024


261 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

Someone finally had to do it lol, can't let that 2.5 be the only review on the site. Great album, great review. Have a pos.

Orb
June 27th 2024


9516 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Mmm yes this review aligns with my own opinions about the album and is therefore better

MTObsidian
June 27th 2024


261 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

Not necessarily "better" per se, just another opinion. The album needed a different perspective and this review is a good answer to that.

cylinder
June 27th 2024


3246 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Great review m/

Rowhaus
June 27th 2024


6487 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

Pos'd

ChaoticVortex
June 27th 2024


1616 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off

Thank you. Pos'd

0BSCURA
June 27th 2024


77 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

quick personal side note: i had initially rated stare as a 5 because, on release, i DID enjoy it very very much, but after diving further into their back catalogue (particularly destroyers, vermis, and EiF) i dropped it to a 4. still great, but lacks a certain 'zing' that this album brings in spades

0BSCURA
June 27th 2024


77 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

pfft dude who wrote the other review has now changed his site alias to the first sentence of THIS review i can die happy

Donchivo
June 28th 2024


2045 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Great review! I fully agree with the notion that this is something like a quintessence of their previous 5 albums. Even thou I am not yet sure I like that as much as you do...



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