Ulcerate – Vermis (Relapse Records)
It’s difficult to ignore the extent to which 2013 has been something of a high water mark in the recent history of death metal, with bands like Autopsy, Exhumed, and most notably Carcass unleashing their work onto a genre that had become overburdened with sterile-sounding nth-generation Suffocation clones and Hot Topic metalcore bands that discovered grunty vocals.
Ulcerate – Vermis (Relapse Records)
It’s difficult to ignore the extent to which 2013 has been something of a high water mark in the recent history of death metal, with bands like Autopsy, Exhumed, and most notably Carcass unleashing their work onto a genre that had become overburdened with sterile-sounding nth-generation Suffocation clones and Hot Topic metalcore bands that discovered grunty vocals. And while many of the genre’s most notable efforts came from those with experience, often those who helped define the genre in decades past, most of these efforts were not exactly unexpected. Even some who might be seen as outliers within the style’s aesthetic–Portal, for instance–have been plying their distinctive wares for two decades now. The lesson that can be learned from all these bands, and many others who have made the transition into long-haul survivors regardless of their disparate approaches, is to inject some personality into the pummeling. Though it might sound like growling and bashing to the an outsider, each of these bands has a distinct fingerprint, an individual sense of themselves that few newer bands have attained.
While Auckland, New Zealand’s Ulcerate aren’t exactly rookies, having existed since 2000, they’re certainly fresher-faced than some of the other death metal bands that have seen wax since January, and are every bit as distinct in their way of going about things as any of their better-known forebears. Theirs is a take on the genre that’s required several albums to reach full fruition. It simultaneously emphasizes dizzyingly complex and eerily atmospheric elements, to an extent unparalleled by any other active death metal band.
Vermis, the band’s most recent effort and first for Relapse, is more than a collection of riffs and breakdowns. Instead, it focuses on a steady linear sequence of textural elements that coalesce and diverge in and out of successive structural and sonic quagmires. Vocals bellow, layers of discordant guitar gnash and tear at each other, nimble drumming alternates between sprightly intricacy and furious blasting. There’s a tendency for the songs to slip into moments of bleak placidity. Their hushed calm does not distract from the frantic brutality of the album’s bulk, but instead lends it a sense of nuance that helps distance Ulcerate’s efforts from those peddled by the bands clogging the genre with soulless hyper-technicality.
What Ulcerate has achieved with Vermis cannot be understated. The band has managed to concoct a striking album that’s firmly within the realms of death metal, despite defying many of its conventions. It may forgo some of the accessibility and riff-centeredness of many of the genre’s other recent luminaries, but there is a devastating and disorienting gravity to the material present. While some other bands might be able to articulate a sound unique to them and them alone, few also navigate so single-mindedly into murky, heretofore unexplored territories. Cereberal and strange, Vermis possesses no easy inroads, no quick invitations to understanding, only dense clusters of corrosive sound that reflect everything the more forward-thinking practitioners of the genre can do right.
