Ulver "Vargnatt Promo 1993" 10"
[Infinite Vinyl]
With this release Infinite Vinyl continues their superb track record by reissuing the almighty Ulver's first recorded output from way back in 1993 on a thick, high quality white vinyl 10". And, like everything Ulver has ever done, this is an exceptional release that was not only innovative for its time, but indicative of the fact that the band was really going to be something special. And of course, despite similarities to some of Ulver's other "metal" work, the six songs herein are still quite different from any of the group's other material, so the band has truly never repeated themselves. There's a ton of completely raw, abrasive distortion layered with lush clean guitars and dry acoustic passages, and the songwriting is really creative, taking the primal simplicity of black metal and really adding atmosphere to it in a way that I've never heard duplicated. The vocals are generally typical high sneers with some fairly annoying "singing" on rare occasion (thankfully, as the singing is way overboard on the drama scale). "Tragediens Trone" starts out with an almost jazzy introduction including some classical styled guitar leads over interesting time signatures and slick drum fills, then plows straight into raging black metal with a good tempo - not too fast, and it doesn't shed the melody. "Trollskogen" is basically an instrumental with some distant whispered vocals, and the entire track is acoustic with some fingerpicking lead lines over open arpeggios. Am I the only one that hears a little Bon Jovi in there? "Wanted Dead or Alive", anyone? I love it. Some of the tracks are a bit slower and have some dissonant riffing that was far ahead of its time as well. The song "Nattens Madrigal" contains numerous passages that eventually became the standard for Norwegian black metal around four or five years after this demo was recorded, as well as singing that's far more tasteful than the preceding tracks. The record comes in a slick black and white gatefold sleeve with typically bleak imagery fitting for the tone of the compositions. Inside are some rather goofy band photos (the band was very young at the time, it happens) and what I feel are some completely useless liner notes by a dude from Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles - stating the painfully obvious and trying to "reflect" a bit on the band. Who needs that shit? It's all puffy nonsense, so for my money the liner notes shouldn't even be there, let the music do the talking. The back corner of the sleeve is hand-numbered out of 1,000 copies, and I'm assuming they're sold out by now. They damn well should be. I bought mine the very second I found out it was officially out, and it was well worth every cent. So track one down if you're able. Ulver is unstoppable... absolutely one of the best bands of all time. (8/10)
Running time - 27:00 (approximately), Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: Tragediens Trone, Trollskogen, Nattens Madrigal]
Infinite Vinyl - http://www.theendrecords.com

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