Review: Stare Into Death and Be Still - Ulcerate

By Luke Robinson


Ulcerate is a force to be fucking reckoned with. The Auckland, New Zealand based outfit has garnered a formidable reputation by releasing some of the most cutting edge technical death metal of the past two decades. Rather than taking the sterile, masturbatory approach of most tech-death bands (looking at you, Rings of Saturn), Ulcerate are more cavernously dark in their approach. They take a few recipes from the Gorguts cookbook to create hellish, anxiety-ridden landscapes. Their songs constantly weave like labyrinths, sucking you into tempo change after tempo change. They have always been a challenging band to listen to, as there has been little in the way of dynamic change or major scale melody. But for an absolute anxious wreck like me, I find myself at the edge of my seat for any Ulcerate tune. 


When Ulcerate announced their new album with their self-titled first single, “Stare Into Death and Be Still,” I was blown away. Like, “I have never heard anything quite like this in my years as a tech-death nerd” levels of blown away. Ulcerate teased that they would be slowing down their formula for more melody and hopeless darkness, which is exactly what you get with SIDABS. The first song “The Lifeless Advance” begins with a beautiful, skipping guitar melody that sounds more pristine and well-mixed than ever before. Ulcerate contemplates on one riff to let Jamie Saint Merat build the dynamics with his relentless fills, sounding more accessible than ever. When they suddenly break into a crescendo of hellish guitar work filled by blast beats, it feels earned to the highest degree. 


What sticks out about Ulcerate is even more obvious here: their sheer chemistry as a three-piece. Paul Kelland acts as the foundation for the band’s insanity, providing simplified, crunchy bass chords with punctuated stabs that make sense of the guitar-n-drum madness. Throughout SIDABS, his thick, grizzly distorted bass tone rings out more like that of a noise rock band than a technical death metal band. His demonic, gurgling vocals also display an excellent range that impressively soars above everything, capping off the instrumental insanity with precision and insanity.  


Michael Hoggard provides somber, perturbed tremolo picked guitars, complemented further with his atmospheric one note leads and ambient beds. All of this allows Saint Merat to shine with his incredibly passionate and technical drum work, which includes some of the fastest double bass work and blast beats you’ll ever hear. Such an example is “Exhale the Ash,” an incredibly triumphant song done in a despondent way. Jamie’s slowed hi-hat groove allows the guitar work feel stickier in its melody, becoming the catchiest Ulcerate has ever sounded. 


Through their careful dynamics and depressive nature, Ulcerate steer their sound in a post-metal direction. But what you’re hearing isn’t from a boring gear-bro band playing three chords with $500 fuzz pedals purchased by their moms: this is far more impressive and technical. In fact, it could even be labeled “technical post-metal” for how seamless the combination of instrumental proficiency and experimental song structures is. Just listen to “Stare into Death and Be Still” as it continues to get more dreadful and despondent, finishing with the most propelling riff you could imagine: demonic tremolo picking constantly bending out of tune and snapping back into melody. 


Ulcerate carries through with this new, alien post-metal on “Visceral Ends”. It slowly builds on a droning chorus into a drenched guitar section and is touched up with bone crushing bass punches. The atmosphere laid on towards the end, with the single note guitar solos, make the vocals even more manic to take in, leading you into the deepest unknowns. This triumphant feeling is once again mustered up on “Dissolved Orders,” the perfect closer to a visionary album. 


SIDABS is not only Ulcerate’s best album, it’s the most hellish thing I’ve heard come from metal in quite some time. Ulcerate has only gotten darker, pushing sounds from the tech-death and post-metal spheres into visionary new territories. The effortless fusions and honing of songwriting craft presents the exact innovation that extreme metal needs right now. Although the album demands frequent listening and your full attention to digest its intricacies and appreciate what it accomplishes, it doesn’t take away from the sheer cohesion and originality of the experience. Ultimately, the cacophony of this record perfectly matches its title: accept your fate, and let Ulcerate’s intensity wash over you.


BOPS: “Stare Into Death and Be Still,” “Exhale the Ash,” “There is No Horizon”

DUDS: “Drawn into the Next Void”

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