00-ulver-the_assassination_of_julius_caesar-2017-klv.nfo
- -- Release information ----------------------------------------------- -- -
Artist : Ulver
Album : The Assassination of Julius Caesar
Genre : Alternative
Year : 2017
Label : House of Mythology
Cat# : HOM010
Source : CDDA
Bitrate : avg. 259kbps
Size : 80,74 MB
Runtime : 43:44
URL : http://jester-records.com/ulver/ulver.html
- -- Tracklist -------------------------------------------------------- -- -
01. Memoralia 04:10
02. Rolling Stone 09:27
03. So Falls the World 05:57
04. Southern Gothic 03:40
05. Angelus Novus 04:08
06. Transverberation 04:31
07. 1969 04:00
08. Coming Home 07:51
- -- Release notes ---------------------------------------------------- -- -
If Ulver were one of the X Men characters, they'd easily be
Mystique. Ever changing, always in a state of flux, and able
to morph their identity with incredible ease. When we last
left off, Ulver dropped that "Zodiac Album" with the
unpronounceable title. Highly psychedelic, jammy, and
meditative, if you know the band and what they're all about by
now, you know there's only one thing you can ever expect next
out of them: the unexpected.
And indeed, considering their previous effort, for Ulver The
Assassination Of Julius Caesar is a pretty big curveball.
Musically this album is about as far removed from the Zodiac
Album as could possibly be. Instead of that sound, here
listeners are treated to a bright, synth-driven pop type
landscape, held up, unquestionably, by the absolutely amazing
vocals of Kristoffer Rygg. Here you get what is no doubt one
of Ulver's best Rygg-centric albums to date, and I don't mean
"Rygg centric" like Shadows Of The Sun or Wars Of The Roses,
albums where his vocal presence was there, but in a very
hushed, whisper-like delivery. Here he is the commander of
this ship, offering up a soaring delivery and epic lyrics that
do indeed revolve around themes of Rome, the Caesars, and
relating subjects. My, oh my, just give "Nemoralia" or
"Southern Gothic" a listen and let it melt your heart.
An increased presence for Rygg's vocals inevitably means a
lower presence for instrumentation, or, to put it better, that
the instrumentation here isn't really as crazy and all over
the place as it was on their previous effort. This may come as
a downer for some who really enjoyed that Zodiac Album, but
it's testament to the fact that Ulver have a seemingly
infinite number of ways of changing their style and still
making it work. The music here is often pretty simplistic and
reminiscent of basic pop song structures, but somehow it still
carries a distinct "Ulver flair" in the fact that it's still
very hypnotizing, relaxing, and spiritually uplifting. This is
the real joy of The Assassination, this feeling that Ulver did
go for a more conventionalized musical style here, but that
they still totally owned it and made it their own. And
goddamn, does it work oh so deliciously. Just give "So Falls
The World" a listen if you want to see what I mean.
On The Assassination Of Julius Caesar, it's really Rygg who
carries the weight of the music with his vocals and drives
everything to its destination with his forward momentum. But
that's OK, it's perfectly fine, because with this approach,
one really can't complain and say that it means Ulver are a
band that can't make good music without Rygg's powerful vocals
at the helm, as this simply isn't the case. All this album is
is an alteration for Ulver, what the band are all about
really, one that goes from the extended, jammy instrumentation
they've recently been playing with into a more restrained,
poppy instrumentation dominated by the beautiful pipes of
Kristoffer Rygg. Is it better? Is it worse? You decide. All I
know is that as a total effin' sucker for both synthwave and
Rygg's vocals, this is hands down my favorite Ulver release in
years, and one that could easily become my favorite period
with a few more listens. Yes, it's seriously that good.
The terrified cry of "Et tu, Brute?" has never sounded this
beautiful.
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KLV is a division of KALEVALA, focusing on all things non-finnish.
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