ALBUM REVIEW: Ulthar – Cosmovore

Here I review another presumably great 20 Buck Spin release, this time ULTHAR’s new album. Release set for early November!

1. Cosmovore kicks right in with groovy riffs, blackened vocals and intense blast beats. There is a much more dismally Black Metal feel to the music which I love but the plentiful Death Metal force keeps the momentum high and bludgeoning. The song is atmospherically dissonant and has that nasty discordant blur that some of the most obscene Extreme Metal features, certainly things are off to a good start! The production is very primal which suits the music while the songwriting is excellent and has a really cool convulsive feel which just surges noise into the listener with utmost force. The riffs are memorable and groovy, the bass and guitar tone is perfect, the drums are played perfectly and the gruesome vocals finish things nicely with a mix of high hellish screams and gut obliterating growl. Although the sound is overall somewhere between Black and Death Metal there are some really epic doomy elements that allow the overall pace of the track to breathe. An insanely good opening piece with a really tranquil outro.
2. Solitarian brings in waves of bleak yet catatonically heavy assaults with plentiful filthy Death Metal grind to it but also some hideously good blackened vocals. There is so much precise aggression in this music, that has been evident from the very beginning and has not gone unappreciated. There is a nice sense of melody to this piece but do not misconstrue that as me saying it’s light, this thing is devastatingly intense and morbid to listen to. The song has a monstrous attack which is elevated into chaos by the furiously dissonant riffs and indulgently brilliant drum fills. There are some nice DSBM tinges to the vocals that I thought sounded really cool, overall though they take a more traditional Black Metal approach on the most parts for this song. The final section is just an absolute frenzy of Extreme Metal invasion, fantastic!
3. Infinite Cold Distance comes in with pretty cheerful lead riffs but a filthily grimy rhythm section. The cascading intensity is relatively catchy but just as heinously evil as the rest of their material so far. The storming march has a really nice old school, 90s Black Metal feel to it that I just love. The simplicity of the more traditional section was short lived though, going right back into unpredictable and volatile musical assaults once more. This is just epic to listen to, so much emotive fury put into some killer music that is just so well written and wonderful. There is a nice back and forth thing going on between the structural changes that makes them flow really nicely and naturally, giving the song a digestibility. The blistering, gory feel of the music is so damn great. The cleaner sections are dissonantly stunning to me with such a depressive vibe to them before descending into extreme chaos once again! Overall this piece was totally mesmerising and beautifully bleak. Excellent stuff!
4. Entropy-Atrophy right away churns out groove beautifully that just drops nicely into some of the most grotesquely epic and old school Death Metal material (with a similar vibe to Tomb Mold actually, another 20BS artist). The unsettling sounds used by the band work perfectly to create this really inhumanly distinct soundscape that I just love, excellent sense of creativity, for me the most brilliant thing about this music (or the best new music in general, really) is its originality. The song is everything you need; melodic, tasteful, dark, groovy, intense and extreme as hell. The songwriting skills are absolutely insane on this piece, great musicianship for sure with perfect vocal use. Some of the most frantic, frenzied and forceful Extreme Metal I have heard in ages! Much like the opening track it ends in this gorgeous futuristic Sci-Fi ambience that really intervals the album nicely, allowing tension to be rebuilt.
5. Asymmetric Warfare grinds into existence with some of the most awesome old school Death Metal riffing. The ferocious assault is so crushingly brutal and foreboding, I absolutely love how the direction of this album is so unpredictable yet always consistently wonderful. The unrelenting attack of this piece is once again, uniquely hypnotic with some real putrid ugliness used in the best possible manner. The marching, storming and purely morbid vibes are conveyed to perfection with some gorgeous doomy elements used too. The drumming on this piece stands out as even more insanely epic than the others, which in itself is saying something, great work. Finally this song has what might be some of the nastiest riffing of the year! An absolutely head banging masterpiece.
6. Dunwich Whore has the unenviable task of finishing suck a sickeningly wonderful release. Although at over 13 minutes, has plenty of time to do so well. The opening Sci-Fi sound effects set the mood very nicely to this ambient yet volatile soundscape which I have no idea where things will be taken. Drudgingly bleak guitar riffs and pounding bass drums kick in the bring the dark piece into fruition. The sense of melody is gorgeously used to create something surprisingly pleasant on the ear. Following this the piece drops into this groovy, odd cascading discordancy that is just really catchy and enjoyable. The pummelling doomy vibes just drag at you so beautifully while the crushingly grim low growls just decimate with interwoven screams that sound so pained and have a legitimacy to their emotive nature. The thunderous bellow of the bass under the gruellingly melancholic guitar is impressively intense. Everything here is just stitched together in a matter that flows so organically and beautifully, creating some intensely progressive and well written Extreme Metal madness that has been perfected stunningly. An absolutely mesmerising, beautifully hideous and sheerly epic final assault of the senses with some purely fantastic audible ferocity. Great closing piece to a original and wonderful album!

Of course with a label like 20 Buck Spin on the release, I predicted it would be killer. I was correct in my prediction. This is some of the most grotesquely intense Blackened Death Metal that is also incredibly unsettling. Fantastic stuff! -8.5/10