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Ulver - Wars of the Roses

SKU 25-KSC-CD-170
Ulver were a Norwegian black metal band who turned into a oddball, soundtracky-noir band and who nabbed Daniel O'Sullivan from Guapo and are now a simply indescribable band!

"It’s astonishing to look at where Ulver are today and to think back to where they have come from. These eclectic Norwegians began their life as a black metal band heavily influenced by their national folklore. Nowadays they are a genre-busting electronica act. Of course the notorious black metal scene, in Norway especially, is not well known for its overwhelming tolerance for other musical creeds...quite the opposite. Along their bumpy ride Ulver have had to put up constantly with the purists scoffing at their departure from the black metal scene that spawned them. Everyone else who has given them a listen in this time meanwhile has been astonished by their musical explorations. From the trip-hop of 'Perdition City' to the ambience of 'Shadows of the Sun', Ulver have been at the forefront of cutting edge electronic music now for over a decade. The long-awaited 'Wars of the Roses' is the first release by the band since they became a regular touring act again in 2009, and since English multi-instrumentalist Daniel O’Sullivan joined to make the act a quartet; a quartet that has made a masterpiece... For the musical purist this album is undeniably going to be a little bit of a tricky ride. It is not altogether easy to figure out what you’re actually hearing at any one moment on this record. The now trademark Ulver array of electronic scribbles, only broadened with the arrival of O’Sullivan in the ranks, are combined with flashes of recognisable instruments. The best example of this wide array of sounds comes in closer 'Stone Angels' which is the only song on the record that could really be accused, completely fairly, of not being so much a song as a purely experimental piece. Featuring O’Sullivan reading a poem by Keith Waldrop over a swell of ambient soundscapes, 'Stone Angels' stretches on for a whole fourteen minutes although, for this listener at least, it is a fourteen minutes that floats by in a haze of glorious tranquillity. For some the closing track will be an inconvenience or unnecessarily artsy touch to the record but in fact sums up some of what is most brilliant about it. There is restraint and texture, light and shade, art and song. No, it actually does not matter one bit that there are no prominent guitars or indeed that there is an absence of prominent instrumentation at all for the majority of the running time; this is still an effort of musical genius. In fact, this is probably the best album that 2011 will see."-stereoboard.com



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