Ulver — Blood Inside — recorded January to February 2004, released 6/6/2005

Blood Inside! Yes, that’s where the blood should be. If it’s outside you should definitely go see a doctor. Try to jam Ulver’s 2005 album on the way so you won’t forget why you’re going there.

Blood Inside has been precursored by A Quick Fix of Melancholy, their 2003 EP, which I liked quite a lot. One thing I remember being infatuated by in Melancholy is their use of silence, tastefully aspersed all throughout, like a subtle but pervasive presence. Simply put, the average Melancholy song’s waveform looks a lot like, let’s say, a snake skeleton.

BI, I regret to inform, takes that specific characteristic I liked so much and pretty much throws it out the window. It’s all so busy, so extravagant, even the “quiet” parts are thoroughly permeated by lush waves and frequencies. Like they themselves said, and I quote, “[Blood Inside is] kind of counteracting the ‘less is more’ trip [they’d] been on lately”. Simply put, what was before a snake skeleton is now a solid cinderblock. I’m not saying this is a dealbreaker through and through, but it did consistently bring my enjoyment of it down during the whole thing.

The music itself, while featuring some top-notch synthesyzing and programming, as one expect from The Ulver Boys, as well as some surprising sampling, decidedly leans more towards rock than electronica. Riffs, solos, etcetera, you got it all, but it’s a far cry from the BM days. It’s more, I don’t know, what genre descriptor does this fit in? Wikipedia says it’s post-industrial, experimental and electronic rock, whatever the fuck that means. Apparently Rygg said the big thing about this album is that, differently from pretty much all of their stuff thus far, they made it with no set rules, no preconceived ideas, just anarchic fun and free-flowing creativity. And I can respect that! A lot! Most of my favorite music ever was, or at least sounds like it was, made by artists who were having loads of fun in the process, and that much is somewhat apparent here.

But, I don’t know, it just doesn’t work very well for me. It all kinda melds into this one thick, foggy, wet mess, which is something I do enjoy from time to time, but not always. I can see and respect the vision here, and there are some great, even mindblowing moments, contained within parts of some specific tracks, but as a whole I’m afraid it just falls short for me.

DOES IT PULVERIZE? Black metal album when plz