Ulver — Shadows of the Sun (Album Review)
Trying to be impartial, when writing an Ulver review, for me personally is not going to be easy, as I’ve loved everything they’ve released from their black metal roots, to folk and onwards to electronica and beyond.
The release of Like Shadows of the Sun marks Ulver’s seventh full length studio album, and as different as ‘Blood Inside’ was to ‘Perdition City’ so is ‘Shadows of the Sun’ to ‘Blood Inside’, and as any seasoned Ulver fan knows at this stage is to expect the unexpected.
This is a very dark and depressing album and there is no hope to be found amongst the nine desolate tracks, but it is still a beautiful album and remains my favourite of last year. Ulver said that it would be their most personal album to date and it certainly is. To fully appreciate this album you need to listen to it on your own, in the dark, with earphones on. It is a departure from anything they’ve previously released, the music is stripped down, bare and raw with a real sombre tone that permeates the whole album. It is tragic yet celebrates the beauty in tragedy. Garm’s vocals as usual can do no wrong, even though there isn’t as much variety in them as previous albums they are rich and full of emotion. The rhythm’s are far more dependent on sound and texture where in the past they have been far more percussive. There is a nice flow to the album with each of the tracks blending into each other beautifully giving the impression of a one forty minute song.
The seventh song on the album is a cover of Black Sabbath’s solitude, and if anyone has heard their cover of Dead Can Dance’s ‘In the Kingdom of the Blind, the One Eyed are Kings’ then they know that they could turn a Celine Dion track into a masterpiece. This is not their best album in my opinion but it would still get a five out of five. The biggest problem I had with the it was getting past the first song (which took seven attempts!), it is easily one of the finest pieces of music I have ever heard.
They have no peers in my eyes, they set the standard and to date no-one has been able to keep up.
Written by guest reviewer, Dr. Moo & Originally published at 2/3/2008
