BLOOD INSIDE

Ulver

Post Rock/Math rock

3.89 | 177 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Negoba
Prog Reviewer

Sink into the Murky Water at your Risk, and Pleasure

Blood Inside is simply the best post-rock album I have heard. Admittedly, this is not a genre I have explored thoroughly, but I have sampled enough to know the range of what is out there. This album is amazing, combining a vast range of sonic elements into a dark work that sounds like the soundtrack to a neo-gothic nightmare. Most of these sounds fall within the industrial / electronic realm, but there are many organic instruments also, all carried by layers of Garm's awesome vocals.

There is A LOT going on in this music, as others have criticized. But this album should be seen like a sonic movie - you go into a darkened room and let it consume your entire attention. Like many other prog masterpieces (Genesis' Lamb Lies Down on Broadway for example), the music cannot be listened to casually. The experience is not unlike the sonic equivalent of watching Pan's Labyrinth. Extremely rich, flawlessly constructed, continuously intense, and ultimately very brutal despite moments of beauty. It's not for everyone by any means.

Again, the range of sound here is staggering. Choir vocals, solo gospel voice, Garm's warm baritone / bass. Both guitar and key solos that begin classically and morph into a twisted fury. Blaring brass instruments, brief swing breaks, slow ambient sections followed by frenetic industrial intensity. And though this music is undoubtedly busy, this is not the avant chaos of Unexpect or Bungle. Everything has its place, and the composition is clearly careful and deliberate.

In the end, this is a descent through the surface into a murky world of dark color. It's intense, transformative, simply great music. Undoubtedly progressive, I recommend it without question. But get ready for a dark ride.

Negoba | 4/5 | 2009-3-26

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