GRIEGHALLEN 20180528

Good to know their heaviness and rockability back to themselves. The previous studio-based work "Scary Muzak" possesses "dreamy but scary muzakish electronika" but this live album, on the contrary to that, is filled with a slightly post-y but fully heavy-crossover atmosphere that we can easily get familiar with (except the epilogue "Coming Home"). Guess it would have been better for the audience to accept their soundscape especially on stage in a natural and smooth manner, and even if this soundscape was launched 5 or 6 years ago, it is worthy for ULVER to release such a heavy live material as an official album. And the live performance was held just after one of their landmark albums "The Assassination Of Julius Caesar" and an ep "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi" were out in 2017. "Grieghallen 20180528" symbolizes they should cherish and treasure their creativity in those days. Sounds pretty fantastic and pleasant for us.

Anyway "Grieghallen 20180528" consists of the songs in the two albums mentioned above, but their performances on the stage sound more qualified and straightforward than the two underlying creations. No dissonant effect nor quirky processing is needed in a venue but a sense of unity or affinity developed between performers and the audience should be important and essential. From the prologue "Nemoralia", we can feel such a rigid solidarity amongst their sound launches featuring fundamental rock instrumentals and additional synthesizers or electronics. The epilogue "Coming Home", much longer than the original one, is drenched in drastic post-rock, psychedelic texture, improvisational shoegaze-y development, melodic rhythmic flexibility, and especially infatuation around the audience. Cannot help listening carefully to the serious movement until the end of the track. We will be immersed in their real rock performance in 2018, for sure.