BLOOD INSIDE

I knew this was coming. I saw the warning signs on every album starting with Themes From...and it has finally happened. Ulver has lost themselves in their own soundscape.

You can see the warning signs on prior albums; the meandering, pointless nothings of Dead City Centres and We Are The Dead are horrible, and Lykantropen Themes is filled with too much nothing (read: noise). The Teachings in Silence EP overstayed their welcome on each and every song. And now, Ulver has reached that final pinnacle of faux intellectual pretentious noise rock that has been threatening to overwhelm them for years. The result? Crap.

What you will listen to upon buying or downloading this album is the conglomeration of too many styles and ideas fused into one incoherent soundscape. The smooth techno beats of Perdition City are here. The experimental stuff of Themes From is here. The noise of the soundtracks is here. The solos from their very earliest stuff is here. And above all that is noise. Lots of it. It's not even noise in the traditional idea of random weird noises (not the Mars Volta style). No, this noise comes from guitars, electronic beats, violins, trumpets, bells, even Garm's vocals? "What? Trumpets and violins and electronica, noise? How the hell?" Pulled out individually, each aspect is fine. The trumpets, the electronica, the basslines, the guitars, the weird, it's all damn cool and sounds nice. Now chuck those nice things together and you get borderline unlistenable stuff. It's like throwing chocolate, iced tea, spaghetti, asparagus, chicken and Reeses Pieces in a melting pot and eating the output. Individually each component of the result is fine, but melted together it's crap. This album is similar. Too much. Too much. All the pieces seemed in order, too. Returning to instruments, more experimental, maintaining symphonic while keeping an older Ulver feel, how could Garm go wrong? I mean, it's Garm! Well, it went wrong.

The album opens with Dressed in Black, which plods along at a dreadfully slow tempo gradually adding effects into the mix. There's pianos in abundance, but these aren't the smooth pianos of Perdition City. No, these play frantic melodies over a pulsating, marching beat. There's almost no music or melody to be found here, simply a lot of noise layered over a slow tempo. What we end up with is a boring piece the almost is interesting, but in the end is too jumbled. It sounds like wannabe chaos. Good chaos is King Crimson's song Happy Family. I swear I heard about seven solos at the same time in that song, and all of them worked and it sounded great. Not here. We get some ok segments, usually involving Garm's great voice, but too few.

For The Love of God ups the tempo a bit, from a brisk crawl to the walk of a person who overdosed on NyQuil in the morning. Big change, I know. More messy combinations of things that simply do not work. We even get a guitar solo here, and it's a good guitar solo. Nothing extravagant but nice. Unfortunately, it still doesn't redeem the song because it hardly even fits with the song. Messy. Not lazy, I'm sure this song took a massive effort, but...it didn't work.

Christmas is ok. It really is. It starts with some cool bell effects then launches into a pretty decent part with a laid back beat and some good vocals from Garm. The noise is still here, and it still doesn't fit, and it still is annoying. I think there was one part where a bunch of trombones played and it worked, for a second, just to be shattered. Then it goes noisy, until the end where we get some Christmas-y sounding bells and whatnot over Garm howling quietly, and it sounds kinda nifty. But even this slightly good song doesn't redeem the past two ear-grates.

Next is Blinded by Blood. I really liked this piece when I first heard the album. Garm's vocals sound good, the sound effects make sense and sound good, what's not to like? Well, this time the samples work, but it drags. And drags. It's moderately interesting the whole time, and very pleasant in small doses, but they stretched this one out too long. Oh, by the way, at one point the background gospel male singer (a sample, I know, but...) and the rest of the song aren't even in the same key. What?

It Is Not Sound...yea, it really is. It is sound, and that's all. Sound. Noise. Ok, not the most clever diss I've come up with, but you get the point. I don't like this song much either. Garm's "a loooong time agooooo, yea!" is really [%*!#]ing annoying, but he does some other cool things that make it better. It settles into a groove reminiscent of the beginning of Sigh's Slaughterhouse Suite. Actually, it sounds blatantly ripped, just layered and butchered immensely. There's an ok keyboard solo at the end. Ok. So we have more stupid layering here, more pointless sound effects for the sake of seeming complex, an ok solo, an ok groove, and annoying vocals.

The Truth. The truth is this is my favorite song on the album if I had to pick one. The noise works for this one, Garm sounds great. The more upbeat sections aren't too great, but the softer more laid-back sections with minimal noise going on is good. I think I hear a sample from some Pokemon town music in there, but who knows? The drums are ocol, although obviously a drum machine. At 2:19, after a frantic(lly annoying) section with tons of noise, it chills out into a softer section, the Garm layers his voice a bunch, then there's an upbeat part at around 2:55 that sounds solely because Garm sounds great and there's this really cool chipmunk-thingy sample in the background for a bit and the layered noise here works. For once there isn't a million instruments, just a lot of voices, which works pretty well. It proves once again Garm is a master of vocals, even if he's not the best vocalist ever. Good song.

In The Red. The layering almost works here, especially towards the end, but...you guessed it, once again, too much. This has a stupid jazz facade all over it where in actuality it has nothing to do with jazz. And don't forget those stupid whispers of "HEEELP...heeeelp...heelp...help" or "AMBROSIAAA...ambrosia...." getting softer in the background. God, that's annoying. The end has some cool jazzy sounds sampled in which almost sounds cool, but not quite. If they cut down on it a bit it would've worked, but they insisted on making it a full-fledged thing.

Your Call has some pretty bad layering, but like Blinded by Blood, it's mostly ambient and chill, and is pleasant in small doses. There's way too many samples on this one as well...WAY too many, but it pulls through ok. Cut back on the annoying violins on this one and add a darker atmosphere and you got an ok song.

Operator is fairly frantic and has more crazy layering. Do I really need to say it? It doesn't work yet again. It comes at as nonsensical, incoherent, jumbled...you name any pejorative word that's a synonym with incoherent and you can describe this song.

So like I said, lots of good ideas, put together in a melting pot to make crap. If Ulver cut back on what they were trying to do, it mighta worked. Maybe. We'll never find out. Hopefully Ulver realizes they tried too hard with this one and goes back to soundtracks or smooth beats or even, I pray to you god, metal.

Though by far not everything's ULVER had produced in their long developmental career is appealing to me I've to say that I consider them the most interesting, always progressing and as well progressive (in the literal sense) band of the Norwegian black metal scene. Here we have their latest product "Blood Inside" which is described by some people just as a mess, a chaos or plain noise whereas others call it a real gritty innovative modern piece of art. Maybe both aspects are true in some way but nevertheless this album appeals more to me than their previous works which were too much dominated by ambient electronic music for my taste. And at least to my ears it does not sound as noisy as some other outputs in the experimental metal genre by artists like FANTOMAS or DEVIN TOWNSEND for example. In ULVER's long catalogue there were only few complete failures if any at all (though "Nattens" was one IMHO) and which album has to be called their best one is just a matter of taste, whether one prefers electronic, folk or heavy metal music. I'm preferring the latter two genres I've to say though there isn't any obvious folk influence present on "Blood Inside" nor can it be called really metal despite its heaviness since there aren't almost any guitars. Anyway this album does it somehow for me and it's certainly a quite unique and innovative work within the genre of modern progressive music. I guess it might not appeal to all folks,especially the ones being mainly stuck in the conventional prog but it should appeal to any open-minded prog fan.

So nothing today is progressive you say?

Perhaps the most overlooked band in the music scene today is the genius that is ULVER, and more specifically, the mind of Garm/Trickster G.

Blood Inside is the culmination of years of sound development to create something that is truly refreshing and entertaining. Simply put, Blood Inside will blow you away with its sonic ecstacy and total lack of concern for normal sounds. It will challenge you, much in the same way that Pawn Hearts did(albeit, Garm's voice is completely different from Hammill's).

I believe that the beauty of this album is that you don't expect any of these parts to fit together, but nevertheless they work. Upon remembering what you just heard, you think, "that really doesn't go there, but for some reason, I like it". There is plenty here for fans of 70's symphonic prog to enjoy. Blood Inside is an experience that you should set aside time for, as its a one of a kind listen. Some important things to note though: there are very few guitars here, and a variety of sounds are used through electronic programming and etc.

The layering of sounds here is amazing, and you will be finding new things on each listen. Recommended for those looking for something refreshing and different from "typical prog". An invaluable listening experience.

This is my first Ulver album and I have to say that if morbidly depressing is what they were going for with this album then they have certainly nailed it. What is it with Scandinavians and morose music anyway? Hell, my ancestors were Scandinavian – does this mean they were a dour lot too? Actually I remember great-grandma Anderson and she was a pretty stern old lady, so maybe it’s genetic after all.

Anyway, maybe it’s just because the sun is shining today, or maybe that I’ve been listening to mostly upbeat musical lately, but this stuff really is too morbid for casual listening, and I don’t much feel like putting enough energy into internalizing it to wallow in its doldrums (sorry, but I'm running out of synonyms for 'depressing').

And that aside, the band seems to be spending an awful lot of time layering both authentic and programmed sounds here, and in many cases for no really apparent reason. This album has the sound of a band that has possibly passed their creative peak and are resorting to buffaloing the listener with quantity over quality (it's a word, look it up). Just my opinion, but the gratuitous digital whining and painful piano-banging get to be a bit much after a while. This is a post-rock band, not Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, right? I like those guys by the way, but you have to be mentally prepared for that sort of thing.

On the up side are the unmistakably proggy “It is Not Sound” and the beautifully tense “Your Call”. On the down side are the first three turgid tracks and the rather bland “the Truth”. Oh yeah – and the closing “Operator” is an intense cacophony of sound even though it seems a bit out-of-place compared to the rest of this album.

I’ll have to check out a few earlier albums by these guys to confirm my hunch, but if I’m correct I suspect those will be a bit lighter on the wanton glut of sound and somewhat heavier on thoughtful compositions that demonstrate the musician’s technical prowess more than their studio savvy. We’ll see. Three stars I suppose (barely), but not really my kind of music. I already gave this one away to one of my kids.

peace

You have to appreciate Ulver's creativity and artistic ambitions. The band plays whatever they want and they leave no room for expectation. However, Ulver has been sticking to an industrial/electronic sound for some time now, so I suppose one would have been safe in expecting an electronically driven album with Blood Inside. As that is a rather vague expectation, beyond the surface of the industrial/electronic foundation, this album is a completely unique and inexplicable blend of styles and sounds. Furthermore, the listener will be bombarded with music of the highest density. The listener will likely be discovering new things about the album even years after they've had it. Despite possessing all of those qualities, Ulver simply can't manage to write a memorable tune. Layers of sounds and effects should be added to embellish a composition, they shouldn't take over the composition. That is often the case here; you have solid ideas throughout, but they often get buried in an avalanche of noise. This makes the album difficult to enjoy. It also doesn't help that the general mood of the album is downcast. Surely a challenge is good for the listeners, but when you listen to Blood Inside you're often going to get confused about whether the challenge is in understanding the album or getting through it without cracking your own skull on the nearest hard [but blunt] object. And of course, after working yourself to exhaustion from restraining yourself through the first 8 tracks, the last one proves to be the most cacophonic thing you've ever heard (though that may be because you won't be able to think about anything, let alone another unbearable sound while that is going on).

The band sometimes gives the listener something memorable, however. The band does a great job building tension before that final track with "Your Call," "It Is Not Sound" puts a solid melody in the front and then erupts into a wild whirlwind of whatever it is that they are playing and we even see the band lock into a fun groove on "Christmas." Really, Blood Inside is an album that can be enjoyed, but they really make it difficult for you do so, much like the ping pong table my family got for Christmas. That took far too much work to assemble. I actually didn't pick that example because of the song on this album, by the way.

Ulver is truly a singular band, but Trent Reznor does almost as many awesome sounds and effects in his work and it is often much more memorable and enjoyable, even though there is generally a negative mood as well. I'll take a slightly less innovative record if it has more to connect to musically.

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.

Blood Inside presents a murky electronic nightmare, a dark and troubling territory that provides a sinister counterpart to Sigur Ros' light and airy brand of electronic post-rock. Slipping in classical themes in the synthesiser lines here and there, the band create soundscapes which somehow manage to be even more dense and multilayered than those of Perdition City - and are more complex as well. Veering away from the minimalism characteristic of much post-rock, the band instead go for an everything and the kitchen sink approach to stuffing as many different influences into their sound as possible. Garm's vocals make a return after the all- instrumental soundtrack efforts and complete the picture. Blood Inside might be Ulver's best album of their non-metal period yet.

This has to be one of the most oddball records ever conceived by any artist let alone released and distributed. I only know of Ulver's history without delving too much into it, but this version of the band through BLOOD INSIDE sounds rich in electronic experimentalism.

It's like singer Garm wanted to make the music of the future. Most of the instrumental credits go to programming even if more ''sane'' instrumentation is used throughout the album. Up until now, I only knew of Israeli group Ahvak trying their hand at this ''programming'' instrumentation, but Ulver makes this ''instrument'' quite blatant in their sound.

Almost too blatant. The over-wrapping and intertwining of all these buzzing, humming and underlying metal sounds (produced by guitars proper) give me a migraine. I can enjoy what Garm is doing only in theory; in practice, while this isn't a mess, I'm having a good problem trying to pluck out the compositions here.

This album is what I would call an example of an ''art first'' album, where the primary goal of an output like this is to make an artsy statement. I could follow the artsiness more if there was some memorable riff or hook that could grip into the inner psyche of what BLOOD INSIDE is trying to do. Only ''Christmas'' and ''Dressed in Black'' can pull that feat off in a ''somewhat'' fashion. Else, I feel like I'm trying to listen to my pulse when I listen to BLOOD INSIDE.

In this album, Ulver explores sounds, moods, soundscapes, electric and acoustic sounds, original and non-original loops and samples, and traditional composition. Sometimes they do it all at the same time. This creates an amazing sound that is very original. This is prog rock at it's best especially among the sub-genres of Post Rock and even RIO. There is a heavy use of keyboards, both electronic and acoustic and a lot of interplay of dissonance and melodious hooks throughout. If you were to compare this to anything, it would be like a mellow version of The Mars Volta where you can hear a lot going on, but the various sounds, melodies and etc are easier to pick out. There is a similarity to Kayo Dot also especially in the timbre of the vocal delivery and the difficult-to- understand lyrics. I find the instrumentals are easier to follow than they are for Kayo Dot however. Vocals are very mysterious, brooding and dark, but at times they even approach pop sounding vocals, but in a very warped way in that no melodies are easily picked out of the individual tracks.

There is a theme going on in this wonderful cacophony of sound. According to the Garm, the key words that describe the music that is going on here are heart, blood, red, rose, beauty, violence, body, life, death, ambulance, hospital and so forth. It is psychedelic, progressive, sad and sanctified. It is beautiful, strange, experimental. The subject matter deals with birth, death and the suffering in between. There is such an amazing balance of old and new with this album, in the instruments, in the vocals and samples. Sometimes you hear singing that sounds like something from antiquity, other times it sounds very modern, almost like a warped Alan Parsons. You get tastes of electronica at times and at others you get classical elements, even a section from Bach at the end of the amazing song "It Is Not Sound". As far as the vocals; it's almost like the vocals are trying to be optimistic but the lyrics and the melodies keep preventing that from happening. That's the best way I can explain it. You have to listen close, this is not music you can appreciate by just having it play in the background, you have to dig into it.

There is no doubt that this is not for everyone. But that shouldn't keep the serious prog listener from trying it out and really giving it a chance. Listen to it closely though before passing judgment. Don't make the mistake of lumping all of the tracks together though, or you will only get the impression that this is just a wall of noise with a lot of unfocused things going on. First listen to each track individually and pick out the elements in each: a little jazz here, a little classical there, a little bit of something else over there. I think this is just genius. I know not everyone will agree, but I love this stuff! Not everyone can pull this off, the combination of old and new and balance it all out so well, though it probably leans toward the strange and dark more than the normal and humorous. In my opinion, this is a masterpiece of post rock and I will rate it as such. 5 stars.

Our blood is boiling and muscle is moving in a lively manner. ULVER's "Blood Inside" released in 2005 lets us know what they would like to do in this album and how they should pass on their soundscape for us via this creation. Tough for us to classify this stuff which involves full of experimental, post, post-metal, electronic, classical, or diverse essence (and which subgenre they should belong to is under discussion even currently, how interesting), but who cares ... no suspicion this album is fascinating and innovative in the sense that we can enjoy various, colourful musical elements. Let me claim this is not so-called progressive rock, because they obviously launched their original, creative messages through "Blood Inside" that vibrate our brain continuously all through the exhibition.

The first "Dressed In Black" proposes dark electronika in the very beginning. Heavy, depressive instrumental works plus rough voices and chilling chorus knocks us completely out. Such a procession they shoot here sounds more of experimental metal and stimulates our progressive mind into activity. The last congestion of ambience and complicated piano deliveries is also enchanting. The following "For The Love Of God" is another crazy ****ing one filled with deepness, weirdness and calmness. Their repetitive hallucinogenic sound elaboration reminds us of some leaning towards a kind of Kraut-ish construction, but we can feel coolness via the coarse desert segments deeply in it. In "Christmas" apparent sarcastic delights and critical moments both can be enjoyed. Wondering what they want to tell the audience in the middle part, where rough darkness is dominant. On the contrary, the last phase sounds fantastic, beautiful but simultaneously disquieting. Such a complex unification of sound should be their strong intention and attitude for creativity. Surprisingly "Blinded By Blood" is pretty simple and mystic.

One of my favourite tracks "It Is Not Sound" is another controversial creation indeed, featuring J. S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue BWV 565, but it's a good point that they incredibly digest and sublimate this renowned gem. Sorry I cannot stress so confidently but their heavy experimentalism goes forward along with such an ultimate classical masterpiece. The former kaleidoscopic metallic sound bullets are also impressive. Any similarity to one of pop / psych rock / chorus giants The Beach Boys can be heard via "The Truth"? Maybe I'm incorrect but I cannot help feeling like that. What a wondrous truth. The most avantgarde, experimental journey can be touched in the sixth track "In The Red" possessing jazzily atmospheric procedures in the latter part. Such a diversity like this can tell us their profound musicality. "Your Call" where ringing sounds are quite effective is postic and introverted. Dry-fruity, improvised violin playings also ring our bell, and eccentric quietness is going to be followed by a loud, tough situation - the epilogue "Operator", the quirkiest, most violent critical hit. Earthy, unrefined sound collective should be another appearance of theirs. Good to know we cannot breathe until the end of this album.

Anyway at last, please let me appreciate many discussers for ULVER.