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ULCER
Dead Souls Cathedral

Defense (2021)
Rating: 8/10

Like a rush of evil cold wind, Ulcer’s new opus blasts us with a snarling, frothing aggression that throws us straight into the cover art like a lost soul alienated by the vast, grandiose landscapes built by those trembling bass stones, that crushing percussion, fatal riffs that crumble glaciers and a vocal blast that freezes the night.

Dead Souls Cathedral is the fourth full-length release from this devastating death metal act from Poland; an album that brings nine vast chasms of pummelling metal.

The outing revs up from the off with the arrogant smirks of ‘Those Black Gods’, a behemoth of a track that’s not necessarily vast but remains damp, chilly and above all, bombastic in its creation as the combo teases with blackened death aesthetics before slowing to doomier trudges. It’s impressive stuff as vocalist Angelfuck barks at walls of ice amidst the avalanche of dragging drums and those meandering guitar tones which carve stellar kingdoms of ice and blackness.

There’s no denying that Ulcer has improved with each release, and Dead Souls Cathedral could well be the defining moment of their career, personified with the brutal gushing of the rampant horde that is ‘Not The On’. This is one of the fastest tracks on offer and brings an abysmal, Swedish guitar tone and a ferocity that just washes over you and suffocates with its blizzard-like steel before those doomier, menacing passages entwine, all sewn together by a melodic yet forlorn solo.

I’ve no doubt that listeners will point out the Swedish influence, but there is still that esoteric air of gloominess to be found within, somewhere encased in a mask of ice as ‘Cold Darkness’ chugs with immense frost and blackened savagery, propelled by the hostile percussion and those vast chugs from the abyss.

As a mid-paced entity Ulcer remains a threat, constructing bleak yet arrogant slabs of great death metal brooding, culminating in some morbid classics like the volatile ‘Eternal Night’ with its injection of pace and gnashing. Meanwhile, ‘Disintegration’ trickles like a leaking ice cap, chiming with distant bell and oozing a damp suspense of whispering souls before all instruments come together to marry into a network of steely gauze and crushing weight.

The peculiarly titled ‘Off We Go’ (surely the most un-death metal of all titles ever released!) features a truly wondrous Swedish chainsaw heap of riffage that marches with such devastating effect, while the title track churns like a great machine starting up, and again that guitar tone just hooks in deep. The latter cut heaves itself slowly out of the freezing water and just clanks hard and hefty, bringing to mind flecks of Unleashed in its barbaric mashing.

As ‘Into The Chasm’ swirls and grinds as a kaleidoscopic closer of creativity, I’m already eager to snap back to the beginning, so keen am I to become engulfed by this mesmerizingly cold and crushing effort.

Neil Arnold

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