ULVER — Nattens Madrigal
This album is seriously not recommended for anyone. Unless you're a fan of raw, primitive black metal with the worst production you'll ever hear. I happen to be such a person. Although the sound might seem terrible at first, underneath there's an amazing black atmosphere, with great, catchy riffs and aggressive drumming. Nattens Madrigal is what one might call brutal music. Garm's vocals sound as evil as ever. But surprisingly if you scratch the surface a bit and forget the primitive sound, the guitar is actually pretty melodic and the band is not just blasting away nonsensically
If you've ever exposed yourself to any kind of black metal fanboy psychobabble, you'll have surely encountered some sort of ranting about the astonishing "grim atmospheres" conjured by the genre's low budget production and overbearing repetition. While the more famed likes of Darkthrone and Gorgoroth have never quite managed this for me, leave it to Ulver to show us all how it's done.
Nattens Madrigalhas almost all the hallmarks of a stereotypical Norwegian black metal album. The infamous production is of course the most instantly pressing matter to adress: Nattens contains most likely the worst sound quality of any officially released album in existence, beating out an impressive list of contenders from the black metal field. On first listen, especially for those unfamilliar with the genre, the buzzing, trebbly guitars will evoke reactions ranging from shock to physical agony. Musically we're presented with an onslaught of tremolo-picked riffs, constant blastbeats, totally inaudible bass and harsh screamed vocals. The opening track features one brief acoustic interlude and many of the songs feature (somewhat pointless) noise breaks for a few seconds in between, but this is a more or less relentless black metal assult with next to no variation.
So what makes it a classic album? Quite frankly, Ulver have perfected black metal as we know it. Without being at all innovative or in any way ground breaking, Nattens Madrigal takes the common elements of an often stale genre and exemplifies the true glory of what all those Norwegian kids spent all those years trying to do. Rather than the usual grim, frostbitten bleakness that accompanies black metal, the riffs here take on tones ranging from sorrowful to almost triumphant, delivered in a hypnotic and grippingly intense succession and maintaining a more human and nature-inspired feel than expected. Garm sticks exclusively to black metal vocals here, and puts as much emotion into his shrieked vocals as any human possibly can. Unlike the usual Satanic slant on this genre's lyrics, the band's first album with lyrics in English centers more around Lyckanthropy and other such obscure themes, a refreshing change from some of the drivel passed off by their contemporaries. Once you fall under its spell, the album's brutal wall of sound becomes almost soothing and Ulver's glorious, emotionally evocative art takes hold. This is how black metal was meant to sound, an approach countless people have taken and none have come even close to matching.
After this, Ulver went completely off the deep end and began their transformation into electronica, but their black metal phase left us with two of the genre's best releases. Though most likely too esoteric for those without a taste for black metal to realistically stomach, Nattens Madrigal is absolute essential listening for any black metal fan, and an album which never fails to melt me.
Håndværker - colic-help - skate - board - poverty - obesity
