Are Auckland, New Zealand's Ulcerate a “technical death metal” band? They're certainly technical, boasting complicated arrangements played at dizzying tempos. Ulcerate, however, cannot and should not be branded with the “tech-death” stigma. Commonly, “tech-death” bands are criticized for “having no soul,” meaning they emphasize flash over songwriting. While this is often true, the criticism can be saddled with the false notion that simplicity means soul, as if rehashing the same Master and Asphyx songs has more integrity than trying to incorporate a few weird time signatures. In fact, there's nothing duller than laboriously listening to mid-paced death metal under the guise of “Celtic Frost worship” or keeping up tradition. Credit Ulcerate for not only subverting staleness on Vermis, their fourth album and first for Relapse, but for doing so with vigor.
Hints of Hate Eternal and Demigod-era Behemoth can be found in Vermis, particularly in the faster, more warlike sections of “The Imperious Weak” and the title track. Ulcerate are also aware that filling the room with blasts and riffs is only sometimes the effective battle plan, and that a little space can go a long way. “Clutching Revulsion” and “Weight of Emptiness” demonstrate this most aptly-- even the parts where the band lays off the acceleration are filled with unease, almost like blastbeats are a kind of security blanket. Drummer Jamie Saint Merat is crucial to the attack, playing with speed and fluidity that many death metal drummers couldn't come close to after hours of watching Tim Yeung YouTube lessons. Thanks in part to Saint Merat, Ulcerate possess a certain balance between precision and looseness that's usually only found only in some Finnish bands like Demigod and Demilich. They likely poured over the songs, no doubt, but there isn't any weariness here. As complicated as the music may be, Vermis is an album of songs, not exercises. Technicality is used to convey madness; it's not the ultimate goal in and of itself.
Across the water from Ulcerate is Australia, notorious for some of the most out-of-control metal in existence from groups such as Sadistik Exekution, Bestial Warlust, Portal, and Impetutous Ritual. Sometimes, the lines between metal and free improvisation aren't so clear. Ulcerate doesn't quite go into the stratosphere of chaos that those bands do, but there's enough of a bent to prevent them from being clinical and straight-laced. Guitarist Michael Hoggard once played live with New Zealand comrades Vassafor, so he's no stranger to bestial riffage. Ulcerate could be a model for how to reconcile modernity with death metal's timeless principles. The production is grungy enough to give Vermis the dirtiness death metal strives for, but it doesn't conceal that Ulcerate are very efficient and very driven to kill.
“Oh, this isn't Cianide. When did death metal become life metal?” Drown out such groans with Vermis. They may not listen, but you don't have to listen to them either.
