Ultha - ‘Pain Cleanses Every Doubt’ (Album Review)

By: Daniel Jackson

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 31/7/2015

Label: Tartarus Records (CS),

Ecocentric Records (CD),

Vendetta (LP)

Musically, Ultha fits in well alongside bands like Armagedda or early Forgotten Tomb, not because they sound all that similar, but because they have a similar emotional tone. Ultha’s metal is pitch black, without crossing into Deathspell Omega-style chaos and dissonance.   On the whole ‘Pain Cleanses Every Doubt’, offers further evidence that as much as orthodox black metal is criticised for being too conservative when it comes to incorporating new elements and trying new things, there are still plenty of ways to be compelling and interesting.

‘Pain Cleanses Every Doubt’ CD//CS//DD//LP track listing:

1. Crystalline Pyre

2. Perpetual Resurrection

3. Death Created Time to Grow Things it Kills

4. You Exist for Nothing

The Review:

‘Pain Cleanses Every Doubt’ is a difficult album to review. There’s a lot to like about this album, especially because this is only the band’s debut and yet they have a sound like they’ve been playing together for much longer than they have been. Ultha’s sound is fully-realized, and it’s engrossing as hell. However, there is one key issue that is most likely going to ultimately determine how you feel about the album: how you feel about the vocals.

As much as certain varieties of metal fans deride screaming vocals as either sonically unappealing or for being the refuge of people who can’t sing; there is a lot of technique that goes into making traditional black and death metal vocals sound the way they need to. There’s also more variety to choose from than is often considered. Abbath doesn’t sound like Attila Csihar, or how Jon Nödtveidt used to. Gaahl doesn’t sound like Pest. There are a variety styles and techniques involved, even if the end result is harsh screaming one way or the other.

One style that is particularly tough to accept is that which Varg Vikernes used on the early Burzum albums. This specific style is probably most common in depressive black metal, and was used to almost comedic effect on Silencer’s ‘Death - Pierce Me’. While C.’s vocals are in a similar vein to those of Vikernes, they have a certain restraint and harshness to them that will likely take away the negative aspects for people who don’t care for that specific style. C. has found a way to take a normally unpalatable shriek and show that it can work well with the instrumental side of Ultha, just by exercising some control over his voice. Combining that with R.’s deep-throated roar makes for a compelling addition to Ultha’s overall sound.

Musically, Ultha fits in well alongside bands like Armagedda or early Forgotten Tomb, not because they sound all that similar, but because they have a similar emotional tone. Ultha’s metal is pitch black, without crossing into Deathspell Omega-style chaos and dissonance. It also shares song writing sensibility with Sweden’s Shining, though I fear Shining in 2015 is kind of a caricature of itself, as opposed to being an exciting and interesting band as they were around the time of ‘III’ and ‘IV’. Ultha has more in common with Shining at its most interesting, when the band was less a promotional vehicle for Kvarforth and more of a band taking a somewhat standard black metal style and breathing new life into it.

On ‘Pain Cleanses Every Doubt’, Ultha offers further evidence that as much as orthodox black metal is criticised for being too conservative when it comes to incorporating new elements and trying new things, there are still plenty of ways to be compelling and interesting. Ultha does this through being dynamic and knowing that if you’re working within narrow musical confines, seemingly small choices can make a big difference when you pay attention to detail.

Pain Cleanses Every Doubt’ is available on digital or cassette copy here, CD here and vinyl here

FFO: Shining, Armagedda, Forgotten Tomb, 

Band info: Facebook

Shining (SWE) - ‘IX - Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, Ends’ (Album Review)

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 20/04/2015

Label: Season of Mist

‘IX - Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, Ends’ CD//LP//DD track listing:

1. Den Påtvingade Tvåsamheten

2. Vilja & Dröm

3. Framtidsutsikter

4. Människotankens Vägglösa Rum

5. Inga Broar Kvar Att Bränna

6. Besök Från I(ho)nom

Shining (SWE)  is:

Niklas Kvarforth | Vocals

Peter Huss | Guitars

Christian Larsson | Bass

Euge Valovirta | Guitars

Rainer Tuomikanto | Drums

Review:

Sweden’s Shining largely revolves around one man: Niklas Kvarforth. He’s not the band’s sole member, though he’s the only founding member. The band is certainly subject to his flights of fancy and his eccentricities, which can make each Shining album semi-unpredictable. The way in which those eccentricities manifest can also greatly impact the quality of the album. Sometimes it helps (‘Redefining Darkness’) and sometimes it falls flat (‘VII: Född förlorare’). Sadly, ‘IX - Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, Ends’ is the most extreme example of the latter.

While Kvarforth may not write every riff or every song, he certainly creates the vast majority of the personality on the album. Here too, this can be a hit-or-miss quality. I’ve heard actors and movie buffs on podcasts use the phrase “chewing the scenery” a lot when talking about over-the-top acting performances. I’ve heard it used to describe a great performance, like Anthony Hopkins in ‘Silence of the Lambs’. I’ve also heard it used to describe performances that aren’t usually thought of as “great”, but are just loud and bizarre like Jim Carrey as The Riddler in Batman Forever. On ‘IX - Everyone, Everything, Everywhere, Ends’, Niklas Kvarforth vocally chews the scenery, and it’s usually more Carrey than Hopkins. From the moment he first opens his mouth, he’s shouting maniacally and excessively rolling his R's like a human cartoon. His performance is even more rabid and unhinged than it was on ‘Redefining Darkness’, which is saying something.

Kvarforth’s vocal freak-outs are often the most exciting parts of each song, but it can also suck the life out of everything else. The lion’s share of the actual music on the album is pretty subdued, finding something of a listless middle ground between the plodding, depressive black metal of the band’s early albums and a less overtly prog take on Opeth’s softer material. It makes for an uneven listening experience most of the time, with Kvarforth’s insanity feeling incongruous with the comparatively lax musical style.

On the plus side of the album’s ledger, there are some wonderful lead guitar moments, such as in the latter half of “Framtidsutsikter”. It’s a radiant moment that nearly saves a song otherwise characterized by long quiet stretches with Kvarforth’s ludicrously over-emoted whisper-singing hogging all of the musical oxygen. The song is also hurt by the decision to not release the tension that solitary tremolo guitar riff seems to build towards in the first half of the song. When that same riff appears later, the climax is pretty underwhelming, despite the excellent soloing that follows it.

That one example speaks to the album in a macro sense as well. The music rarely ever gets out of second gear, while Kvarforth never truly shifts himself down, even when he’s trying to be quieter. The next great Shining album will come when Kvarforth channels the inexhaustible energy he puts into his vocals back into the instrumental part of music. Even with the album’s larger shortcomings, I can’t call this a truly bad album. It just kind of “exists”.

Words by: Daniel Jackson

You can pick up a digital copy here and a CD /LP copy here.

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