Ulthar

Ulthar

Anthronomicon

20 Buck Spin

***CHECK STOCK!!! Received a 7.6 rating from Pitchfork. Over the course of their first two albums, Cosmovore and Providence, Ulthar carved out a unique niche on the spectrum of underground metal, forging a grotesquely elegant hybrid of technical death metal alchemy and black metal’s stinging blizzard winds, all with the acerbic color of the absurdist’s brush. Nearly three years on from Providence, a burst of deadly creativity has resulted in two new albums, to be released simultaneously. Anthronomicon embodies the continued progression of Ulthar’s mastery over its art—always evolving, refining and pushing forward. From the opening blasts and twisting mania of “Cephalopohre,” Ulthar baffle with angular warped riffage, dipping in and out of various dimensional spheres. Off-kilter multi-directional turns veer swiftly and violently as though about to come apart at the seams only to reshape again and again into ever more monumental forms. Each of Anthronomicon’s eight tracks represent a fractious piece of a larger puzzle, each a maze unto itself that when taken together allow one to traverse this inverted surrealist conundrum. Having reached albums three and four concurrently, and having many other bands and albums under their collective belts, the three seasoned players that comprise Ulthar have not been content to play things straightforward, to be just another death metal band among thousands. Rather the band continuously seeks and executes with more compulsive complexity, more nuance and in pursuit of a persistent ascension to a transcendent and incongruous world beyond the mundane; a place of euphoric exultation and...

Ulthar

Helionomicon

20 Buck Spin

***CHECK STOCK!!! Received a 7.0 rating from Pitchfork. Over the course of their first two albums, Cosmovore and Providence, Ulthar carved out a unique niche on the spectrum of underground metal, forging a grotesquely elegant hybrid of technical death metal alchemy and black metal’s stinging blizzard winds, all with the acerbic color of the absurdist’s brush. Nearly three years on from Providence, a burst of deadly creativity has resulted in two new albums, to be released simultaneously. Where its sister album Anthronomicon presents an eight-piece puzzle of labyrinthine tumult, Helionomicon takes those elements and creates two towering twenty minute monoliths of radiant avant-garde immensity. Each track, appropriately titled “Helionomicon” and “Anthronomicon,” transports the listener on a vast journey of psycho-cerebral spectacle where hitherto unimagined landscapes take shape and strange intangible structures pierce the disintegrating firmament. Despite the substantial length of these two tracks, it’s never a tedious ride; each visits countless new vistas and perspectives across time. In essence Helionomicon becomes a synthesis of all Ulthar’s recorded output to this point across two climactic, ambitious epics. Having reached albums three and four concurrently, and having many other bands and albums under their collective belts, the three seasoned players that comprise Ulthar have not been content to play things straightforward, to be just another death metal band among thousands. Rather the band continuously seeks and executes with more compulsive complexity, more nuance and in pursuit of a persistent ascension to a transcendent and incongruous world beyond the mundane; a place of...

Ulthar

Providence

20 Buck Spin

With the release of Cosmovore in 2018, Ulthar presented a twisted warped dystopia where furiously paced, inverted death metal and scathing, angular blackness defined a new way forward. Now the band returns with the grotesquely intangible Providence, whereby they stretch the fabric of previously trod worlds into idiosyncratic new forms and elevated levels of primal intellect. The unyielding Ulthar attack doubles down here with figures becoming more sickening and shapes more savage. An immensity like spiraling, ancient monoliths too tall to comprehend and bending inward upon themselves envelops adherents to this realm. Duly diabolic voices guide this odyssey through the incongruous caverns of absurdity, obscure texts and manifold vitriol. Released at a time where the world has devolved into a surrealistic nightmare of viral trepidation and encased solitude, Ulthar’s Providence becomes a prescient view into the strange paradoxes that only months ago seemed unbelievable but now all too possible. Where horizons cease, where grace is dead, where nothing lives, so be it amen.

Ulthar

Cosmovore

20 Buck Spin

***BACK IN STOCK!!! Ulthar create something uniquely arcane within the Bay Area metal underground. The trio comes together on their debut full length Cosmovore to unleash its feral urgency for dizzying Absu-like black metal with death metal’s bludgeoning violence. Thematically heavy on weird and supernatural horror with a bizarre Rudimentary Peni-like surrealism, the band are a difficult to classify spectral entity. Over the course of the album’s forty minutes, the band careens forward at primarily unrelenting velocity, with the opening title track instantly battering with primal persistence. The album’s middle section, a blinding storm of ghastly black dread, leads into the thirteen-plus minute epic “Dunwich Whore” where the Ulthar universe becomes all consuming with proggy synth bookends, vertiginous tempo variation, grinding technical violence, and thrashed madness. Yet another stellar debut album released under the 20 Buck Spin banner, Cosmovore can be seen as the monstrous opening salvo for a band only starting to wage war.