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Ulcus > Cherish the Obscure > Reviews
Ulcus - Cherish the Obscure

On second thought, just ignore the obscure - 20%

GTog, December 24th, 2006

Ulcus – Cherish the Obscure

A fellow by the name of Terje Bakken did Ulcus a serious favor when he recruited all the members into Windir. Also when they ditched the keyboardist Gaute Refsnes.

Seriously. The first track, ‘Stigmatized’, open right up with a very weird piano intro that is clearly meant to have some effect on the listener, but I'll wager that making me wish it would stop wasn't it. On the other hand, the rest of the song doesn’t have very much going for anyway, so they all might as well be awful together. The guitar riffs are uninspired and monotonic, and all the bass ever does is follow the rhythm guitar around.

If you equalize the meandering and irritating piano/keyboard out, you’re still left with boring track after boring track. Jørn Holen on the drumkit is trying like hell back there to liven things up, so all due credit to him. His precision…

…every time I try to complete a thought another goddamn plink-plink-PLINK piano bit creeps in as I listen. Somebody stop him! The track ‘The Final Caress’ is entirely plink-plink, and is completely unforgivable.

Anyway, the precision hits of Holen are really the only positive points to this album. He is one hell of a drummer, and played all though this band’s existence, then on to Windir, and stuck with a couple of the guys to form Vreid. Clearly they knew a good thing when they heard it and kept him around.

The vocals are grating, not in the sense that a lot of metal vocals are, but in the sense that they have no, I don’t know, style. I really don’t think this is Black Metal, whether Symphonic or any other sort. Ulcus is probably closer to Doom Metal, what with the tuned down guitars and my total lack of interest. The songs are poorly assembled, which I have to believe is that Refsnes clown’s doing, because I like Windir and Vreid both and he’s not in either. Lowest common denominator, pal.

I can’t think of any reason I would ever listen to this album again, unless as a curiosity. The best track on the album, probably ‘Malice’, I found to be merely average. However, I’m willing to concede that perhaps it’s just not my cup of tea. Fans of the more primitive styles of Black Metal might like it. Hence the score.

“Ulcus”, by the way, is Latin for “ulcer”, an open sore. Their original name “Ulcus Molle” is the term for a kind of genital bacterial infection. Nice, huh?