Pushing the boundaries of music can be somewhat of a double-edged sword. Sometimes you forget that uniqueness does not equal greatness and end up bulldozing the boundaries into a large pit full of vipers with erections and a penchant for your asshole. It’s also worth remembering that dissonant and discordant to the point of making a record unlistenable and indecipherable means that it’s still unlistenable, regardless of how clever you think it makes you.
There’s a lot of bands that forget these little nuanced points, which makes the occasions where a band strike gold with it all the more impressive and fucking sweet. Gorguts are the main contender for this, whose completely unique approach to composition hands me the sandpaper and leaves me to abuse my own wrinkled undercarriage to my heart’s content. Another following in the same vein of discordant yet thrilling genius is Stare Into Death and be Still by New Zealand outfit Ulcerate.
I’m a little new to the fan club with Ulcerate, having originally had them described as similar to Portal – a band so completely nonsensical and pretentious it makes me want to see how many unopened cans of butterbeans I can ram down my throat before I choke – I gave them a miss. With a new release slapping it’s bum at me on the horizon I checked out Shrines of Paralysis and it was good. Not outstanding, but good. Enough for me to wipe the thick film of indifference from my face like a fermenting layer of chunky bull smegma.
If it couldn’t be deduced from previous remarks, Stare Into Death and be Still isn’t just good, it is for want of a better term ‘fucking sick’. It’s a lengthy progression of diligently crafted discordance equally balanced with melodic passages and epic soundscapes, and it’s the balance between these elements that set this record above that of its peers. The dissonance is made all the more effective for the melodic juxtaposition. It coagulates to form this oppressive blanket of misery and bleakness, emotionally charged and draining but unafraid to jump between moments of melancholic instrumental remission and sheer skull smashing brutality, like a bipolar giant that starts crying the moment it’s done angrily beating giblets out of the family dog.
This poor analogy is unfair because it doesn’t do justice to how wonderfully crafted Stare Into Death and Be Still is. Many records of this ilk sound a lot like someone has thrown a load of random notes loosely arranged into chords, stretched it out to an hour and cut it every ten minutes for the sake of calling each section a song. Each note on this record is purposefully placed and intricately arranged. I know I’ve mentioned it already but I really can’t stress how well the record balances the discordance and chaos with atmosphere and melody. It elevates the record above that of its peers.
I’ve seen some criticism levelled at this record because of its perceived accessibility but I firmly believe that if your judgement and praise of a record is based solely on how hard it is for other people to get into and enjoy it, feel free to smack yourself in the face with a crowbar until you’ve made yourself a better person.
At the end of the day, if dissonant sonic soundscapes and depressive melancholy told through the means of progressive death metal sounds like your cup of tea then you’d be hard pressed to find a record better than this.
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