Without the concerns of airplay, atmospheric black metal musicians have the advantage of being able to stretch their compositions across much broader canvasses than mainstream artists. ‘Danke Dreiser!!!’ the second al bum from Uluun, for example, comprises just five songs despite being 56 minutes in length. Uluun are a Parisian metal band who have had the distinction of opening for the likes of Alcest and Anall Nathrakh and, listening to the icy roar of this album, it is easy to see why.
Opening with the powerful, Satyricon-esque surge of ‘Chere Illusion’, Uluun waste no time in introducing the listener to their bleak, powerful school of black metal. The production is raw yet powerful, capturing the white-out of the cymbals and the grinding horror of the guitars whilst the vocals sound all the better for being sung in the band’s native French, a move which adds a further layer of impenetrability to the band’s forbiddingly icy sound. There’s a progressive element here too, however, and the music ebbs and flows before drawing to a surprisingly reflective close with its rippling guitar fading quietly into the blackness. Similarly ‘Letincelle’ does not launch itself at the listener, preferring to build before finally erupting into a fountain of white-hot rage, over which Alrinack pours forth his dark incantations. At seven minutes it’s not a short track, and yet the inventive compositions of the band make them feel much shorter than they actually are and it does not seem long until the brutal ‘Desillusion’ slithers into view with its thunderous percussive blasts (Mogal) and icy guitars combining to tear into the listener. It’s an atmospheric sound the band conjure, reminiscent of the nihilistic bleakness of French arthouse horror such as ‘Martyrs’, and it sucks the light out of the room as Alrinack pours his endless misanthropy into your ears. It’s not easy listening, rather it is a ruthlessly nihilistic strain of black metal delivered without hope for humanity and the relentless thud of the drums slowly merges into the funeral march of mankind as the music slowly phases into post-metal beauty. It’s an inventive and brilliantly arranged piece of music that melds psychedelic, almost hypnotic pieces to a more typically brutal black metal framework, the result being a track that dips and soars through dark pastures.
Of the remaining two tracks, the title track is relatively short at just shy of seven minutes. A bristling black metal blast that tears and claws at the listener in familiar style, but it’s the nineteen minute ‘Sepulture (Baudelaire)’ that really makes this record something special. An epic-length blackened progressive epic that incorporates symphonic elements, doom and more, it is an intelligent and endlessly interesting piece of extreme metal art that is worth the price of admission alone. With Albino’s ominous bass leading much of the early stages of the track and a pall of Sabbath-esque dread, when the piece finally builds to a blackened fury it is not unlike having a bucket of ice cold water tipped over you. It is a courageous and deeply impressive work of black metal might with which the band close their album, and it raises this effort from the impressive to the essential.
Uluun are a powerful, passionate entity who have perfected their own unique voice in black metal. This five track record is a lengthy and intelligent study of extreme metal incorporating elements of doom, progressive and post-rock into the band’s brutal black metal sound and the results are awe-inspiring. For extreme metal fans, this is a thing of dark beauty that deserves your time and attention.
