I dunno if it's better than the second one, definitely better than the first one. Hopefully it all comes together as a whole but the Stare into Death leftovers vibe seems to be the dominant vibe.

Full album:

Pretty disappointing to be honest. I've been mildly let down by a few things I was expecting to be in AOTY contention with Adversarial and Antichrist Siege Machine but this is probably the first one I'd say is outright disappointing. Further Opening the Wounds is quite great but everything else is just Stare Into Death B Sides without the massive crescendos, which is lame because A) We've already got them doing a bigger, better version of it on the last album, and B) There's like 65 bands doing Ulcerate but softer right now already. I'd say that Dawn is Hollow and Undying as an Apparition are the only straight up skippers on here (they're the most SIDABS clone but worse tracks) but there's really only that one that's really asking me to come back to it, I guess also the title track too but it's just Stare into Death again just not worse. I mean it's not BAD or anything, but man, it's a looooong way below expectations for me; definitely my biggest gap between anticipation and result so far this year.

I think it's another great Ulcerate album. They are the best at what they do. I also don't expect to be blown away on first listen by an Ulcerate album, each one of them took for me at least some time for the melodies and complexity of structures to sink in.

If there's a band that rewards repeated listening, it's got to be Ulcerate. The album is barely out...

First impressions tell me that it's more of the same, and I say that in the most flattering way possible.
To me, the appeal of this band was never the sheer brutality or aggression, neither how technical they can play, but how well they write songs that are memorable and just how fucking emotional extreme metal can actually be. Call me what you'd like, but Ulcerate is one of the very few bands that actually "move me". I can't really put it in words very well.
I have no problem whatsoever with them continuing down that road, even if it means them playing "Ulcerate lite" as I've seen people call their last albums.

Totally agree with this (although technically the album isn't even out for another week).



In general, I agree also with the paragraph above, save for one thing: I mean, I love Ulcerate but writing memorable songs is not what they do. Maybe you could call them familiar textures or something other, but not actually memorable songs. And just to clarify - no, I don't believe songs have to be memorable to be great. That never hurts but is not a prerequisite per se, especially in styles where there's more emphasis on atmosphere.

I think it depends on the album. Shrines of Paralysis was great but the songs weren't really memorable. Stare into Death and Be Still was also great and the songs were much more memorable and catchy which was a first for* them. Both approaches are great.

I agree this is Stare into Death and Be Still 2.0 but it's honestly the first time they repeat themselves so I'm really enjoying it. I'm still not sure if it will be my favourite album of the year because I'm waiting for my CD to listen to it profusely but it's damn fine.

It's weird they put this on Youtube over a week before the release date.

It boggles my mind as well. Since I listen exclusively on spotify I will need to wait a week more. Those be some evil people who tease me like that.

Many good comments on the new album here. I concur that the band is certainly not known for its memorable songs and that is my main issue with their whole discography. Apart from some songs that stick out immediately I generally feel like that in most albums they are playing the same song over and over; then again, I haven't spent a long time with the band due to this very fact and, as mentioned, Ulcerate is a band that rewards repeated listening. In any case, I most certainly welcome the approach they took with the previous album and I can see that it has led to even more coherent song structures and distinguishable themes, while keeping the pitch-dark and somber atmosphere and technicality that give them their identity. So, I guess this album being Stare into Death and Be Still 2.0 is a welcome feat for me and I see this not as repetition but as an attempt to better hone the approach that was introduced previously.

I'm two songs away from finishing the album and it's already up there among the strongest candidates to my AOTY. It's really akin to their last record but that's actually a compliment in my book.
The song structures, the complexity, the rampaging yet ellegant drums, everything rings just nicely. It's brutal and beautiful, maybe brutally beautiful.

Beautilly Brutiful.

Brutaful beautilly.

After a couple more listens I'm in. This is beautiful and crushing. It's more of the same but at the same time there are some riffs on this one that have a particularly fresh sound and quite different than their previous stuff in terms of melody. I'm surprised the guitars are so prominent, some of their stuff tends to have the drums mixed too loud.

I don't usually like talking about "AOTY" stuff but this is fantastic and deserving of that descriptor.