Pulver

After having delved into the realm of depressive suicidal black metal with mostly more underground bands, I decided to give some of the more popular bands a shot. One artist I often saw being called one of the best artists within DSBM was Lifelover, especially this album, Pulver was mentioned as one of the most defining works within the genre.

Once I finally got around to listening to Pulver, I was immediately hooked by the opener, ‘Nackskott.’ It is melodic, fast-paced, and somewhat groovy. My excitement was sustained throughout the song, until the very end when a sample from Emil i Lönnerberga is played. I am generally a fan of samples being used in metal, but if used improperly can ruin a song. The sample here completely took all of the momentum out of the song, and would’ve been much better if left without it. The next track ‘M/s Salmonella’ helped regain my lost enjoyment of the album, but halfway through the third track I was starting to get bored.

I had decided to listen to the entire album, so that was what I was going to do, but when there was around 15 minutes left, I was wishing for it to soon be over. My main gripe is the fact that the music gets quite boring very fast. Some riffs grab my attention as soon as they are introduced, but after a few seconds already become stale, while others are uninteresting right from the get go. Even if a song has some potential, it is ruined by abrupt use of samples that kill everything a song has going for itself. If all the samples had been cut, and the songs were allowed to flow into each other, this album would’ve been more enjoyable. Some of this will also be due to the album’s length being reduced. The interlude in the middle of the album, ‘Avbrott Sex’ also does nothing for the album except just being there. A lot of songs also just slow down abruptly, which does nothing for them.

Pulver is in a way baby’s first DSBM, as the blend of black metal and rock makes it very accessible to a wider audience. I can’t even see this being a gateway into DSBM, and if you’re already into the genre, this album is utterly worthless. It lacks all the things that make depressive black metal good, and isn’t similar to a lot of other DSBM, so it wouldn’t help anyone trying to get into the genre. Lifelover is definitely one of the most overrated metal artists in general, especially in recent times with a wave of younger fans getting into them and thinking of Lifelover as the only good DSBM band. The only alright song on the album is the opener, and even that song gets old very fast.

This is the most boring and pointless DSBM release I’ve ever heard, and I really can’t understand why it is praised so much. This album does nothing that a DSBM album should, to not even talk about black metal in general. At best this album is mediocre metal, and that is only one of the songs, and at worst this is downright terrible and worthless.