Ulver
Nattens Madrigal

THE REVIEW

TRUE NORWEGIAN BLACK METAL
AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Eight tracks that sound like they were recorded live in your bathroom represent the farewell and a sort of spiritual testament of the Ulver (wolves in Norwegian) to black metal and metal in general.

After the first three albums: Bergtatt, aligned with the coordinates of this Nattens Madrigal and Kveldssanger which seemed to be a kind of acoustic-only album, the Ulver, or what remained of them, turned to trip-hop and the more dreary side of electronics. In a year, 1996, when mostly releases were little more than decent by groups trying to emulate the greats of the early '90s, somewhat scattered, such as Dodheimsgard, Ved Buens Ende, Aura Noir, or Cadaver Inc., just to name the Norwegian elite of imitators, an album so genuine from a group that has been present since the dawn of the scene couldn't help but become a cult. Then the fact that it was recorded in the middle of a Norwegian forest or the fact that Ulver have always drawn on the theme of lycanthropy adds further charm to an album that is truly raw and... brash but at the same time beautiful. Icy and sharp riffs, the drums, for the few moments you are fortunate enough to hear them, are engaged in constant and precise blastbeats à la Marduk, and over it all is the acidic and sometimes irritating screaming of Garm, whom we can also find at work in Arcturus or the early Borknagar.

Thanks to the splendid guitar riffs, sometimes rabid, icy almost neurotic, and other times sweet like in Wolf and Passion or epic like in Wolf and Destiny but always in tremolo picking from start to finish, which draw beautiful and easily assimilable melodies, the eight tracks flow without weighing too much on our ears or perhaps excessively straining our dear brains.

An album that would freeze the blood of someone who has never heard anything meaner than Iron Maiden, an album where the essence of Norwegian Black Metal is hidden, a must-have at all costs at least to be able to read the lyrics written in English that is anything but classy.