Review Summary: Hear ye, points to be made. Oaths to break. Gods to topple from cavernous thrones.
Think of a mystical plot line with me: a hero, from the slums of life, battling against the odds and eventually finding their way. All that stands in this protagonist’s way is a dictator of sorts, of magnificent power…a god perhaps? We could write this fable together,
Cutting The Throat Of God as a magnificent composition, crescendoing the very final chapters of success…or failure. Ulcerate, the New Zealand grown export have stood at the forefront of death metal’s more extreme prestige. They climbed mountains, toppled those thrones, and made us all
stare into death and be still. The band’s singular sonic majesty stands above question, a testament to both their songwriting ability and their music’s long-standing longevity. Are they the hero of this fable? Of course they are. They came, they saw, they fu
cking conquered.
Wow Rob, what the fu
ck are you smoking right now?
Well, nothing really—but when it comes down to it there are some bands that push the envelope and take things to whole new levels.
Cutting The Throat Of God continues a legacy of forward-thinking, uncompromising death metal that is more the vision focused foray into extreme music than it is actually pushing the boundaries on
what death metal looks like in the future. In a way,
Cutting The Throat Of God is very much the natural progression from where
Stare Into Death and Be Still left off. Where the latter effortlessly combined every possible nuance out of sheer brutality, effortlessly combining the usual dissonant death metal tropes with the songwriting nuance only Ulcerate can pull off,
Cutting The Throat Of God is completely introspective and at times wanders off, a comparative fresh breath out from the extreme cut-throat death metal we’ve come to love. Ulcerate, it seems, shows no indication of stopping anytime soon.
“To Flow Through Ashen Hearts”, the seven minute (and shortest track) introduction leans into a more mellowed, winding start to an Ulcerate record, breaking the mold: it feels more intrinsic, more inviting than fans are used to, and leans well into a more progressive style. The song’s pensive mood ebbs before building into a thick aural assault akin to the likes of
Stare Into Death and Be Still, the monstrous
Shrines of Paralysis or even
Vermis until the original motif recirculates in different guises. It’s as if Ulcerate is expanding on a core memory—reshaping it until its formlessness takes on a whole new entity, only to stop abruptly as “The Dawn is Hollow” emerges.
The album’s guts are a transfixation of the Ulcerate machine and just how the band is evolving under its own magnificent weight. “Further Opening the Wounds” and the subsequent “Transfiguration In and Out of Worlds” maintain a primal furor as if Ulcerate truly are raging at
God, the jarring melodies and death growls personifying a war or battle. It’s as if
Cutting The Throat Of God is narrating itself in moods, in atmosphere and in pure unadulterated death metal. These two tracks are but a small indication in why fans
obsess over new Ulcerate music, even as they toe the line as to where the dissonant death metal teeters into black metal and then back again. Leads scramble in tune with manic drumming while vocals roar over articulated cacophony. Every guitar part can be analyzed, but only if you can tear your ears away from Jamie Saint Merat’s impressive drum work. If there’s ever an argument about essential band members, you need look no further.
As immense as
Cutting The Throat Of God is, it does get trapped in its own muse, occasionally bogged down by holding onto a theme, idea or motif for slightly too long (“To Flow Through Ashen Hearts”, “Further Opening the Wounds” or parts of “Undying as an Apparition”). As much as Ulcerate are masters of their craft, there’s both a call here to trim (in some cases) or even flesh out (in others) some of these more self-placating manifestations and achieve the type of sheer excellence found in tracks like “To See Death Just Once” and the titular closer. Wholly,
Cutting The Throat Of God is as immense of a record as you’d come to expect from Ulcerate, and where it ranks within their discography is a choice of preference. Ulcerate have released an album less visceral than
Stare Into Death and Be Still and yet,
Cutting the Throat of God’s accessibility isn’t at all a hindrance. No, that’s part of Ulcerate’s charm: bridging brutality with softer, mellowing edges.
Cutting The Throat Of God isn’t just another Ulcerate record —it's a fantastic example of extreme music ticking all the right boxes.
