Review Summary: Pain.
Ulcerate's "Everything is Fire" delivers its unyielding dissonant death metal style, for better or for worse. The album is an unending onslaught of chaotic riffs and blast beats that can be quite exhausting if you listen for too long. Those riffs envelop you like a circle of fierce flames, but the tracks are way too overstuffed and packed with excessive segments. They would really shine with tighter, more focused arrangements. If the band isn’t going to mix in many lighter elements to balance out the darker tones, they should really make the most of the riffs they have instead of cramming every song with so many that it all gets jumbled together into a hodgepodge of cacophony. This would definitely help to distinguish songs more. If each track had a catchy riff that could stick in your head, it would really boost the songs memorability.
Without many lighter elements to break things up, the music feels repetitive and banal. There’s barely any room to breathe. It’s just a constant wall of sound other than some brief softer parts that don’t do much to off-set the madness. A higher focus on lighter moments could have really gone a long way to convey the vocalist’s intentions. As it stands, the singer just grunts along, and honestly, it feels like he could be saying anything or nothing at all. But if the lyrics are Cradle of Filth's "Thornography" levels of terribad perhaps it’s for the best they are indiscernible. There’s nothing to grab your attention about what he’s saying. Everything Is Fire? But why should I care? It’s tough to pick a standout track because they all blend into a chaotic mess of riffs and blast beats that is mind-numbing. A few lighter sections could really have helped differentiate the songs but that wasn’t on the bingo card. I don’t want to strip the album of all its intensity, but at least give me a reason to care about the lyrics. Why is everything fire? Why should it matter to me? Why are you a divorced middle-aged man trolling random people on the internet? These are important questions.
The production feels rough around the edges, like a film without a committed cinematographer. The presentation is set in a space that's pretty easy to reach. There's really nothing here to strive for, it feels lifeless. Sure, you might think about trying to play the drums or guitars that quickly, but the overall production just feels unrefined. It doesn't have that immediate impact that pulls you in. The drums are missing that body and punch, which doesn't do it any favors. Metal possesses a remarkable ability to immerse listeners in an expansive and grand musical realm; however, that sensation is absent in this instance, as everything appears to be firmly rooted in reality. Reality is boring, and I want to spend as little time in it as I can.
This kind of music really gives off the feeling that the riffs come first, and the lyrics are just thrown in as an afterthought. Sure, the riffs might change things up a bit from track to track, and the rhythm can vary, but honestly, it all just blends together after a while. Those dissonant riffs just keep repeating, and it's bound to defeat the IQ of anyone above room temperature. Kind of like another band that starts with a C and ends with a H, but anyway. Dissonance is something that tends to make most people wince when they hear it. Think about it: when a flute player hits a sour note during a school recital, what does the audience do? They wince. But dissonance isn’t always a bad thing; in metal music, it can actually be pretty effective. However, the dissonance on this album is just excessive, in moderation it'd be a lot more effective accompanied by some contrasting elements. Is there even bass on the album? If the answer was no, I wouldn't be surprised. It doesn't jump out as eargrabbing in anyway. There's a missed opportunity there for the bass to pop in riffs here and there, to compliment those dissonant guitars. As it stands, the bass is just like the drums, rudimentary and dull.
The last track and title track, "Everything is Fire," really doesn't wrap things up in a satisfying way. You'd expect the band to go all out for the final song, giving it that extra punch to leave a lasting impression, but that just doesn't happen here. It keeps the same intensity as the rest of the album. When the song ends, it feels like it goes out on a bit of a whimper—there's no sense of a grand finale or anything to make it memorable. A strong closing track can really elevate an album, but when there's no effort put into it, it just feels disappointing. Ulcerate's "Everything is Fire" feels like an album without any standout moments. The songs sort of blend together, forming a continuous wall of sound, with just a few lighter moments to interrupt it, that don't make any lasting impression. Literally least memorable album since "Thornography".
