Century Media, 2014
Genre: Black Metal
Disc 1: Vargnatt:
1. Her Begynner Mine Arr
2. Tragediens Trone
3. Trollskogen
4. Ulverytternes Kamp
5. Nattens Madrigal
6. Vargnatt
Disc 2: Bergtatt - Et Eeventyr i 5 Capitler:
1. I Troldskog faren vild
2. Soelen gaaer ba Aase need
3. Graablick blev hun vaer
4. Een Stemme locker
5. Bergtatt - ind i Fjeldkamrene
Disc 3: Kveldssanger:
1. Østenfor Sol Og Vestenfor Maane
2. Ord
3. Høyfjeldsbilde
4. Nattleite
5. Kveldssang
6. Naturmystikk
7. A Cappella (Sielens Sang)
8. Hiertets Vee
9. Kledt I Nattens Farger
10. Halling
11. Utreise
12. Søfn-ør Paa Alfers Lund
13. Ulvsblakk
14. Synen
Disc 4: Nattens Madrigal - Natte Hymne til Ulven i Wanden
1. I
2. II
3. III
4. IV
5. V
6. VI
7. VII
8. VIII
Disc 5: Nattens Madrigal - 4 track rehearsal, summer 1995
1. I
2. III
3. V
4. VI
This box set is really what prompted me to revisit Ulver's original recordings before even delving into this release. I had fond memories of a lot of Ulver's material and it really must have been nearly ten years or more since I had listened to "Bergtatt". Being prompted to revisit these old classics was quite enjoyable for me, which is probably one of the major points behind this box set.
Now, I could never get into Ulver's career after "Nattens Madrigal". I'm not a huge aficionado of electronic music, but I don't think it is poor music overall. I just listen to very little of it and what I look for isn't what Ulver plays. So, for me, this box set is the definitive Ulver discography. Here Ulver's entire Black Metal career is compiled onto five discs. It's not enough to just re-release the material, it has also been entirely remastered and there are a few extras.
You'll notice that "Kveldssanger" features an extra track, "Synen", compared to the original pressing. This was originally released for the "Souvenirs from Hell" compilation and I had never heard this track before. It's a very wonderful track and fits on this release perfectly. Everything on the original "Kveldssanger" was so cleanly recorded, naturally, that the remastering doesn't really add a whole other layer to it, but adding the bonus track certainly makes it worthwhile. The second extra we get is disc five. This is a rehearsal of some "Nattens Madrigal" material. It's all instrumental, so it looks like this was just to get down song ideas. You find out why this was never immediately recorded, because one of the members was leaving for military duty, so the band had to hold off recording the album for a full year. The 4-track recordings are actually pretty well done and they're not nearly as ear-piercing as the original recording and I think they should have just recorded it this way!
Now, if other peoples experiences with "Vargnatt" were like that horribly noisy bootleg I referenced in my review, then this is a massive improvement. First off, we have all the tracks from "Vargnatt" here and the quality is very clear. So, while "Vargnatt" wasn't my favorite from Ulver, I really did appreciate have a decent quality version of their demo finally. The remastered version of "Bergtatt" is simply stunning. I felt like this was a wonderful new way to experience the depths of "Bergtatt" and if you enjoyed that release as much as I did, then I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with how well this turned out. One of the major things I was interested in hearing was a revisiting of the "Nattens Madrigal" recording. I feel like they managed to fix a major problem I had with the album, it doesn't feel as ear shattering as the original. The recording feels a lot more in balance and, thus, a far more enjoyable experience on my end. It really makes the beautiful aspects of "Nattens Madrigal" all that much more appealing. All of this just made experiencing their trilogy all that more satisfying. I still think the album is a bit overrated by the major fanatics out there, but I think I managed to find a bit more merit in it with this version.
If that wasn't enough, this came in a beautiful box set with a 104 page booklet! This is beautifully done, complete with lyrics and rare pictures of the band from that era. On thing that I found interesting is that rather than just give a band history, they have two, basically, essays from Jon "Metalion" Kristiansen and Mark Pilkington. Mark Pilkington's essay reads more as an historical overview, but Jon Kristiansen's was far more personal. Kristiansen was the creator of Head Not Found, which was the first label to release Ulver material, and a lot of other good material over the years as well. So, his writing is very interesting and for more a retrospect of what he remembers from those early days. Both essays point out how Ulver was never really involved with the major Norwegian Black Metal scene. They were never really involved with the inner circle activities, so the band always felt as if they were outsiders. Indeed some of their approaches, musically, were a bit different, thus their influential status over the years, so I can see where some of those feelings came from. Strangely, by '97 the band felt that the scene was offering nothing new and thus they seem to have left the Metal world altogether. I assume to forge out new territory... but I just find it's awfully strange to say this about the Metal scene and then delve into the electronic scene. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but some of their criticisms of Black Metal seem painfully silly given the fact they transitioned to electronic music. Granted you probably have more unlimited creative possibilities, given you can make just about any sound and thus less boundaries... but still, I hear a lot of the same sounding material get released out of that genre too. Hence, I think this is a common trappings of genres and people just need to get over that...
In the end, this is a wonderful Ulver collection. I think this is, absolutely, worth having if you enjoyed the early years of Ulver. A lot of care went into the creation of this set, which I fully appreciate. This is more than just a collection of their early material, which is why I found a lot more enjoyment out of it than I normally would have.
Century Media Records, 1997
Genre: Black Metal
1. I
2. II
3. III
4. IV
5. V
6. VI
7. VII
8. VIII
Sometimes I look back on "Nattens Madrigal" and find it to be a bit overrated. Oh, it is certainly a fine album, but I'm not sure it really beats out listening to "Bergtatt" for me. I feel like part of my problem is how overboard a lot of people can get when they talk about this album. People herald this as an iconic album of the genre, but it came out in 1997 and I feel much of the genre was very well established by this point in time. Ulver's general musical approach hasn't deviated that much since "Bergtatt", the only major change is in the quality of production, which is far more primitive than their debut. The other changes a general lack of acoustic passages and clean haunting vocals, which sort of makes sense considering this follows an entire album of that style.
In many ways, I understand why this is done this way. However, we've seen a lot of these bands shift into Black Metal being more of a global phenomenon with labels growing in size. Here we see Ulver enter into working with Century Media as Century Media seeks to grow its metal label and joining in on the Black Metal phenomenon. Indeed, many albums were licensed to the U.S. via Century Black, which is how I got a lot of Black Metal in the late 90's and even saw a lot of releases appear in many music store chains. Part of me feels like "Nattens Madrigal" is sort of a mockery to this commercialization and given Ulver's massive shift away from all things Metal after this release, I feel like that's more and more true. The Black Metal on here is quite good and very old sounding, and the album claims writing an arrangement occurred in 1995, where recording happened in 1996. The mockery part of the scene, I think, comes in with the production values. It's noisy and at times nearly ear piercing with the guitar tone. It's messy sounding and not very refined. The opening song starts with what sounds like an error in the second guitar, before it comes in with the blazing lead line (I think the blazing guitar solos on here sound terrible, by the way). As more and more bands shift their sound into crisper and more clear production, Ulver throw all that aside and seem to re-create a demo-tape quality release for the masses. A giant middle finger to the changing scene perhaps? While many bands seek to balance well produced music with a raw and harsh sound, Ulver just seek out as raw as possible and run with it. It could be all in the name of the art, for their concept is a primal one and thus engaging the listener to something that is difficult to hear.
While "Nattens Madrigal" is very good Black Metal, with guitar work that is, at times, quite wonderful, some of it is lost in the mix. The guitars are often not well balanced and the recording feels more like a rehearsal of the band performing each track once. Around the time of release, there were all kinds of rumors about how they recorded the album out in the woods or something like that... kind of more of the reason I feel like they started disengaging with the scene as time went on. This "rehearsal" feel to the recording quality has its own charms, but it is hardly an icon of the scene or the genre, which is why I feel like this is a bit overrated. "Bergtatt" felt more groundbreaking, but "Nattens Madrigal" offers a solid album, but it hardly molded the future of the genre. A large amount of bands had already done this before Ulver. Another thing that grates is the drum line. There's only one drum beat and I can't remember ever hearing a tom fill happen. It just grates on you after a while and really does a disservice to some of the guitar lines. "VII" just drags on forever and never really goes anywhere... it just seems I can say this is objectively a bad song.
While "Nattens Madrigal" may not be as iconic, to me, as many would like me to think it is, I believe it is iconic for a decent amount of US musicians out there. If you weren't involved in the early realms of the scene, then hearing something this primal and vicious might have taken you aback, especially if you hadn't quite gotten to the demo history yet. I once encountered an Ulver fan who's engagement with Black Metal seemed to be based on whether he thought a band was better than "Nattens Madrigal" and he would often ignore the rest of their discography for this one album. This is what I mean when I say the album is over hyped by some fans out there. I think the album gets better as it progresses, and I will not deny that it is certainly worth hearing, especially if you love the older sounding Black Metal. This is where Ulver's discography really ends for me. I really don't care what they put out after this. It all sounds entirely boring and disinterests me.
Head Not Found, 1996
Genre: Folk
1. Østenfor Sol Og Vestenfor Maane
2. Ord
3. Høyfjeldsbilde
4. Nattleite
5. Kveldssang
6. Naturmystikk
7. A Cappella (Sielens Sang)
8. Hiertets Vee
9. Kledt I Nattens Farger
10. Halling
11. Utreise
12. Søfn-ør Paa Alfers Lund
13. Ulvsblakk
I'm not sure the world was really expecting this as the follow-up to "Bergatt". After such an iconic Black Metal release, Ulver have turned to an acoustic driven Folk sort-of album. I'm not sure how much real "folk" is behind this, as the guitar work feels very modern in composition and I feel like people default to labeling something as "folk" as soon as acoustic guitars show up.
"Kveldssanger", which means "Evening Songs" is quite a beautiful release. While, I was semi-disappointed there was no Black Metal on here, I've embraced what "Kveldssanger" is and that is a dark, yet very relaxing journey. It is rather clear that you can capture the idea of a woodland evening in the rural lands of Norway from this release. The appearance of cello and flute only stand to enhance this imagery as we wander through this album. This album shows off some of Garm's clean ranges with elaborate vocal layering and at times have a rather Gregorian Chant feel to sections of the album. It's an impressive piece of vocal work, but I think Garm was still young with some of this and I feel his later vocal performances were even stronger. Regardless, his work on this certainly fits the feel and expression of the album and at the time it was quite a different idea for the scene to engage. It's a beautiful journey and had these guitar lines been translated to distortion this would have certainly been a wonderful Black Metal experience, and this really is what a lot of well written Black Metal would often sound like in an acoustic setting.
This is probably the Ulver album I listen to the least over the years, mainly because it's pretty rare for me to listen to instrumental or acoustic material in general when not blended with Black Metal. This is still a beautiful piece and has certainly influenced many acoustic only songs by bands over the years, along with the acoustic work of early Satyricon and Old Man's Child, it would become a rather major part of the genre showing up for years and years to come. I think most bands have the good sense that not everyone can sing like Garm, so most bands don't even try to emulate this, not that many ever could for that matter...
Head Not Found, 1995
Genre: Black Metal
1. I Troldskog faren vild
2. Soelen gaaer ba Aase need
3. Graablick blev hun vaer
4. Een Stemme locker
5. Bergtatt - ind i Fjeldkamrene
I've been trying to go back and review some of the classic and influential bands to the Black Metal scene and since my earliest engagement was mainly through the Norwegian scene I've been trying to prioritize various bands from time to time that are considered absolute must hear classics by most fans of the genre. When people reference Ulver, for me, I think of "Bergtatt" and I was surprised going back to "Vargnatt" that I did not like the demo that much. It's rather surprising how much of a difference "Bergtatt" is compared to "Vargnatt". Just the sheer amount of musical growth between the two releases is extremely impressive. I think I picked this album up around 1996 or 1997 or so and this was one of my earliest experiences with Ulver, which is really what captured my interest in the band.
"Bergtatt" boasts some major line-up changes in the world of Ulver. Only Garm and Haavard have continued on with the project, so the beautiful acoustic pieces on "Vargnatt" are still quite present here. However, the massive line-up shift and style growth means nothing from "Vargnatt" would be re-recorded. I'm almost thankful for this, because nothing on "Vargnatt" would fit with the majestic and wondrous "Bergtatt" release. "Bergtatt" is a truly wonderful album and I feel like Ulver draw a lot of influence from the world of Enslaved. However, Ulver's style feels a lot more beautiful and wondrous, whereas Enslaved come off as far more aggressive. Garm's clean vocals have an ethereal sheen to them that make the album a very interesting experience. He's certainly a stronger clean vocalist than Grutle, but I think I like Grutle's harsh vocals even more than Garm's at this stage. Garm would go on to be an extremely versatile vocalist performing some of the most iconic vocal performances in Black Metal with the likes of Arcturus and Borknagar. Now "Bergtatt" certainly has its aggressive moments and I think back in the early 90's like this they were still just piecing those styles together. So the shift between ethereal beauty can shift harshly into vicious and intense Black Metal. I think the modern scene that is built off of these origins is trying to be more conscious on blending the elements more seamlessly, but its something I've noticed quite a bit when revisiting these old releases.
To this day, "Bergtatt" is really my "go to" album when I listen to Ulver, which has tapered off over the years. One of the reasons I'm trying to revisit the classics. It's probably been ten years since I last heard "Bergtatt", so its really a wonderful thing to be able to revisit the album today and still find enjoyment in it. It really says something about how "Bergtatt" has stood the test of time with it's writing and style. Naturally, it would influence a host of future Black Metal bands and Ulver's blend was a bit of a shift from what was being performed in the early scene. I always felt bands like Einherjer, Enslaved, and Helheim were performing a similar style, but Ulver's style, at the time, was always a little different in feel in some respects, but not in a way you could outright call them Viking Metal.
"Bergtatt" is such a refined album compared to the demo and I think that shift in quality was wholly unexpected. Truly a classic to be remembered.
Self-Released, 1993
Genre: Black Metal
1. Her Begynner Mine Arr
2. Tragediens Trone
3. Trollskogen
4. Ulverytternes Kamp
5. Nattens Madrigal
6. Vargnatt
Ulver has certainly grown to legendary status over the years, albeit their career in Black Metal has been extremely brief. Prior to"Vargnatt" there was also a rehearsal released the same year, which I've never heard and am not that interested in tracking down at the moment. The only version of "Vargnatt" I had been able to acquire is the one pictured below and it's a very poorly made bootleg.
The way this band starts is quite strange in the grand scheme of things. Ulver's career has boasted some of the major players in Black Metal, but during the "Vargnatt" days only Garm and Carl-Michael would go on to be involved in the genre more, until Garm changed genres and seems to have backed off from Black Metal for the later part of his music career. Carl-Michael (drums on "Vargnatt") is still heavily involved with Metal performing in bands like Aura Noir still. Jørgensen would go on to play guitar in Ulver, but after that he seems to go onto other things after Ulver, but he only performed acoustic guitars on "Vargnatt".
So, it's kind of clear that Ulver's "Vargnatt" would have a bit of a different feel compared to their later works. There are a lot of elements on here that feel outright awkward and some of the guitar work feels similar to what Ved Buens Ende would later produce. Garm's vocal work on here is simply strange, at best. He has some standard rasps, but at other times he has this sort of whiny clean voice similar to what Misanthrope's vocalist is fairly known for. He also invokes some weird falsetto parts, which sound terrible, but they are very few on this release, thankfully. The guitar works ranges from mid-paced Black Metal, but with a lot of acoustic material blended in. At this point it doesn't sound so much like a Folk/Black Metal band at all really... it just sounds like a Black Metal band with acoustic guitars. The title track, however, is actually very good and they close the demo on a very strong note. There are a lot of good sections here and I can see why the band was picked up to release a full-length next.
In the end, there wasn't a lot I found appealing with "Vargnatt". I think people laud over this more as a novelty item than anything else these days. In the modern era, I feel like it's really in vogue to be an Ulver maniac, and while I like Ulver's material, I have to say I did not like "Vargnatt" very much. The only aspect of "Vargnatt" that I found remotely enjoyable was the acoustic guitar work and some of the Black Metal riffs here and there. But when Garm comes in with that falsetto he just drowns out all the guitars... it's just no good when that happens. Certainly, a novelty in Ulver's career and certainly different than the rest of Black Metal being produced in the same years, but not nearly as strong as what Ulver would eventually become on later releases.
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