ALBUM REVIEW: Inferno XXXIII – Ulvedharr
It doesn’t take much to figure out why metal bands are so keen on Dante’s Inferno. Flesh-eating monsters, rivers of boiling blood, a dude gnawing on another dude’s head (thanks for that one, Wikipedia) – metal a.f. right? That last lovely little mental image is particularly relevant today as it’s found in chapter 33 of Alighieri’s iconic work, which in turn provides the inspiration, title and basis for the artwork of the fifth full-length from Italian death metallers ULVEDHARR.
Inferno XXXIII – to use its proper title – follows 2019’s World Of Chaos and to be honest it doesn’t really do anything to deviate from the modus operandi heard on that record, or indeed the three albums which came before it. ULVEDHARR have always driven their death metal with the cracking whip of thrash, and they’ve often laced it with blackened bits at they do here; it’s a winning formula that’s worked well enough for this band and many others in the past and as opener A Full Reload Of Fear comes in without a moment’s hesitation it is easy enough to get swept up in what should be quite a familiar thrill. Drums blast, Ark Nattlig Ulv’s vocals bellow, and guitarists Jack Draven and Magnus Frost borrow at least a little from the more melodic inclinations of the Gothenburg scene – all largely as it should be.
If anything, second track Wasteland ups the ante from there, its main riff instantly arresting after the brief acoustic close of its predecessor. Soon enough though it becomes clear that Inferno XXXIII only really has one gear – generally as fast as drummer Mike Bald can propel them with only the occasional groove-based exception. It works fine for a while, rolling through singles like Revenge Loop and Dagon with full-throttle fury, but as the album wears on it does start to feel quite one-dimensional, to the point that even what should be a very manageable 36 and a half minute runtime seems to stretch out way farther than it needs to. The quality does hold pretty steady throughout, the problem is that by the time listeners have got to eighth and ninth tracks Their Game and A New God one can scarcely tell where one ends and another begins.
It’s a bit of a shame really because there is quality woven throughout Inferno XXXIII; generally it riffs hard, Ulv’s booming vocals would definitely make the late great LG Petrov proud, and even bassist Markus Ener cuts through the mix really well in proof of an all-round solid production job from Stefano Morabito. The only thing that really should have been left out, or at the very least moved somewhere else in the track list, is closer Oblivion – a largely acoustic instrumental piece (plus electric guitar solo) that just feels so overdone and unnecessary at this point and inflates the record by two minutes when most listeners will probably have checked out already.
If all this just sounds really harsh, then to be clear, Inferno XXXIII isn’t a bad record – in fact, none of the nine actual songs on it are weak at all – it’s just that it doesn’t really offer much in the way of variation, and on top of that it operates in a field that’s been crowded with similar works, including from ULVEDHARR themselves, for some time. If you like death metal, you will enjoy this while it’s on, but it probably won’t win anyone over and it’s unlikely even to stay with many fans of the genre when one gets a release of this quality or higher pretty much every week nowadays.
Rating: 6/10
Inferno XXXIII is set for release on April 21st via Scarlet Records.
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