By Jack Rafferty
One of the more exciting and boundary-defying blackened death groups of recent years, Ulthar has consistently refined a sound that is as unmistakable as it is winding and stygian. While they released two albums in 2023, not a double album, but two albums in similar theme and style, it would be expected of me to check both out. But I only have so many hours in the day, so I chose Anthronomicon. I’ll visit the other some other time, but not now. As for Anthronomicon, as with other Ulthar works, you can very much judge a book by its cover. The frayed, dark, eldritch phantasmagoria of the cover intuits what the listener is to experience sonically. Dense, sporadic, wretched, menace beyond human knowledge. It is hard to describe Ulthar without simply providing a litany of vague descriptions, because the experience is one that needs to be felt, more than explained. What I can say is that Ulthar is at their most focused here. There is so much going on second to second, it can be hard to keep track of the sheer complexity among the brutal, abstract domain that is this album. However, it would be a disservice to the band, as their best songwriting to date is here. They have really gone beyond what initially caught everyone’s attention, and they have moved on to the particularity of what will maintain that attention, and more importantly captivate.
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