Ulcerate at Myspace

Ulcerate hails from New Zealand, and have sent out an awesome slab of death metal that balances both technical and brutal aspects incredibly well; “Everything is Fire” truly combines the best of both worlds while not sacrificing songwriting at the altars of either subgenre. All eight of its songs are over five minutes, but none feel overlong Instead of relying on blast beats or just showing off how fast they can play, Ulcerate were smart enough to include some slightly slower and quieter (but still brutal) sections. These do a great job of making sure the record doesn’t bog down in monotony like some other tech-death bands (Origin, anyone?)

The vocals aren’t bad at all, but they’re not quite as good as the instrumental backing, as they tend to sound a bit samey after a while, with a bit too much yelling and not enough guttural growling. I also didn’t like the fact that the guitars drowned out the bass and (to a lesser extent) the drums most of the time, but I don’t really have any other complaints. This is an essential death metal release and one of the best of 2009 to date.