Vermis (album) explained

Vermis
Type:studio
Artist:Ulcerate
Cover:Ulcerate_-_Vermis_2013.jpg
Released:September 13, 2013
Recorded:March – April 2013[1]
Studio:MCA Studios, Auckland, New Zealand
Genre:Technical death metal, post-metal
Length:54:18
Label:Relapse Records
Producer:Jamie Saint Merat
Prev Title:The Destroyers of All
Prev Year:2011
Next Title:Shrines of Paralysis
Next Year:2016

Vermis is the fourth full-length album by New Zealand death metal band Ulcerate. It was released on September 13, 2013, through Relapse Records to positive reviews. It is the first album by Ulcerate to be released through Relapse.

Musical style and writing

While the band has been noted for its use of dissonance, drummer Jamie Saint Merat countered that "dissonance for dissonance’s sake is extremely fatiguing". Given this, Merat said that Vermis uses melody in a "weird and unsettling" way to create "a tangible amount of tension and release". Merat further noted that the band made a conscious decision with Vermis to bring back "a level of unpredictability we've always had in the past" due to the feeling that the previous album, The Destroyers of All, "came out a little too fluid on the whole".[2]

According to Merat, Vermis uses the metaphor of invertebrate animal species to explore "the over-arching theme of spinelessness [and] oppression".[3] Merat explained that different forms of oppression are explored on the album, including:

Critical reception

Vermis has received positive reviews from critics. Several reviewers noted that Ulcerate's approach posed a challenge for casual listeners, with Greg Pratt, Dave Schalek, and Brandon Ringo cautioning that Vermis placed exceptional demands upon its audience prior to disclosing its positive features. Pitchfork's Andy O'Connor cited the album's use of technicality favourably, remarking that "as complicated as the music may be, Vermis is an album of songs, not exercises. Technicality is used to convey madness; it's not the ultimate goal in and of itself". Praising the band's "distinctive voice", Popmatters' Craig Hayes observed that Vermis extended the band's "continually refined" creative trajectory by "bringing more artful sculpturing to its downtuned dissonance and complex time signatures, and setting that against a backdrop of often droning and industrial textures. The band’s work has evolved to become steadily more nerve-shredding and formidable, with the usual riff-based shreds of death metal mutilated into a seething and polychromatic canvas of avant-garde atmospherics".

Track listing

All songs written by Michael Hoggard and Jamie Saint Merat. All lyrics by Paul Kelland.

Personnel

Personnel adapted from liner notes.

Ulcerate
Production and art

Notes and References

  1. Vermis . . 2013 . . Upper Darby, Pennsylvania.
  2. Web site: Otis. Erik. Q&A With Ulcerate of Relapse Records. Sound Colour Vibration. 17 October 2013. 31 August 2013.
  3. Web site: Stephenson. Ryan. Interview: Jamie Saint Merat of Ulcerate. Violent Resonance. 6 October 2013. 8 September 2013.