The nineties black metal classic Finally officially re-issued with original Norwegian titles and lyrics. Includes 1991 Porta studio recordings and "Samlerens Kammer" demo as bonus tracks!
First of all I am amazed that this band, especially this album, is completely devoid of any review whatsoever. It's truly incredible and maybe even sad, and I'll make sure to explain why in the following review of, in my personal opinion, the band's best effort, and one of the best black metal albums I've ever had the joy to listen to.
As far as I know, Tulus is not a very renowned band, it's not common place to see it listed as part of the great group of black metal bands among the likes of Burzum, Mayhem, Gorgoroth, Darkthrone or Ulver, yet it has just as much energy, novelty, grimness and black melodies as the aforementioned bands. This album here, their debut full length, is filled to the brim with fresh (by 1996's standards AND even by today at a certain extent), imaginative, unique and yet dark, violent, Orthodox black metal songs. The album truly could be considered a lost masterpiece, but it's not completely ignored, as people who really dig into the history of black metal (and most black metal fans do, at least a little) might already be quite familiar with the album.
On to the music then. The sound itself is not as distorted as one might expect after reading the great things I speak of this album, the guitars are actually quite clean (again, by 1996's standards) and completely audible. There's no wall of sound either, there's only the necessary amount of guitars doing the job, and they do it well, with simple in construction yet imaginative melodies which don't stand far from the classic minimalism, but still leave much room for catchy tunes, non-repetitive segments and structures more akin to other styles like melodic death or even heavy metal/rock. I can clearly see how this style would evolve and make heavy influence in bands of the calibre of Taake and others.
The bass. Oooh the bass plays such an important roll in this album it's hard to believe, seeing as how the bass is treated as a prop more than like an instrument in most black metal bands, but not here, the bass plays his own game and stands out completely, hand to hand with the guitar with it's own set of melodies and segments. This bass has so much personality in some songs I find myself paying more attention to it than to the guitars, and yet it's mixed at a comfortable volume which allows you to enjoy every instrument.
The drumming is, in and on itself, rather average, but it's arranged exquisitely, moving the songs along nicely and changing constantly, from regular blastbeats to rockish tempos, this drummer knows how to keep things going. The tempo itself, even while the blastbeats are taking place, is not extremely fast. Think of Darkthrone's Under A Funeral Moon but with actual quality. The snare lets himself be heard across the land and the double bassdrum along with the different toms make majestic dances around it, not willing to stick with a square and unimaginative formula.
The vocals are probably the least remarkable aspect of this album, which isn't saying they're bad or anything close. They do have a lot of personality and I must say I really enjoy how, even though I don't speak norwegian, I can hear everything the singer says with detail (to the point where I'm amused by the strong way he pronounces certain consonants, but maybe that's just me). There's also the use of female vocals in one track, which at first seemed kind of cheesy but as the song continues it's path I realise that these vocals are just a detail, something to decorate the song, rather than something that should be considered as central. At one certain point the vocals reminded me strongly of Lumsk, which is always a good thing.
The only bad things about this album: First off it's incredibly short, the longest song off it being just 4:27 and the rest being around 3 minutes long and sometimes less, it just leaves me wanting more. The other thing is actually not that relevant, but it's the album's cover. It's just.... really stupid. I don't see how they could look at it and say "yeah this looks good enough for a serious album, let's use it, people will love it". But then again I'm not a graphic designer so what do I know. As I said it's vastly irrelevant.
As a closer I need to once again insist on the fact that this album should be considered a classic, and the band deserves the status of cult for this release alone. Any person who considers themselves a fan of the genre owes the album a spin. This piece truly is, as the band accurately calls it: Pure Black Energy. Highly recommended.
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