siLLy puPPy New Zealand’s ULCERATE was one of a few intrepid explorative death metal bands to follow in the footsteps of early pioneering disso-death acts such as Immolation and Gorguts and after forming in the year 2000 spawned its own ugly flavoring of unhinged technical death metal run amok replete with all the atonality and discordant excess a human aural system can absorb. The band has delivered a string of consistently high quality albums in its near quarter century existence and in recent years has risen to the top tiers of tech disso-death royalty. After abandoning the incessant brutal bombast of its 2007 debut “Of Fracture And Failure,” the band has taken a more nuanced approach by spicing up the death metal savagery with more expansive atmospheric elegance and also by dipping into other metal realms ranging from sludge metal to darkened elements borrowed from the black metal universe.

After a four year lull since the critically acclaimed “Stare Into Death And Be Still,” ULCERATE is back to inflict the most harrowing gastrointestinal damage with its latest release CUTTING THE THROAT OF GOD. While the title may be pandering to the black metal crowds, i ask myself if an omnipotent creator of the universe exists in a physical form and therefore would God have a throat? Existential quandaries aside, ULCERATE steadily but surely over its seven album run has incrementally refined its unique brand of aggressive disso-death into an art form all its own. This seventh album in the ULCERATE canon takes a deeper dip into the world of atmospheric sludge metal with a wider breadth of stylistic approaches that were hampered by the incessant brutality on previous works that hammered it all out with authoritative ease.

Existing as a stable power trio since the band’s 2009 release “Everything Is Fire,” ULCERATE has become a well-oiled machine where these three musicians have fused into one frightening force and on CUTTING THE THROAT OF GOD showcase the newly established attribute of restraint as heard on the opening nonchalant slow burner approach of “To Flow Through Ashen Hearts” which focuses less on speed and turns up the burner for atmospheric constructs from simmer to fully fueled. By delivering slowed down tempos, the band keeps things firmly planted in the ferocity of the death metal camp by offering exotic guitar riffs delivered by Michael Hoggard, the dissonant bass counterpoints of Paul Kelland and the bantering drumming gymnastics of Jamie Saint Merat. Kelland’s guttural growls have changed little and he ferociously enunciates every sacrilegious syllabic utterance with all the brash bravado that ULCERATE has infused into its technical cauldron of steaming hot disso-death from the beginning.

The album features seven brand spanking new tracks that discordantly reverberate with heavy distortion for nearly 58 minutes of suffocating darkness and despair. While the band’s trajectory has been incrementally slow-paced in its evolution, CUTTING THE THROAT OF GOD is noticeably different than its predecessor in that it feels less rampaging even from the 2020 release “Stare Into Death And Be Still.” The mix is distinguishable as well with more distinct tones and timbres oozing out of the delirious din that advances in tenacious tumult only with a more controlled impulse to leap into frenetic displays of brutal savagery. In fact this is probably the least barbaric sounding of the entire ULCERATE discography although despite the somewhat cooling off effect in terms of unbridled speed and incessant pummelation of the senses, CUTTING THE THROAT OF GOD by no means sounds like a wimpy rendition of a once great band. No way.

This latest discharge of dissonant din is merely shifting around the dynamics a bit and focusing a bit more on atmospheric diversions from the one-trick pony penchants of a larger swath of technical death metal bands out there. Speed freaks worry not for moments of letting the rabid pit bull off the leash do occur. While many are acclaiming this release as the best of the lot, personally i favor the heavier adrenalized speedfests of the past. With no disparaging criticism in the least against this new flavor of ULCERATE’s established sound, it would appear to me that the sudden interest in propelling ULCERATE to the top of the disso-death camp is more a result of the greater metal world finding a nice comfort zone in the more extreme expressions of death metal. To my insatiable ears though this one sounds a bit tame by weeding out the many of the progressive tendencies and ear-splitting bombast of the past in favor of a more streamlined post-metal continuity. While not my ultimate ULCERATE experience, there’s no denying that these guys have mastered the art of this gnarled nasty niche of extreme metal and even with these changes makes CUTTING THE THROAT OF GOD an excellent relevant smattering of modern disso-death.