Ulver – Liminal Animals Review

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Label: House of MythologyEU  
Genre:  Synth Pop / Electronic / Drone / Ambient
Release Date:  29-11-2024

Ulver have undergone a remarkable journey as a band, from black metal to electronica, ambient, modern classical, drone and in the last few years, synth pop. As surprising as this turn in style was, I was not ready for just how good The Assassination of Julius Caesar would be. On this release, Ulver combined the strong hooks of synth pop with their love for production and some of their experimental urges. It’s an album I revisit frequently due to the strength of its writing. That was the starting point for current Ulver, a band that cranks out electronic tunes that leave plenty of room for Kristoffer Rygg‘s ubiquitous vocals to work their magic. The more laid back Flowers of Evil took an more atmospheric path, opting for calmer compositions that didn’t lose the vocal hooks. It didn’t hit as well, but nevertheless proved its worth on repeat spins. “Can they really do it a third time?” I asked myself as I saw the first track of the then untitled Liminal Animals drop online. On the face of it, recording the tracks as they go and posting them as they’re done is an interesting concept for musicians. But as it is with discovery writing, you cut out a larger part of the editing and letting the material gestate. There’s no telling where the road ends before reaching the destination.

At first glance, Liminal Animals is par for the course for synth pop Ulver. You have songs in the same kind of template from the previous two records: “A City in the Skies”, for instance, wouldn’t feel out of place in the middle of Flowers of Evil. Likewise, “Hollywood Babylon” sounds like an outtake from The Assasination of Julius Caesar, albeit a good one with its edgy yet catchy refrain. But then there are the more ambient minded tracks like the two droning instrumental “Nocturne” songs, and the slow moving “Helian (Trakl)” that plays the album out to droning electronica and crooning spoken word in Norwegian. There is an undercurrent of experimental sound that is begging for release on Liminal Animals. In the most interesting tracks on the album, “Locusts” and “The Red Light”, a kind of relaxed electronica dances above drones and expanding vocal hooks that tell of a potential future evolution for these wolves. Ulver seem to have an itch to deconstruct their sound, yet again.

In opening the album, “Ghost Entry” sounds like a statement of fatigue in its lyrics: repeated words from previous songs, the nature of sound as “Moving objects / The music they make” all the while distinct eras of Ulver clash in intuitively written songs. As fascinating an exercise as it is, the content on Liminal Animals feels all to familiar for a band that have traveled far and wide in their influences and experimentation, and the sporadic writing can’t save it. I can’t help but expect a bit more, and worry that Ulver finally hit a dead end with their imagination. For a band that has been actively creative for 31 years, they have easily earned it. With the context of one of Ulver‘s key members passing away just as recording sessions were finishing up, a good deal of tension hangs over Liminal Animals. Time is relentless and change is in the air. I hope they manage to find their feet, and that there’s a yet unseen evolution around the corner for these restless wolves.

Rating: 5/10

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