Well, we ended last album Cosmovore with a 13-minute track and we start Ulthar’s 2nd album with one just over 2. As it batters in full of gnarly chops, thudding drums and guttural vocals one could assume, if not having heard the last album, that this is a simple exercise in what I like to term as caveman death metal. A case of primitive battering noise with little in the way of finesse, subtlety and indeed atmosphere. But one should have the Providence to expect more of this Oakland based trio who include in their ranks past and present members of Pale Chalice, Tombs, Ruins & Vastum; to name just a few.

The opener ‘Churn’ having done just as described and being quickly dispatched of, things certainly open up and prove to have more ideas and substance. ‘Undying Spear’ starts with some acoustic pickings which could well be an intro for a track by Nile just before they plummet into tomb raiding terror. Once the music expands and the vocals come in there are definitely some more blackened elements here and both a progressive and technical flow reminding a bit of UK’s own De Profundis as far as the guitar work is concerned. This is much more complicated stuff than the opener suggested and as the trio settle into a groove my interest levels go up with it all. The title track has a gnarly ferocity about it and with 2 vocalists, one sharper and the other gruffly lower in the mix there is some diversification here. There’s also plenty of dexterity from the skilled musicianship the guitar work from Vastum’s Shelby Lermo meandering and drawing you into its intricacies. The drums give a bit of a tribal thud and there’s a space-laden technicality about it all that brings to mind early Voivod as flows and shreds away. Still it’s quite nasty stuff and leaves you feeling coated in grot and submerged in a rancid slimy place perhaps being attacked by the Thing like terror of the cover art.

Space and depth added by some synth work we creep into ‘Through Downward Dynasties’ hoping not to wake any slumbering beast. This shows a doomy side to things but then it all leaps off via a throat-shredding roar and wolverine snarls and we follow in mad panic. Shit, this fanged terror is in full pursuit. I really like the swooping and horror-fuelled guitar runs here and the vocals give out the fear as the track slows into a juddering roller-coaster ride taking you all over the place with it. ‘Cudgel’ starts what would be a perfect second side of vinyl with backward masked sound giving it an eerie aura before tearing off and vocally bringing gibbering madness with it. Lyrically we are in a place of “Incessant foam proaking sputter” whatever that means but it kind of fits with the harrowing tech confusion brought about by this “malignant siege.” I think 13-minute tracks would be a bit much here and the 8 we have are kept to a less challenging running time, the album as a whole clocking in at the 36 minute mark. We tear through things and it still takes a lot of listens to get beneath the surface as there is plenty going on here. The lurching cataclysmic rites of ‘Furnace Hibernation’ are a bit too hot for a hiding place and by the time we reach conclusion of ‘Humanoid Knot’ you will feel like you have been contorted and tied up into just that. If you like your death served up in a ghastly retroactive fashion complete with no trappings of trends this will do just the job and leave you feeling suitably revolted.

(7.5/10 Pete Woods)

https://www.facebook.com/Ulthar-386850314846106

https://listen.20buckspin.com/album/providence