Click on a link to hear a sample of the track.

01. Dressed in black
02. For the love of God
03. Christmas
04. Blinded by blood
05. It is not sound
06. The truth
07. In the red
08. Your call
09. Operator


Review in The Great Nothing August 2005

The mysterious Ulver return with their first full length album since their career spanning remix album, entitled “Blood Inside.” If you have never heard Ulver before, I can’t explain it to you. Go look for some song samples (not illegal downloads) and then come back to this review if you like what you hear.

Much like the “A Quick Fix of Melancholy” EP that preceded this album, Ulver finds a more accessible route to deliver “Blood Inside.” While most fans of the band will gasp to hear me say that, rest assured that I mean “accessible for an Ulver album” for they certainly are a million miles from mimicking Coldplay or Radiohead like other “experimental” bands love to do. Still relying largely on heavy electronics, “Blood Inside” has a good flow to it, making it seem much more grand and epic than most of the bands previous work. The give and take of “Christmas” is probably the best work Ulver has ever created and coming in as track 3 it will certainly cement your interest in the album if “Dressed in Black” or “For the Love of God” fail to. “It Is Not Sound” is another excellent track that is likable to listen to, but amazing after watching the included video. It’s definitely one of those songs whose visual representation is as important as the actual song. The echo heavy “In the Red” is another one of my favorites, pushing forth a really haunted sounding vocal that doesn’t leave you after the song finishes and twisted horn work that sounds as if it were sampled from a James Bond movie set in New Orleans.

This is a spectacular album but it’s so deep that it’s pretty much impossible to explain in a review. If you are looking for something completely cutting edge then look no farther than Ulver and start with “Blood Inside.”

By Mark Fisher