Review by Jeger on June 18, 2024.

Most everything has been done within the death metal genre and it doesn’t matter how technical it gets, for me, even Archspire is boring. Contemporary DM artists seem to be of the mind that the more sanitized and the more guitar doodles the better. It’s my opinion that it’s the very same people who pay money to go see a Michael Bay movie who likely enjoy modern death metal as well. Guitar riffs like helicopter explosions in rhythm with high-speed-chase cadences and abstract solos. Where’s the dignity? Even the most avant-garde death metal band should have a little something called class. This character trait cannot be taught and it was projects like Death and currently Revocation along with New Zealand’s Ulcerate that have so demonstrated it over the course of the 80’s - 90’s and 00’s - beyond. On June 14, the above-mentioned Sages of the avant-garde and purveyors of technical mayhem, Ulcerate, released their new Cutting The Throat Of God LP via Debemur Morti.

If it’s the ridiculousness of bands like Cattle Decapitation and Aborted you’re in search of then move along because you have no taste and probably wouldn’t appreciate a record like Cutting The Throat Of God. Technical yet mid-tempo’d and avant-garde yet warm; soothing the savage beast with dreamlike arrangements just before rousing it into a feeding frenzy with onslaughts of Gojira-level heaviness in riffing during ominous album cuts like 'The Dawn Is Hollow' and 'Further Opening The Wounds' - lyrically reflective but also dreadful of suffering to come. Why cut the throat of God? Why the fuck not… Especially when said deicide is committed to the sound of such intense, suspenseful death metal. Like the sky about to fall or being diagnosed with terminal cancer; fear and despair dealt out in spades.

I had mentioned Revocation. Great band, right? Ulcerate’s Cutting The Throat Of God hits the same sweet spot only with more darkness and melancholy. Misery-drenched, somber to the core and truly fucking hopeless is 'Transfiguration In And Out Of Worlds' - a slow-burner - vocals at their most savage and set to this off-putting feeling as if you’re being watched from a shadowy corner as you take your final steps toward the electric chair. A mood piece and not a fun one. Riffs are there but they’re fucking dismal and there are melodic passages but they’re melancholic and fit for a funeral. Eyes closed now, fists clenched for 'To See Death Just Once'. A deep-seated sense of yearning and the reveling in all things discordant unfolding to an arsenal of deadly progressions that drag depths and scale heights. An epic! A miserable one, but an epic nonetheless. Got time to feel the pain? Are you hiding from it? With Cutting The Throat Of God, Ulcerate provide a purge if one would be so bold as to stop distracting themselves for two seconds and feel something for once…

Building into a crescendo of madness during certain parts and trudging through the bowels of perdition in others. Like a critical condition injury that threatens a rapidly-approaching death is Cutting The Throat Of God and with all the technical trim, just not grinding or at light speed. Class, remember? Of course you do. And for those of us who possess class, we can certainly recognize it here. For those of you who don’t, might I recommend the forthcoming GWAR, Dark Funeral, Squid Pisser tour and maybe some Alestorm to get your juices flowing. The level of compositional and cathartic prowess that Ulcerate possess is unparalleled and so is the superlative nature of Cutting The Throat Of God. Great title, even better album. Take some notes kids, because this is how it’s done…

Rating: 9.5 out of 10