photo by Aloysius V. Cummings
Cosmovore is the impending debut full-length from newly-forged Bay Area death metal trio, ULTHAR. Comprised of Shelby Lermo (Vastum, Extremity), Justin Ennis (Void Omnia, ex-Mutilation Rites, ex-Tombs), and Steve Peacock (Mastery, Pandiscordian Necrogenesis, Pale Chalice), with Cosmovore, ULTHAR unleashes the feral urgency of dizzying, Absu-like black metal with the bludgeoning ferocity of classic death metal. Thematically heavy on weird, supernatural horror and a bizarre Rudimentary Peni surrealism, ULTHAR is a difficult to classify spectral entity.
In advance of Cosmovore‘s release via 20 Buck Spin next month, Decibel Magazine spews forth the sordid sounds of “Asymmetric Warfare,” issuing of the track, “Lermo weaves evil, inverted riffs that create an unsettling atmosphere but ultimately bludgeon the listener; the rhythm section shores up the heaviest parts of ‘Asymmetric Warfare’ and Lermo and bassist/vocalist Steve Peacock shriek and growl with rage.”
Adds the band, “We have moved with the directionless zeal which results from a combined sense of futility and necessity of action. Our care was gravely minute; every synapse was dissected, each subliminal cavern searched for bodies, every thorny line of adjacent prose again scanned for clues and cyphers, but all without result. And yet, vague new fears have hovered menacingly over us; as if giant bat-winged gryphons squatted invisibly on the mountain-tops and leered with Abaddon-eyes that had looked on trans-cosmic gulfs. Hence ‘Asymmetric Warfare,’ and the rotting womb which bore it, Cosmovore.
Witness ULTHAR’s “Asymmetric Warfare” exclusively at Decibel Magazine at THIS LOCATION.
If you missed it, stream the record’s title track below.
Cosmovore will be released on CD, LP, cassette, and all digital formats via 20 Buck Spin on November 9th. For physical preorders, go to THIS LOCATION. For digital order go HERE.
Cosmovore was engineered, recorded, and mixed by Greg Wilkinson (Brainoil, Deathgrave, Vastum, Noothgrush) at Earhammer Studios in Oakland, California, mastered by Justin Weis at Trackworx, and comes swathed in the cover art of famed UK illustrator Ian Miller, known for his work with the Warhammer games, Lovecraft books, Ralph Bakshi films, and more.
Over the course of Cosmovore‘s forty-minute run time speeds careen forward at primarily unrelenting velocity, the opening title track instantly battering with primal persistence. The album’s middle section, a blinding storm of ghastly black dread, leads into the thirteen-plus-minute closing epic “Dunwich Whore” where the ULTHAR universe becomes all-consuming with proggy synth bookends, vertiginous tempo variation, grinding technical violence, and thrashed madness.
Yet another stellar debut album released under the 20 Buck Spin banner, ULTHAR‘s Cosmovore stands as the monstrous opening salvo of a band only beginning to wage war. Fans of Absu, Immortal, early Atrocity, early Pestilence, Demilich, Morbid Angel, Gorguts, and labelmates Tomb Mold should tune in to ULTHAR‘s deft execution.
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