Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven & Hell [IMPORT]

Ulver

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 28, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Jester Norway
• ASIN: B0000278IT
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #115,679 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Marriage of Heaven and Hell

2. Marriage of Heaven and Hell

3. Marriage of Heaven and Hell

4. Marriage of Heaven and Hell

5. Marriage of Heaven and Hell

6. Marriage of Heaven and Hell

7. Marriage of Heaven and Hell

8. Marriage of Heaven and Hell

9. Marriage of Heaven and Hell

10. Marriage of Heaven and Hell

See all 13 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Marriage of Heaven and Hell

2. Marriage of Heaven and Hell

3. Marriage of Heaven and Hell

4. Marriage of Heaven and Hell

5. Marriage of Heaven and Hell

6. Song of Liberty - Ihsahn,

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Electronica Folk Black Metal, April 5, 2003

By	J. Sa "pepito77" (Salvador, BRAZIL) - See all my reviews

Although urban & noirish, Ulver's music completely fits William Blake's centuries old mystical wanderings. Maybe it's because norse Black Metal bands in general have this mystical vibe, or maybe because Ulver's electronica influences (Coil, for example) have also a mystical vibe woven into them. The album has an erratic, disjointed feel to it. It's not a traditional pop album; the structures from each song aren't verse-chorus-verse and when they come close to that, they suffer some ugly twist. Some songs revolve around a single theme; others have 7 to 8 jarring shifts into bare 5 minutes of song length. It's to be listened in a whole. It's an electro-religious experience. Definitely not your than average pop party music. Which is, by the way, EXCELLENT. It's rare to hear that, nowadays; a band striving for the love of that kind of higher experience, of that kind of aesthetic freedom.

Also, this is a definitely a cerebral work. There's plenty room for emotion, but things here have clearly been VERY worked out. They probably had to work hard to fit Blake's words into their musical scope. Not all poetry of "Heaven & Hell" is catchy and singable, but they made their best effort to match the words to the music.

Despite some of it's flaws - mainly concerning being a "I'll-like-it-on-the-10th-hearing" type of record - it's a priceless effort. Consider that two years prior to this release Ulver put out "Nattens Madrigal" - The Madrigal of the Night - which is, by all conceivable means, their worst album! Also noteworthy are the production values. All instruments are loud & clear; they all blend smoothly in the mix. The post-production effects rival most electronica tinged rock by a mile, even some mainstream ones like Nine Inch Nails.

I also wouldn't know the standard to judge this. No, it's not Industrial Metal. They are more akin to the trailblazers Throbbing Gristle & Coil then modern standards Fear Factory, Marilyn Manson, Orgy & White Zombie. "Marriage" is subtle, chilly & slightly paranoid...definitely more European than American. It's not Heavy Metal either, although Metal elements show up here & there. "Plate 2" makes topical use of double bass drumming. "Plate 3" has doomish double-up guitar riffs. "Plate 4" has palm-muted start & stop power chords. "Plates 12-13" & "Plates 22 -24" use death metal-like single note riffing for extra ambience.

It makes extensive use of Electronica. Everything is electronically processed; vocals, drums, guitars, bass guitars & whatever else comes in the way. Even some drum n' bass stylings show up in tracks "Proverbs of Hell, Plates 7-10" & "Memorable Fancy, Plates 12-13". But no; they're not electronica either. This album doesn't fit confortably into any techno sub-genre. It's not Trip-Hop, House, Big Beat, Gabba, Trance, Downtempo, Synth-Pop, Jungle or whatever else is out there in technoland. At times it bears a close resemblance to mid-to-late 90's Ambient because of its brooding paranoia, but it's too schizoid to sustain a single mood too long.

Although his double album has enough potential to drive any metalhead away, it gained rave reviews form the genre's media. 10/10 points in Rock Hard (Denmark); 7/7 points and Album of the Month in Hammer Magazine (Denmark); Album of the Month in Terrorizer (U.K.); 15/15 in Deftone (Denmark); 15/15 in Legacy (Denmark); 10/10 in Psycho (Italy); 12/12 in Thrash'em All (Poland).

"Marriage" opened a lot of doors to Ulver. Taken form their own site, www.ulver.cjb.net:

"Ulver posters started appearing in everything from dumb smash box movies such as Senseless to the TV series Sopranos. The controversial director of the motion pictures Kids and Gummo, Harmony Korine, recently commented, alluding to The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: "There's a real lineage from a composer like Wagner to a band like Ulver". This confirms Ulver's outstanding status - a status that has resulted in proposals from world-class engineers for production of future albums, remix requests from other musicians, as well as invitations to multimedia projects."

Final words: be brave, and face the "Marriage of Heaven & Hell" mind altering experience!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Improves with repeated listens, January 22, 2005

By	Tom Z "Crucible Of Steel" (USA) - See all my reviews

My first thoughts upon listening to this album were: "this sucks, Bergtatt was 1000 times better. I buy albums to listen to music not hear a poetry reading..." I was ready to write this off as a dissapointing failure but then decided, what the hell, might as well listen to it again, this time with the lyric booklet. It all kinda started to make sense then, obviously the poem is central to the album, a key fact I neglected before. Reading the lyrics along with the album didn't automatically put this at the top of my favorite albums, but it did make me appreciate the expierience much more. Everyone else seems to have covered the good aspects of this album so I'll cover what wasn't so good about it. Problem 1: Garm is one of the best vocalists I've ever heard, and there lies the problem. Most of the time on this album all he does is talk, not sing. Problem 2: The music gets boring, I see what they're trying to do but they could've been a little less stoic about it. Those are the two major issues I have with this album. As long as your not expecting a masterpiece on the scale of their earlier albums and don't mind drawn out (what some would think of as boring) compositions than this album is for you.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond words., February 22, 2003

By	Lord Chimp (Monkey World) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

The production is dense and electronically processed -- pulsating dark soundscapes full of subtle electronic beats and texture -- the imperial vocals of Garm eerily glide around the music's soaring black peaks -- fractured metal with slight gothic tones merging with a mystic ambiance -- uncanny female vocals spectrally carry haunting melodies -- but these elements are hardly distinct. Instead, they seem to overlap and consolidate into seamless, protean mix that can only really be labeled by inventing new words. The atmosphere is so thick is becomes a visible haze smeared across the vision. The invisible bridges between pounding industrial crashes and tranquil electronic beauty full of filters and effects are stunning and endlessly engaging. Even suspended passages that are little more than atmospheric noise are startlingly captivating and menacing. Ulver's intelligent use of harmonics and droning effects and layers takes what is already brilliant and bumps it up to one of the most well-crafted albums I have. There is an incredible attention to detail that makes the album enduring as a work of art to explore over the years. Best of all, Ulver captures a very powerful drama despite relying mostly on electronic instrumentation -- there is a distinct human element which keeps the album from sounding cold and mechanical. Powerful stuff. Plus, it's William Blake's poetry. Since the album's lyrics stem entirely from Blake's writing, the musical structure is a bit formless but Ulver still manages to assemble everything into a skillful progressive flow.

I'll probably just be parroting other reviewers with this, but they really have it nailed. _Themes..._ is a brilliant work of electronic music, easily one of the best I have heard.