HYLI Vol XX: Damien Rice and Ulver
One of these days I'm going to leave the little blurb that Andy writes here in tact and you will all see the kind of moron I'm dealing with.
Andy typed in this little intro place, “Pat do the intro cause people miss you and might think you’re dead.” Did any single one person reading this think maybe I had died because he wrote three intros in a row (and maybe six total) with us now on our 19th edition of this shit? I’m fine. Actually, I’m quite irritable. I’ve had poison ivy for two weeks now and the medicine they gave me only made it stronger. I’m going to turn into the DC Comics villain at this point. It sucks. Hope You Like The Music I Guess.
Damien Rice - My Favourite Faded Fantasy
Patrick: I’ll say it - metal fans act like non-metal people are close-minded about metal but I am infinitely more open-minded about metal than Andy is about folk (Andy: Please do not lump me in with all metal fans. You are very open-minded, I’ve always said so). Damien Rice rocks. This dude was one of the first musicians I remember dialing up my folks’ internet (literally dial-up) to find out about. Apparently his debut album, O, came out in 2002, but I found out about him in 2004 because his song off that album, “The Blower’s Daughter,” was featured in the movie Closer, which I watched because Natalie Portman played a stripper in it. I was a teenage boy. Please leave me the fuck alone. Anyways, the song fucking ruled and I still love that album to this day. I chose Damien’s 2014 comeback album, My Favourite Faded Fantasy, because it is a bit more ornate in its instrumentation and less stripped-down. My dude Andy likes weird instruments, so I tried to please him with the slightly weirder album, even if I don’t think it really touches O. Will he be pleased? Is he ever? Whom can say. I personally think the opening title track and “I Don’t Want to Change You” are about as good as it gets. Hope You Like It.
Andy: Pat and I have had an ongoing debate about folk music for a decade now. He thinks it is great and I think it is boring. I’m doing my best trying to get into the genre but I’m just not built for it. I know this is naïve (Patrick: it is worse than just naive, you are downright mean about it) but so much of it feels like a church youth group pastor or salon music (Patrick: Bob Dylan is a) jewish and b) has nice hair). With that said, I did my best to find some enjoyable aspects during my multiple listens. It did remind me that I was into Glen Hansard’s Once Soundtrack back in like 2007.
I think “The Box” is the song that reminded me I listened to Hansard once upon a time. The orchestral section gives an extra edge that was very welcomed (Patrick: that’s a bingo). I ended up enjoying “I Don’t Want To Change You” but I’m not sure if that is because it’s a good song or because of Stockholm Syndrome. “It Takes a Lot to Know a Man” is actually fun.
I just don’t have it. I’m missing the gene that makes me appreciate music like this. I do wonder if there is like a weird underground subset of folk that has broken far enough away from the mainstream where they only play tiny bars for like 12 kids that I would be more into. Maybe that is my entry point. I promise I tried my best. If we are being honest, I Did Not Like It (Patrick: you mentioned, by name, three tracks of an eight-track album that you liked, so I am taking this as you being purposefully stubborn).
Ulver - Bergtatt
Andy: I think I’m going to continue to work through the early Norwegian black metal scene in this newsletter but felt we needed a nice palate cleanser after Burzum (Patrick: thank you for cleansing my palate from Nazis). Ulver differs from the previous entries for a few reasons: 1) they did not have any anti-Christian themes; 2) they did not murder each other or burn down churches; 3) they incorporated clean vocals and were heavy on additional folk elements (Patrick: you love folk).
While still black metal they definitely earned the “folk metal” tag as well. This album is a fantastic fusion of black metal and folk metal (serving as direct inspiration for one of my favorite bands, Agalloch). From here, they made a strictly folk album, a strictly black metal album, and then… basically became an experimental electronica band? I don’t know, I really only listen to two Ulver albums but some nice relaxing black folk metal about Norwegian Folklore seemed necessary. Thanks! Hope You Like It!
Patrick: This was a weird one. I did like it, a lot in fact. But it almost sounds like three different bands doing a split on one album. Given Andy telling me that the band released albums in folk metal, black metal and electronica after this, that kind of makes sense. The first song doesn’t really sound like any of those genre tags, and almost sounds like Morrissey fronting a metal band (which is now something I want to hear more of). Then we move onto some instrumental passages before getting plunged into some real OG black metal. And then we have a bit where it sounds like someone walking through a forest with no music. Cool! Genuinely, I like it.
Overall, I kind of wanted more songs that hit the moments that I enjoyed, like the clean-singing over metal instrumentation parts or just the straight-up black metal. The little interludes were cool as they were happening; I just would have appreciated more song songs. My least favorite parts were probably the folk metal. I like Agalloch, I just feel like they are kind of the only band that does that sound that I enjoy. It’s cool Ulver influenced them. I probably will listen to one or two songs from this in my regular rotation but I doubt I ever really sit through this whole thing again. I Liked It, Kind Of.