Originally written by Doug Moore.
I’m not entiiiiiiiiiiiiirely clear on the story behind this particular iteration of Ulcerate’s The Coming of Genocide. As near as I can tell, the original The Coming of Genocide was a four-song EP that hit the streets in 2004. In 2006, The Coming of Genocide and the band’s 2003 self-titled demo were reissued on one disc under the Coming of Genocide title. Then, this year, the same combination of demo/EP was reissued again with the same title. So this is a reissue of a reissue of two self-financed releases on one disc…got all that? Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. Regardless, Deepsend Records has made this rare slab of extreme metal from New Zealand available for your listening pleasure once more, and if you’re a technical death metal junkie then it’s contingent upon you to give this re-re-release a spin.
However, if you don’t start to imagine tiny bugs crawling all over your skin every time you go two days without hearing a gravity blast, Ulcerate probably isn’t for you. For a group of young guys, Ulcerate exhibit some truly spectacular musicianship on these tracks, frequently blending preposterous Origin-like speed with churning dissonance a la Rune. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of their songwriting. The Coming of Genocide is yet another tech-death fireworks display, full of sound and fury and signifying pretty much fuck-all come the disc’s end. Granted, this is an older release, and the band’s more recent Of Fracture and Failure effort is decidedly more memorable, but getting any kind of lasting enjoyment out of The Coming of Genocide requires a pretty massive level of tolerance for uninspired riff-stacking…and that’s if you can get past the muted production and some totally ineffectual vocals.
Basically I can’t envision Ulcerate appealing to anyone who isn’t a pretty serious tech death nerd, and even then I’d advise you to check out Of Fracture and Failure first. For everyone else, 2008 has been a mighty fine year for death metal of all stripes, and a third-tier act like this one ought to be pretty low on your priority list.
