With a remarkable delay (what a notice, talking about Neurotic Records?!) here it is, the debut album for Ulcerate, band who succeeded to reach a bit of popularity thanks to “The Coming of Genocide” ep. That release gave to the death metal and brutal metal crowd an original band, with very clear ideas in mind, performing a mixture of brutal-death metal with Immolation influences, full of technique and cleverness. After having heard what those guys were able to do it was normal thinking about a great work for the first full-length release, maybe something able to take the music they made on the ep and develop it in a more consistent and skilled way. And that’s what “Of Fracture and Failure” exactly is, a brutal album, very personal with modern ands futuristic sound. Yes, you read well. For the band is not enough taking the clichés of brutal music, which start to be a bit boring, but starting with the very first release they demonstrate lot of attention to the originality, creating 9 songs of unheard violence, perfectly balanced between brutality and intelligence, harmony and brute force. Ulcerate start again exactly where they stopped with the previous release, but in the same time they push to the limit: Immolation's influences are now more present (very good choice), the songs are more intense, and we can find a little bit of madness that reminds of Meshuggah; the result is incredible. The sound is more complex and difficult to assimilate: I can swear I was really surprised the first time I heard the album, and i needed lots of times to understand "Of Fracture and Failure", but be sure, if you are patient and brave, you will never stop to listen to it. Technically speaking, the guys were professionals yet on "The Coming of Genocide", but on the new release they show all they can do with the instruments (listen to the rhythmic section): the riffing is twisted and convulsed and show true violence and versatility, neither the drums nor the bass lines are banal or boring, and Ben Read loves to spew pain and insanity in the ears of the listener, alternating intelligible growls and sharp screamings. The cd starts in the better possible way, with the amazing "Praise and Negation", a concentration of brutality and (il)logic that will blow you off: the beginning sounds like an homage to Immolation's "Close to a World Below", and then the guys speed up with devastating blast-beats, psychotic and asymmetrical riffs, artificial harmonics and so on, creating a solid wall of sound. Ulcerate want to demonstrate that they can play other killer songs, and so here it is: "Ad Nauseam", alternating typical brutal passages and cold solos reminding of Meshuggah. "The Mask of the Satyr" is as heavy as a panzer and it destroys everything, but sometimes the band begins to play hypnotic guitar phrases very modern, and some plotting palm-mute passage. "Becoming the Lycanthrope" and "To fell Goliath" are heavy songs with dark guitar riffs, with an unpredictable development, heavy as a giant. With the long "Martyr of the Soul", these guys from New Zealand bring us one of the most difficult and complex songs of the entire platter, with inconceivable drum patterns, incredible time changes and amazingly sharp riffs. In this song too is easy to see the Immolation and Meshuggah's influences, but they are not plagiarists at all, they have personality and can really play well. After a little break with the instrumental "Failure", it's time for "The coming of Genocide", with a new incipit and still more violent than lots of other songs. The platter ends with the masterpiece "Defaeco": it's unthinkable to describe such an insanity in song-writing, all we can do is sit back and let us be blown off by the fury of Ulcerate.

"Of Fracture and Failure" is a really good work, Ulcerate are an intelligent band that wants to try, even if sometimes we might think that with little less complex songs the result would have been more easy-listening. Anyway "Of Fracture and Failure" is a masterpiece, we couldn't expect more from a debut album, Ulcerate hold the future of brutal. If you want to see this future, "Of Fracture and Failure" is for you.