Ulver at Irving Plaza

Born in Oslo, Norway, but raised in Cascais, Kristoffer "Garm" Rygg was 16 years old in 1993 when he formed Ulver (Norwegian for "wolves"). The band started as a folklore-influenced black metal band, but quickly left behind black metal and evolved into psychedelic, ambient, gothic, jazz, electronic, film noir and avant-garde metal. Relentlessly reinventing itself, the band's eclectic output ultimately would incorporate symphonic and chamber traditions, noise, progressive and experimental music. Ulver has sold in excess of half a million records. Ulver released its 11th and most recent studio album, 2017's The Assassination of Julius Caesar, was followed later in the same year by the three-song Sic Transit Gloria Mundi EP. Ulver will release a live album, Drone Activity, on May 11, 2019. Ulver presently consists of three programmers, Rygg, Tore Ylwizaker and Jørn H. Sværen.

After 26 years of existence, Ulver finally performed live in America for the first time with two concerts at Irving Plaza. Rather than perform a career retrospective, however, Ulver performed only its most recent album and EP in their entireties. Five musicians performed in almost total darkness, gathering light only from a few blinking LED poles and a light show that played above and behind them and even on them. Most of the audience probably never had a good look at the musicians' faces. For more than two hours, Ulver's music was equally dark and mysterious, yet generously fluid with gothic-sounding vocals and layers of melancholic electro-synthpop melodies, usually over mood-inducing cinematic soundscapes and occasionally over thick industrial grooves. This was trippy music, like Pink Floyd meets Carpenter Brut and Meat Beat Manifesto. The weakest element, however, was Rygg's haunting vocals, which frequently did not hit the higher range he attempted and fell flat. The performance was intriguing and hypnotic but did not provide something for the audience to hook into until the final moments, when Ulver gave the audience a melody for the commute home, a heady cover of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "The Power of Love." Even the black metal fans in the audience had to acknowledge that Ulver's present state of music is next level.

Setlist:

1. Nemoralia
2. Southern Gothic
3. 1969
4. So Falls the World
5. Rolling Stone
6. Echo Chamber (Room of Tears)
7. Transverberation
8. Angelus Novus
9. Bring Out Your Dead
10. Coming Home

Encore:

1. The Power of Love (Frankie Goes to Hollywood cover)