Ulvdalir – Hunger for the Cursed Knowledge (Ingrian Black Metal Duh)

 

Did you even, like, know what “Ingrian Black Metal” was before this review? I know I didn’t, lol. I had heard something of the region of Ingria, but I didn’t realize there was this thing with black metal there until I heard Ulvdalir. I won’t even get into the complex ethnic background of it all, suffice to say the region is near and/or part of St. Petersburg, Russia, where these guys are from. So like Putin probably has something to do with this. To be honest, I wish he did. Can we just forget about all the Twitter memes and get to publicly funding niche black metal?

   

Hunger for the Cursed Knowledge comes with a special sound that can’t be simply categorized as regular black metal. Not even trve should be utilized, in my opinion, but Ingrian, yes. After learning of this apparent vein in the BM lineage, I checked out other bands of the type and found, certainly, there is some sort of “sound” to it all. To be honest I thought they were from Spain before I actually took the time to read around. Whether or not you can catch the ethnic quality to this “Ingrian” thing, Ulvdalir provide enough to differentiate from the usual BM tribal warfare. Ultra-clear riffing with a tendency to focus on a dominant theme, combined with echoing vocals and delicate folkish moments is more than sufficient for this Ingrian n00b. So like, get with it man. I’m going to pretend I knew all about it beforehand and lie consistently from here on out.

 

Ulvdalir Is Too Ingrian for Facebook

Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls

Ulvdalir – Hunger for the Cursed Knowledge
Inferna Profundus Records
Cover Art: Chadwick St. John (Inkshadows)
4.1 / 5