The Ulver Show in Karlsruhe was very, very disappointing.

They played only 55 minutes (including the "encore"). Of these 55 minutes there was a big part of tiring synthie-sounds (with absolute no dynamics) and O'Sullivan reading some kind of poem. Dont get me wrong: I love ambient. But when you decide to play live I think that you should select songs that work well in a live-setting. And this piece, that was a major part of the concert, was simply boring.

Also they only played new songs. At least I did not know any song except one piece from Perdition Citiy. Again: You can be the most tough-minded individualist, but when you decide to play live for people that pay money and drive quite a way to the concert it would be nice to please them at least with a few songs they might know and that they might await. Or am I totally wrong here?

After a 4 hours drive and quite expensive tickets that was not the gentlemen's way to treat the fans, in my opinion.

Also Garm was only singing in the beginning. The rest of the concert he was standing there and playing with his (what is it?) Ipad? Doing whatever. You could really feel that he does not feel well on stage and that he has no fun doing the music there. Hence, he should maybe stay in the studio rather than disappointing his fans and destroying his musical legacy.

Of course Ulver is very experimental, unusual stuff. I know that very well and I love that. But also for a very unusual, experimental band one can say when things work out and when they don't. This concert could not compete with the power that lay in the creations of this man and for me destroyed it even a bit.

Topic Ulver is now history for me. Would have rather stayed off this disappointment.

Well, in London it was the same. Actually, I rather have Garm turning knobs and pushing things in the laptop and performing iPad-equilibriums than have him only beating a gong or whatever.

I kind of felt the same as you, but I enjoyed the ambient (improvised?) parts (I have better remembrance from them that from the album itself), but my strongest feeling during Ulver's show is that their performances are intended for (and only for!!!) theater-like stages, with quiet, sat people. Standing/walking/talking people ruins the experience, A LOT.

But I can't help but massively agree on the "55 minutes and only one older song which EVEN is supposed to be an encore" thing. In London, the venue closes at 23, Ulver were gone before 22:30. And it's not like they have other songs prepared, because they HAVE, from the previous shows.

I enjoyed better the 2009 show even if they played/sounded worse, and a lot has to do with them having less prepared things (although they already said they didn't have encores then, and they had played some Byrds cover before), and the venue and people's attitude towards the show.

Also I expected something a bit different from the new material, something which would have done well live together with other songs like Christmas or This is not Sound.

Anyway I went there for Virus in the first place and they clearly won the night, for what I have talked with other people (and myself).

Hi Adryuu!

it is somewhat good to know that you had a similar impression, because I was not sure about me and my feelings. Am I becoming a stupid grizzler complaining about everything? You gave me hope that I might not

Quite a stern reaction to abandon a band on the basis of one live performance, don't you think? Though the disappointment of not being able to witness personal favorites is understandable, I think it is fair of the band to emphasise the new material in the set list. After all, we're less than a month shy of the release of Wars of the Roses and they played a European tour little more than a year ago with many of the fan favourites of yore covered. Ulver have never been fond of looking back, which, to me, is a rare stance that demands appreciation above anything else.

I would have loved to see them play stuff off the new album, songs like "February MMX" and "Semptember IV" would probably blow my temples away with their nuanced fervour! Was any of that stuff on the agenda for these recent shows? Still contemplating the chance of going to Helsinki to see them again. Last year's 27 Feb appearance in Hki was extraordinary, though they quite bitterly averted from playing the masterful "Silence Teaches You How to Sing" that very evening.

I kind of like that austere, solemn and uncompromising artistic appearance they have on stage. The band's music is so immensely captivating that at least I did find it easy to concentate on the flow of sound and visuals. But that was last year, don't know anything about the set list now.

Well, I haven't abandoned them at all. It's just that I read somewhere in the venue the band times and they were supposed to play for about one hour and a half and what they played was mostly ambient/improv with a lot of people moving from place to place and talking and shouting and making noise.

In fact they sounded better than the first time I saw them, and the visual projections were way better (except for the boy of 'Not Saved' which remains to be bested).

The show started with February MMX and September IV was there too, I think. And it's good that they play a lot of new material, I was looking forward to it, too, but the album is kind of different from what I expected judging from February MMX. Deceptive single.

I'm just saying that I expected something a bit different and that overall I enjoyed better the other show I witnessed, but I did really enjoy this one as well, of course. They do their stuff pretty good and they get better at it in the stage.

But the last 20 minutes after the last Roses song could have been more songs, old or new, instead of just nothing. There's still some tunes they haven't done on the stage and I hoped for some of them.

And I strongly encourage going to see them, specially if the venue features seats for everyone. But I encourage more going to see Virus.

I'm thinking of one thing. Did they have clarinetist in Karlsruhe? That guy added a lot to the atmosphere and music and everything, as well as the theremin did in the previous tour.
Anyway that song in the album is kind of way too long, at least that's my opinion for now.

I could also praise the drummer, love his style. Although I didn't know what to listen to when he touched the laptop.

Adryuu, the abandonment clause was directed to Polygon for saying "Topic Ulver is now history for me", which I interpreted as something a bit too dramatic for the occasion.

You're very much right about "February MMX" being a deceptive road sign for the album in its entirety. Most of the album is still very enjoyable, even that concluding "Stone Angels" piece, which reads to me as an "extended edition" of the spacey ambient meets radio drama things M83 sometimes experiment with in their oeuvre.

@Adryuu: no there was no clarinetist in Karlsruhe. Possibly that was missing, in fact it really sounded like something was missing there.

Also I agree to you both, that the venue is very important for this kind of performance. The concert hall was maybe not the best (but also far away from being shit).

@Qvadrivivm: dramatic or not, that is how I react on things and Ulver is also a quite dramatic band with individuals that (I assume) would react similar if they would have been disappointed in that way by bands they like.

After the show I was longing for an extreme metal concert. I have't had that feeling for a long time

Yep, Stone Angels is nice, but lasts for too many minutes in my book. Most of it is very "samey" and the cool clarinet passages and things are shorter. And the rest of the songs are nicer to me.

The album is quite good and I'm sure it will grow with listens, but I was decepted by February MMX into thinking (and hoping for) a more euphoric album. I'm dissapointed with them in that they were supposed (by me at least) to do a very different album to the previous one, and most of it (as well as the concert) is very calm, soothing, dark ambient. More groovy and rythmic, some time energetic, but that's it.

I'm with you in thinking that "February MMX", ecstatic as it is, hinted at a more lively, dense and active album. With the touches reminding SotS's pious piano/strings/vocals hymns, the stark aerodynamics resembling some of the pieces on A Quick Fix... and the "band groove" coming close to Blood Inside here and there, Wars of the Roses does seem like the first Ulver full-length that is taking coy glances in the rear view mirror. Still, there are many passages that seem so new, full and adventurous in their approach (like the climaxes of "February MMX" and "September IV") that they help carry the album quite far into a chameleon-like distance.

It seems there are more people feeling like me about "February MMX", so I join the decepted-by-that-song-club. I would have liked an album like that. Whatever happened to that sixties-song-coveralbum, btw?

Having read all this, I am glad I didn´t watch them in Hamburg a second time. The concert they did here last year, my dear Polygon, was something you would have liked, I can assure you; as it was so very different from what you experienced. THAT concert, now, was godlike. Don´t give up on ULVER live yet, that´s what I suggest.

An album expanding the ideas of February MMX is what I had wet dreams with when I heard the single, indeed. But I wouldn't pass on the experience of seeing them again, Tentakel. It might disappoint in the sense that other previous time could be better enjoyed, but it won't be anything awful. And you already know the new songs, so you can imagine what it would be like in a proper venue.

I'm also hoping for the sixties covers album. It could really be great. The Electric Prunes cover is just addicting. That and February MMX is what I wanted to hear from Ulver in a concert, which together with Virus would have been THE PARTY.

Yep, and that´s exactly the problem... I am not too fond of the album. EXCEPT of "February MMX". I gave it several listens now, and the only song which really did stay in my mind is THAT one. The best one, by far. The rest is like... well. Erm. Okay. I miss energetic ideas, I miss a flow, I miss dynamics, I miss anything interesting mostly. I want "Blood Inside" to be topped. But somehow I have learnt that with ULVER over the years: You endure several weak albums/EP´s, and once every while, BAM! you get a masterpiece like "Perdition City" or "Blood Inside" (or in some respects Svidd Neger).

I have always preferred Lyckantropen Themes over Svidd Neger. And the Silence EPs are winners, too. I'm not that exigent wanting to top Blood Inside, I just want an album as different to the rest as they have always delivered. And Qvadrivivm is right there, The Roses is a quite more retrospective album. Not as all-new as the rest.

Never seen Ulver live, but I've seen countless ambient live acts, and that's always a huge problem: people talking, shouting, making noise and not caring about the show because it doesn't have drums or beat. Of course this can ruin the atmosphere to some extent, especially in smaller venues where the sound is not powerful enough to shut them up. Miasmah Recordings, from Norway, has found the solution:

http://www.miasmah.com/recordings/artists.html

@Polygon: do you usually like beatless, ambient music, I mean except the Silence eps and apart from Ulver?