Ulvtharm – Wrēkō (Album – Cyclic Law)
Genre/Influences: Dark-Ambient, Industrial.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: This is the debut album of
Jouni Heikki Ollila under the Ulvthram moniker. The name of this Swedish artist must surely ring a bell. He has been involved with EBM formation Pouppée Fabrikk and Industrial/Ambient project MZ.412. “Wrēkō” has been written over a period of several years. It all started when Jouni lived in Malaysia and was achieved when he returned to Sweden.
Content: This work brings us back to the early days and origins of 80s Industrial/Ambient music. The overwhelming production is featuring vintage string parts, epic arrangements reminding me of the early years of In Slaughter Natives, crashing percussions and passages with grave vocals.
+ + + : This is a great piece of music revealing a retro Industrial/Ambient style reminding me legendary artists from the 80s Industrial movement. The tracks have been composed with an impressive sound canvas. The tracks are progressively built up until reaching a true sound orgasm which you might experience at “All The Lambs” and “Death Of The Locusts”. The ghost-like vocals are perfectly matching with the style and also accentuating the perturbing sensation when listening to this opus.
– – – : The album features 5 cuts but the final one sounds unfortunately as an anticlimax to the rest of the work.
Conclusion: “Wrēkō” sounds darker than the night and more frightening than terror which makes it sound as the perfect Dark-Ambient release.
Best songs: “All The Lambs”, “Death Of The Locusts”, “God Of Sleep”, “We Will All Abandon You”.
Rate: 9.
Artist: www.facebook.com/ulvtharm412
Label: www.cycliclaw.com / www.facebook.com/cycliclaw
About Ulvtharm
Ulvtharm is the solo project of Swedish musician Jouni Heikki Ollila, also known for his work in Pouppée Fabrikk and MZ.412, as well as Mr. Jones Machine, Project-X, Teleskop, and Burg. The Ulvtharm material grew out of demos originally made for MZ.412’s “Svartmyrkr” album, which did not fit that project’s sound. Ollila began the recordings while living in Malaysia and completed them after moving back to Sweden around 2019-2020. “Wrēkō”, his debut album under the Ulvtharm name, was released on Cyclic Law.
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