"Black metal has been chummy with ambient music since birth, but Ulver's commitment to the genre is something else. Their debut album, (1995), released when singer Kristoffer Garm Rygg was 18, inspired a whole universe of nature-drunk folk metal; meanwhile, Nattens Madrigal (1997) is a prime example of the most scabrous and distortion-encrusted recesses of black metal. Between the two was the ambient Kveldssanger (1996), which proved they could work well at a lower altitude, but that still didn't prepare anyone for 2000's Perdition City:"
"Neverland comes 25 years into their post- Perdition City journey, and though it's a fine example of their late-career style, two absences are obvious. The first is Garm's vocals, which can be a fly in the ointment; even at his best, he sometimes sounds like Mark Kozelek adrift in a sea of Dubai dream tones. The lengthiest stretch of language here is the introductory "Fear in a Handful of Dust," whose recital from T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" hearkens back to their earlier experiments"
Ulver evolved from black metal into ambient and electronic territories across distinct albums. Early releases spawned nature-focused folk metal and scabrous black metal extremes, while Kveldssanger demonstrated success with ambient textures. Perdition City marked a shift to a bleached, trip-hop, art-pop-influencing electronic sound. Neverland arrives 25 years after that shift and exemplifies the band's late-career electronic style. Two absences shape Neverland: reduced use of Kristoffer "Garm" Rygg's vocals and the loss of keyboardist Tore Ylwizaker in 2024. Ylwizaker's missing midrange piano textures push the duo toward extreme bass and treble and a more EDM-2011 production aesthetic.
Read at Pitchfork
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