The paradigm-shifting fourth studio opus from Norwegian pioneers, ULVER. 2CD deluxe digipack edition including a retrospective look at the album by writer Jeff Wagner.
Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven & Hell includes guest vocal appearances from DARKTHRONE's Fenriz, and Ihsahn and Samoth (EMPEROR).
Having been known for their more folklore-tinged black metal compositions on early studio releases, in late 1997, mainman Kristoffer Rygg invited keyboardist, sound conceptualist, and composer Tore Ylwizaker into the collective, and together they devised a plan for The Blake Album; an altogether far more adventurous endeavour than prior releases. What resulted was a seamless integration of electronic & industrial music, with elements of progressive metal & avant-garde rock, all fused with ambient passages, & following Blake's plates as track indexes. A work of deep and personal art, the album, while initially surprising to fans due to its complete shift in genre, has become a classic today, and a prime example of the boundary-pushing evolution beyond the confines of genre expectations through the latter part of the 90s. Upon release, The Marriage of Heaven & Hell received widespread acclaim from critics within the rock, metal and alternative music press, being awarded Album of the Month in several high-profile magazines such as Terrorizer, Metal Hammer, and Rock Hard.
Review
...a difficult listen but a rewarding one, and is like little else in the canon of recorded music. Ulver would not revisit this territory again, and while plenty of other bands since the album was recorded have offered the same kind of musical diversity, none of them have covered a similar range of territory as is found on this album. - Prog Archives 5/5
