Ulver - This is not sound, this is art

According to Last fm, a lot of people are listenning to Ulver. And they should. A band as great as this should not be overlooked like most talented bands or artists that are left to the deepest zone of the underground. But stil, Ulver is an underground band. They come from Norway, a country that has produced mostly black metal bands. Great, because, you see, Ulver was a black metal band. I don't know if everyone of their fan know about their first records but they definitly should because this part of their past is just as great as what they are producing right now. In a way, like Cave In, who went from chaotic hardcore to prog rock, Ulver came from a musical genre that was rooted in darkness to become an entity producing music that can be describle as the exact opposite. Pure light. When you listen to Ulver, an album like "Blood inside" for exemple, you feel good. At least, I do feel good when I hear music as good as this. Ulver's music makes me want to write, to dance, to sing. It's music for the heart and made to inspire actions from people. In short, this is essential music for every music lovers. Also, on Last fm, I can see that many categorize them as "avant garde". This is a genre that I have a lot of difficulties to understand because, to me, this is more a state of "mind" that an acurate definition of what the music sounds like. A little bit like the term "progressive", "avant garde" is a term that I could see associated with every band that wants to push their expression forward the usual guidelines. "Avant garde" also sounds like a way to tell the listenners that what they are about to hear is a little bit "difficult" and maybe "challengin". But in Ulver's music, there is no challenge. the Sounds become a part of your environement and you just have to let you slip in it to understand the music. When I pay more attention to the structures of the song, yes, I do realize that this is far from easy stuff to compose. But as a whole, each songs of Blood inside, Perdition city or Nattens madrigal flow into one another and you don't have to concentrate, like on a Tool record, to get what is going on. Maybe it's the lack of guitars or the lack of repetitions. Or maybe it's because I'm just a big big fan. Anyhow, what I want to say is : Listen to Ulver, and be enlightenned to a new world of beautiful sounds.