Over more than a decade and a half, listeners have learned to expect the unexpected from Ulver, who started out as a Norwegian heavy metal band but have turned far more experimental.
War of the Roses begins sounding like a fairly conventional rock album, in which the mainstream track "February MMX" boasts socially conscious lyrics ("genocide is suicide"), and "September IV" also suggests mainstream rock.
But more of the album is given over to selections like "Norwegian Gothic" and especially the nearly 15-minute closer, "Stone Angels," with slow, ambient tracks featuring sound effects and poetic, spoken word vocals.
The closest antecedent, notably on "England" and "Island," with their slow, ponderous tempos and calm vocals, is Pink Floyd, making Ulver as of 2011 something of a neo-progressive rock band with a bit of Radiohead thrown in.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | February MMX | Ulver | Play | 04:10 | 9 MB | 27 MB |
| 2 | Norwegian Gothic | Ulver | Play | 03:36 | 8 MB | 18 MB |
| 3 | Providence | Ulver | Play | 00:12 | 0 MB | 1 MB |
| 4 | September IV | Ulver | Play | 04:37 | 10 MB | 28 MB |
| 5 | England | Ulver | Play | 03:58 | 9 MB | 24 MB |
| 6 | Island | Ulver | Play | 06:01 | 13 MB | 32 MB |
| 7 | Stone AngelsKeith Waldrop | Ulver | Play | 01:05 | 2 MB | 2 MB |
| 23 mins | 54 MB | |||||
| 23 mins | 134 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jaime Gomez Arellano | Engineer |
| 2 | Espen Berg | Mastering |
| 3 | Attila Csihar | Voices |
| 4 | John Fryer | Mixing |
| 5 | Ole Alexander Halstensgård | Electronics |
| 6 | Emil Huemer | Guitar |
| 7 | Trond Mjøen | Bass (Electric), Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Lap Steel Guitar |
| 8 | Anders Møller | Percussion |
| 9 | Steve Noble | Drums, Percussion |
| 10 | O'Sullivan | Mixing |
| 11 | Daniel O'Sullivan | Primary Artist |
| 12 | Tomas Pettersen | Drums |
| 13 | Sarah Pickles | Photography |
| 14 | Daniel Quill | Violin |
| 15 | Kristoffer Rygg | Primary Artist |
| 16 | Siri Stranger | Voices |
| 17 | Jørn H. Sværen | Primary Artist |
| 18 | Stephen Thrower | Clarinet |
| 19 | Ulver | Primary Artist |
| 20 | Keith Waldrop | Composer |
| 21 | Alex Ward | Clarinet |
| 22 | Stian Westerhus | Guitar (Electric) |
| 23 | Tore Ylwizaker | Primary Artist |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |