What do you need me for, anyway? Granted, on a good day, it’s not a hell of a lot, but when it comes to an album like the debut from Ultralord, there’s just not much need for a scouting report. A look at the album and some band info is about 90% of what’s needed to hook/repel those who adore/loathe this style. As if the title We Hate You All and Hope You Die isn’t enough of a fart in your general direction, the long, bony middle finger extended from the dead, rotten hand drives the point home. Ultralord just doesn’t play well with others. Then there’s the matter of the titles–"Wizard Pimp" and “Don’t Fear the Reefer”, to name a few. Hands on buzzers here people, this one should be becoming clear. On to the guilty parties–the This Dark Reign offering was produced by the increasingly busy Vince Burke from Beaten Back to Pure (I’d love to hear he’s also busy on the new BBTP album), and this Ohio outfit features ex-members of similarly foul mindedness like Fistula, Rue, Rune, and Madman Mundt. If that doesn’t paint a picture, you either haven’t been paying attention, or would be better off with the new Lacuna Coil album. Probably both, actually. That Cristina has such a lovely singing voice. Not like these miscreants in Ultralord. Not a bit of lovely about them, just an extra large serving of go fuck yourself. And that’s typically a good thing.

So there’s not much mystery about what these guys are all about, but I can shed some light on how well they do it–and the answer is pretty damn well. Rather than lumbering along at a consistent pace, Ultralord’s brand of thick, acerbic sludge makes frequent shifts between uptempo, punk stained, visceral metal and a slow to midtempo sludge trudge. Bassist/vocalist Bahb Branca’s vocals are higher pitched than typical and full of a sneering spit in your eye brashness. Album opener “Wizard Pimp” damn near gallops for the first few verses before falling into spells of exhausted, pounding sludge. “Black Maggot” is built from a similar blueprint, but with a flavor of punk lineage. The band’s tendency toward frequent shifts reduces the likeliness of the album growing stale by its end, even if the formula has become very predictable by that time. Songs like the especially foul tempered “Negative D” and “Don’t Fear the Reefer” open with a lumbering trudge only to blaze into bouts of uptempo bile coated vitriol. “Roach Detector” sports a damn catchy hook in the intro before settling down into the typical, doom soaked march. Album closer “Dirty Living” features vocals from Beaten Back to Pure’s Ben Hogg, and his swamp-soaked roar is a perfect match for the track’s trudging crooked melody. Besides the tie in album producer and fellow BBTP member Vince Burke, Hogg’s guest spot works well because it’s not hard to imagine Ultralord as some kind of northern, urban cousin, stylistically. It’s good to see the group of vets in Ultralord take on this new project, and We Hate You All and Hope You Die is a good effort that will no doubt have the usual suspects salivating in anticipation of the grime and aggression.