Tulus

Biography Obscene

Indie Recordings 2007

Norwegian favorites, Tulus return after an overly long absence and the recent demise of their newer incarnation, Khold.  But has time been good to them and how will they sound now that they have resurrected such a cherished and highly regarded entity?  The answer is they have weathered these expectations quite well.  Biography Obscene sees Tulus returning with a vengeance and a supreme confidence over their musical heritage as well as their future.  This album displays the older more groove heavy styles of early Tulus and Khold combined with a newfound love of exploration and growth.  Evidence of the two aspects feeding off each other can be found in the heavy as hell guitar grooves that are accented with piano musings at the 1:20 mark of Natal Day.  But the straight up groove styles of Khold can still be found on a track like Demise, where incidentally they also use the Saxophone which I must say is a little awkward sounding as it warbles over the pounding underlying riff.  My favorite song has to be Stories Untold which begins with a somber violin passage that almost has a gypsy-esque feeling to it that is all of a sudden mirrored by dark as night black metal riffing and venomous vocals from Sverre as he spins yarns of darkness and mystery.  Stories Untold as well as the rest of the album summons to mind a sort of musical version of the writings of H.P. Lovecraft and the eldritch horrors that lurked within his pages are now brought to life by the compositions found on Biography Obscene.  Tulus has incorporated so many different instruments here with great success such as Piano, Violin, Saxophone, acoustic guitar, keyboards, female vocals, etc.  But rather than make this some sort of pompous experiment in self adulation, they have fused all those instruments around their core musical foundation and turned it all into bitterness and despair.  And prime example of this is frantic maelstrom of Allow No Light with its twisted and energetic strong, guitar and keyboard interplay.  Biography Obscene is apparently a concept album though it is hard to discern exactly what it is with the promo though I am sure it is quite evident with the full release.  Tulus has been sorely missed by many fans but if their future albums are as strong as Biography Obscene then I have a feeling Khold won’t be.