Ulterior - Wild In Wildlife

Ulterior's "Wild In Wildlife" (2011) is generally praised as a powerful, visceral gothic/post-punk album, lauded for its intense 80s sound (like The Sisters of Mercy/PiL), driving drum machines, hard synths, raw vocals, and nihilistic attitude; reviewers found it a convincing fusion of influences and a strong capture of their live energy, though some noted moments of pastiche or uneven song placement.

Abundant with filth, sweat and darkness, Wild In Wildlife's not for the faint hearted.

Lyrics of death, apocalypse, fast cars, urban deviance and fornication. Synthesizers, drum machines and pompous guitars that exude so much leather and sweat you could outfit an S&M army with them.

Yep, Ulterior are not afraid to stomp their boots on territories other, lesser mortals fear to tread. The band filter the stadium gothicism of the Sisters Of Mercy via the intensity of ‘Xtrmntr’-era Primal Scream.

What makes Ulterior more than just a creaking tribute act, though, is the feeling of utter conviction that runs through the whole of this record, like a lubed fist in a… see, it’s catching. Completely preposterous, sure, but brilliant for it.

Words By Gannon

Crawling out of the same dark-hearted hole, Ulterior set themselves apart by valuing their drum machine so highly that it (MKIII) features as a member of the band in promotional material – and it’s easy to see why.

On explosive album opener “Sex War Sex Cars Sex”, it propels the band forward on an urgent bed of whip-crack percussion while Paul McGregor (who calls himself Honey) squeezes out a very convincing PiL -era John Lydon turn from behind clenched teeth. Then, within the same track, that same machine is instrumental in launching the band’s doom-and-gloom dance-floor hooks into altogether dirtier, louder hunting grounds.

With this marker laid down, Wild In Wildlife quickly contorts into a Goth-flavoured, full-frontal rocker built on dangerous bass lines that are saturated in adrenaline and, at times, brutal industrial synth. And, while the acerbic highs of the erotically-charged opener are never quite again hit, this long-time coming LP nevertheless has plenty of morose moments that run it close.

Though the ballad-esque “Catherine”, which chirps with one of The Bravery ‘s synth lines and a croon borrowed from Billy Idol could be too pastiche for some, and though the peculiarly windblown closer “Shallow Brown” seems out of place albeit competent, on the overwhelming whole Wild In Wildlife successfully invokes the spirit of classic, balls-out 80s Goth-rock and, with thanks to that drum machine and that screwed synth, succeeds in making it Ulterior’s own.

Interestingly too, their choice of artwork – an adaptation of Guy Denning ‘s “Where’s Your Famous Golden Touch” – further darkens the work, both theirs and that of the neo-modern abstract already famed for it. The incendiary blowout on the ten-minute title track also proves that, at least in part, the feel of Ulterior’s legendary, “life-changing” live shows have made it to record.

Very much then a viable bottling and packaging of the band’s nihilistic attitude and headlong commitment to noise-making, Wild In Wildlife is fighting fit and clad in rock-star black. And with sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll a maxim rather than cliché, Ulterior come strutting with it into the (s)limelight.

Ripped to MP3

1 - Sex War Sex Cars Sex

2 - Catherine

3 - Sister Speed

4 - Dream Dream

5 - Big City Black Rain

6 - Too in Love to Fuck

7 - The Emptiness We Share

8 - Tarantula

9 - Wild in Wildlife

10 - Shallow Brown