Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
“Neverland,” Ulver‘s fourteenth studio album, will be released on December 31st, New Year’s Eve, as reported by theprp. The record will first be available digitally, and on February 27th, it will be physically released. “Neverland,” which is described as a mostly instrumental affair, shows the black metal turned synth-pop group putting less pressure on themselves. After keyboardist/programmer Tore Ylwizaker passed away in 2024, the band decided to take on more responsibilities themselves rather than hiring a new successor.
With ‘Neverland‘ we embraced a more ‘punk’ spirit – more dreaming, less discipline — freer, quite simply.
Tracklist:
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Lineup on “Neverland”:
Kristoffer Rygg – drums, percussion, electronics, synthesizer, vocals
Ole Alexander Halstensgård – programming, electronics, synthesizer
Anders Møller – percussion, drums
Jørn H. Sværen – synthesizer
Stian Westerhus – guitar, bass guitar
Additionally, Sara Khorami contributed a few guest vocals. The album’s production was overseen by Rygg and Halstensgård, while Møller handled the mixing. The visualizer for the first single, “Weeping Stone,” is a recent release from this impending project.
Following three albums – “The Assassination of Julius Caesar” (2017), “Flowers of Evil” (2020), and “Liminal Animals” (2024) – rooted in more traditional song and production structures, “Neverland” marks a new chapter in the revered Oslo band’s history. Bursts of daybreak synths and whooshes of sound set the atmosphere, before the wolves start digging into the dynamics of ambient calm and anarchic mysticism. Dreamy and transportive textures develop into trippy percussive energies, and as the album unfolds, a lush and vibrant, and at times exotic space opens.
Apart from a few recurring distant voices and vocal chops, “Neverland” is a largely instrumental record, reminiscent of the mood and structure of that place where late ’90s IDM sounds met the meandering structures of post-rock. The ghost of premillennial sample culture surely haunts “Neverland”, and some might even hear echoes from earlier acclaimed works like “Perdition City” (2000), or the “Silence” EPs (2001), or more recently “ATGCLVLSSCAP” (2016). Still, “Neverland” sounds and feels like something else, something fresh in Ulver’s continuous journey of perennial reinvention. Pop music from in-between.
