Review by Jeger on November 10, 2024.

To tread unflinchingly into musical horizons anew and to embrace the obscurity of cross-genre extreme metal has not necessarily been my modus operandi over the years. I’ve dedicated my craft mainly to the art of black metal with some leanings into the realm of death and thrash metals, but every now and again, I get a promo in my inbox that just cannot be ignored and must be explored. This time around, I’ve been introduced to one Bram the Bard and his project, Wizard Tattoo - a multi-faceted representation of varying influences ranging from doom/stoner to a little prog and even some psychedelic black metal - equipped with epic acoustic sensibilities. Like DC Comics’s Lobo or some lost ’70s Marvel fantasy brought to life. On December 6, 2024, Wizard Tattoo will release Living Just For Knife Fighting via Garage Fire Recordings. 

A journey! One that begins under the desert moon by bonfire’s glow and to an outlaw soliloquy set to acoustic guitar, fiddle, and Fausto Auerlius’s rustic vocals during 'Living Just For Dying' - a lulling mood-setter and a foreshadowing of epic adventures to come. One would expect a follow-up banger, but not this time. Once again, a dreamlike, almost tribal number in the following track, 'The Wizard Who Loved Me', set to more acoustics, bongos, and the mystifying crash of a gong. Soulful yet elegant vocals contributed by Djinnifer provide a most sentimental vibe before Bram reaches into his musical utility belt and produces 'Tomorrow Dies'. Like a fantasy-driven rendition of some lost Nachtmystium deep cut: blackened and psychedelic yet gargantuan and wicked! Rip a bong load to this one, let your eyelids droop, and just groove… The melody and the rhythm; a blessed union indeed. 

Living Just For Knife Fighting is the combination of two previously released EP recordings plus a few covers: 'In The Meantime' by Helmet, 'Dirty Black Summer' by Danzig, and 'Orgasmatron' by Motörhead, but before you reach the point of homage, you’re met with the gravitational 'Varsak Of Man', the Country Western 'My Second Knife Fight' and a thought-provoking, visuals-inducing closing instrumental in 'Edge Of Reprisal' to culminate what’s been a very unique expedition. 

A record to put on and just daydream or trip on mushrooms to is Living Just For Knife Fighting. The talent speaks for itself and the imagination? Like a Mastodon rendezvous with The Lizard King out in the great expanse of the Western Desert of North America; a trip back through time and into a world of music that I guarantee you’ve never experienced before. Is this trio bound for mainstream notoriety? More like a cult legend, and I’d wager that Wizard Tattoo aim to keep it that way. Take a risk! You’ll be happy you did. It’s projects such as this one that keep shit interesting. Innovative like Crystal Pepsi and yet classic like an old pair of Doc Martens. A sonic Tarantino flick with all the appropriate swagger. Living Just For Knife Fighting - a purist’s delight but also a whole lot of something for the fantasy dork in all of us. Music that Brodie from Mallrats would listen to. Care for a chocolate-covered pretzel? Snoogins…

Rating: 8 out of 10

Review by Alex on April 11, 2021.

Universally Estranged has released the strangest death metal album I've heard in a while. The album title alone is enough to make you scratch your nod. Reared Up In Spectral Predation; an euphemism for a curse term combined with an intellectual phrase. A scientific underbelly of darkness and cosmo-sexual mechanisms operating at perplexed and unequivocal angles; Reared Up In Spectral Predation is a most gratifying and scornful advent into the farthest realms of the galaxy and your guts.

What struck me after 3 repeated listening sessions is the seamless way Universally Estranged was able to walk a thin line between creating an absurdly technical record and carving out something that the listener can follow even with so many syncopated rhythm sections. Perhaps it could also be the band's greatest feat accomplished with this undertaking, not making the listener uncomfortable with effective technical artistry while still being able to place a sheet of structural simplicity over the songs to mask the complex instrumental engineering.

You'd be made aware of the thrashing layers atop the serpentine sonics that'd mimic Vector on 'Internecine Psychic Bloodletting' or even the frenetic 'Despoiling The Souls Of Flesh Across The Galaxy' that boasts a rather strong ambiance all working together to create a sense of movement, connection, and continuity. Then there's a song like 'The Visitor' that'd mimic mid-era Death in some sections while still tearing a page out of Blood Incantation's and Timeghouls's book before making landfall on yet another ambient techno-cosmic piece.

A lot is going on the album and I think it won't be long before you pick up on it. Musically you're tangled and left paralyzed due to the multiplicity of interwoven transitions and technical flare. However, it must be noted that Reared Up In Spectral Predation contains a runtime of slightly over 30 minutes but feels like a much longer album (but in a very good way). Like a novel or some sort of documentary, the record appears to have its intro, thesis, and conclusion adhere gracefully. It has to be the unpredictability of the musicianship that has caused this to happen along with loads of ambiance featured on a song such as 'Teeming With That Of Unknown Origin' that again manages to cast a shade of grey over the listener's ear causing the technical ambition to not override the atmosphere evoked.

There's also something about that guitar tone that I just love; some parts bring to mind Crackdust's "Dented Reality" being one of my favorite death metal albums. Forgive the name dropping but its far too many influences or similarities heard on the record to not at least list a few.

Reared Up In Spectral Predation is an exceptional album that merges eerie cosmic atmospherics with serpentine guitar and drum parallels while molding a consonant yet corrupt soup of cosmic carnality. A must-have for the lower regions of death metal; you'll be 'Blistered Under The Blue Illusion'.

Rating: 9.4 out of 10