Q and A: Jamie Saint Merat (Ulcerate)

By BRIAN GIFFIN

IT’S BEEN 24 years since Ulcerate began their dark rumblings within the extremely small Auckland metal underground. In the time since then the band has become perhaps New Zealand’s most revered and internationally-identified death metal band. Their experimental nature across seven albums has garnered an enviable reputation and a global following that has welcomed Ulcerate’s gradual musical transitions. Reviews of their albums from 2007’s debut Of Fracture and Failure to 2024’s Cutting the Throat of God average a staggering 89 percent across 49 reviews on the notorious and notoriously hard-marking Metal Archives – Cutting the Throat of God chimes in with 98 percent from 11 reviews, putting it in the realms of the site’s most highly-regarded releases.

Ulcerate’s Australasian tour through Australia and their homeland begins today in Christchurch. A few weeks back we checked in with drummer Jamie Saint Merat.

Hot Metal: Ulcerate is returning to Australia again soon. You’ve really done a lot of work since you were here last.
Jamie Saint Merat: “We just try to squeeze in as much as we can. And, bear in mind, we all have day jobs, as well. We do as much as we can.”

HM: As artists, you do what you do, so are you surprised sometimes that people appreciate the music that Ulcerate creates?
JSM: “Yeah. Like you said, we are only writing this for ourselves. We are writing material that we find fucking interesting, and the fact that it translates … It hasn’t always. Our output over the years – it’s not for everyone! It is certainly interesting that the last couple of albums have had a big uptick in people showing an interest in us. I think it’s also that the music we’re writing now is a little bit more palatable, perhaps. That’s the closest word. I wouldn’t say “accessible” but it has an emotional core to it now that on prior albums we were trying to keep that out of it. It was as much as about being suffocating and oppressive. Now, I think, with the themes, it’s more retrospective.”

HM: Was that a conscious shift or something that came about due to progression?
JSM: “Before we sat down to write Stare Into Death and Be Still, the second last album, we were just exhausted with the territory that we had been exploring for the past decade or 15 years. None of us really listen to music like this, anymore. So we either have to quit, and say, ‘this project is over’, and move on to something else, or, find a way to recalibrate and realign the music we are making. So that’s what we did. It was the idea of introducing more melody, more breathing room, more power, maybe going darker thematically, while losing some of the aggression. That’s much more in line with the music that we enjoy listening to from other bands these days. After we’d make these subtle adjustments – well, not as subtle for us! After we made these recalibations we thought, ‘Fuck, how is this going to go down?’ But we gotta do it for ourselves, but it seemed to recalibrate things for our fanbase, as well.”

HM: That’s something in itself, because so many bands can lose a good part of their fanbase by doing something that isn’t even dramatically different
JSM: “Yes. The way I look at it, we are deadly aficionados about music, and you know it when bands do things for the wrong idea. It’s a sellout manoeuvre or trying to fix a problem and miscalculated it. You can feel it immediately. And that’s not what we’ve done. It’s just kept in alignment with our audience. There’s always going to be people who prefer the harsher, early material. I have that with a lot of bands, as well. A lot of our favourite bands … look at Ulver, a band that reinvents itself every album. Not every album you’ll be into, so you can sidestep certain albums, but they might do something that blows you away two or three albums later. That’s the territory that we want to be in. And we have to take risks. We’re not doing this for a living. We don’t have any masters. We’re not answering to anyone. So we better make it worth our while! It’s cheesy, yes, but if you can stay true to your own ethos, it will see you through. Unless we lose our minds! Then it’s our fault.”

HM: People have always seen Ulcerate as a band that experiments, so they have expected you to take a new direction here and there. You’ve already established yourself as a band that takes those chances, rather than one that just starts doing that, so that’s probably helped, too.
JSM: “For sure. And, maybe not from day one, but by the time we got a couple of albums in, we had established that we like to stretch boundaries of the genre that we’re in. We’re not trying to be avant garde, but in the spectrum of traditionalism at one end, and avant garde at the other, we’re in the middle, and maybe nudging toward the avant garde. We’ve kind of struck that balance. That’s where we think the best stuff is.”

HM: I enjoy traditional metal as much as anybody, but I also like bands that are doing very different things. I think metal is one of those genres that embraces experimentalism and Ulcerate is a band that does it very well.
JSM: “For us at least, the most long-standing and powerful music is a mixture of those things. Fully avant-garde is just too far to the right, and boring old traditionalism is just something you’ve heard before. But if somewhere in there is a mixture, you’re going to be creating some really compelling work.”

HM: Are you working on something else at the moment? I know that this is the end of the cycle for Throat… so are you working towards new music now?
JSM: “Yes. We have literally just kicked that off. We’ve been talking about it since late last year, just formulating a bit of a gameplan and trying to clear up some space and time to get started on it properly. We’ve just started, basically, and it’s exciting.”

ULCERATE AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2026 – all dates with The Amenta

TICKETS

MAY 7: Ed Castle, Adelaide
MAY 8: Max Watts, Melbourne
MAY 9: Crowbar, Sydney
MAY 10: Crowbar, Brisbane