ULVER - Blood Inside

I should give Themes from... another try one day, I used to have it and decided it was horribly incoherent and flabby compared to bands like Arcturus (who I still have a big soft spot for) but not as convincingly loopy as 666 International (ditto)

it is incoherent and flabby but it is also legitimately batshit. i don't like it so much but you can't deny it's unique

Incoherent I get, but flabby ? If anything, and despite all the interludes, it's very focused and they take themselves very much too seriously. It's like a strange and dark industrial rock opera mixed with ambient and folk. Maybe you mean linear. But many songs either hit pretty hard, are trance-like and/or feature monstrous basslines. The Argument, A Memorable Fancy 6-7, Proverbs of Hell, Plates 12-13, Memorable Fancy 17-20, plates 21-22, Memorable Fancy 22-24 and others immediately before or after (I just mentioned the whole album). And it sounds utterly deranged / out of this world. I like to think old Blake would have been pleased. And like, who does that ? The text is easily 20 pages. I've listened to the album so much that it just seems a cool addition that it's Blake.

is there any way to listen to Nattens Madrigal without giving yourself massive tinnitus afterwards

xps it's been a while since I've heard it tbf I just remember thinking of it that way. What I should do is try to re-evaluate all the stuff I didn't like back in the day and see if I feel any different now my tastes have changed a bit. I was never into anything between Nattens Madrigal and Blood Inside.

In answer to frogbs' question: not that I'm aware of...

Nattens is unlistenable of course, it's an army of jigsaws, but maybe at low volume on headphones.