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Friday Full-Length: Ufomammut, Eve

Ufomammut, Eve (2010)

I wanted to close out this week with something spacious and brain-meltingly heavy, and once I knew that, there was really nowhere else to turn other than to Ufomammut. When their sixth full-length, the 44-minute single piece divided into five parts Eve (review here), was released in 2010 on Supernatural Cat — prior to their signing to Neurot — the band had this to say about its making:

As per the band, the concept of Eve was initially inspired by Pink Floyd‘s Meddle album. “The idea was to work on a long song and some satellites” the band state. “Then we started in playing this song that was growing and developing bigger and bigger. And it was like we were reaching something new; a different knowledge. So I got the feeling we had to move it around something that was about freedom; the idea of rebellion, of fighting to reach something important, and peculiar.”

“The concept of Eve was cool because cause you can read it on both sides, like the Ouroboros; a serpent circle eating itself. When all the other numeric things we came out together it all sounded like it was fate, it had to be done.”

…And they said I was a fool for keeping a PR wire archive for half a decade. Fair enough on the concept, but the absolutely perception-shattering results aren’t to be understated. Though the Italian cosmic doom trio followed Eve with their two-part Neurot debut, Oro (reviews here and here) in 2012, I think Eve might still remain their definitive statement to date. The range they show, the tension in their builds, the sheer density of the mix and weight of their tones — it’s mad genius at work and unlike anything else in the heavy underground or otherwise. A landmark in the truest sense of the word. Ufomammut are a band I think would be much more influential if people could actually figure out how they construct the kind of noise-wash that permeates Eve.

As it stands, this record turns five years old this spring, and as Ufomammut move past their 15th anniversary and have recently finished work on a follow-up to Oro, it will be interesting to hear whether they’ve continued to expand their sound or, having paused to look back at their earlier material with the XV DVD (review here) and Magickal Mastery Tour live dates, if they might take influence from that and strip down some of the droning impulse ahead of their promised first North American tour. Did I say “interesting to hear?” Sorry. What I meant was “I can’t fucking wait to find out.” Yeah. That was it.

Whatever their wizardry conjures, Eve is a standout and was an early entry onto the list of the 2010s’ best albums of the decade. If you haven’t listened to it in a while, I hope you enjoy getting lost in its reaches all over again.

The Patient Mrs. and I watched the last Hobbit movie last night. Woof it sucked. There was, what, maybe 20 minutes of actual movie in the two-plus hours? And on the rare occasion dialogue made its way in among all the popping off of goblin heads in extended fight scenes, aerial shots of New Zealand (not complaining about that, New Zealand is fucking beautiful) and elf sashaying, lines like “I got this” induced more cringes than adrenaline. All I kept thinking was about the Deep Space 9 I wasn’t watching. And I frickin’ worshiped at the altar of Lord of the Rings. Just wasn’t enough there to make a third movie out of and you could tell it was drawn out to fill time. Hey bro, I’ll take a quality 100-minute movie over nearly three hours of hawt-is-good-ugly-is-bad fight scenes and needless Legolas time. Like anyone needed more Legolas.

Could just be I’m sour because I’m injured. The Patient Mrs. — because I’m afraid to leave the house by myself, apparently — and I spent the better part of last week in New Jersey. Actually it was family stuff, but the paranoia better suits my narrative, so fuck it. We come back this past Sunday night, it’s pouring and as we’re unloading the car after about five hours on the road, I fall down the outside stairs and do some excruciating ankle damage. We were in the ER until about 2AM Sunday night. Nothing broken. Got some crutches, some pain meds that we haven’t even picked up at the pharmacy and was sent on my merry way. Went to another doctor on Wednesday because it was still swollen and I was worried about ligament damage and it turned out all he wanted to talk about was how big my ass is. Super. Thanks. Yeah, I almost forgot about it, but any chance you could take a look at my fucking ankle? No? Okay, great.

So what does it all mean? For one thing, it means i’m not going to see High on Fire in Maine this weekend. Today’s really the first day I can put any weight on my left foot at all, and the thought of standing for four hours even for such a worthy cause seems like a good way to not continue healing. It also means that last night I was up until about 2:30AM setting things up to be posted today so that, let’s say around 3:30PM, I’d be able to knock off early and call it a week. What happens next? What shitty misadventure awaits? I don’t know and I don’t really care. All I know is I’ve had enough week and it’s time to hit reset.

Monday, look out for a Throat track stream, and, later in the week, one from Elder. I’m also planning to put up my 2015 most anticipated albums list, but I might push it back another week. We’ll see how tomorrow goes and if I can get a start, because it’s definitely a multi-day process.

Hope you dig the Ufomammut and have a tremendous goblin-free (unless it’s Orange Goblin, in which case, right on) weekend. Be safe, watch that bottom step, and we’ll see you back here Monday for more kvetching and riffs.

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