Italian cosmic doom progenitors Ufomammut have always believed presentation matters and they’ve got the closely-associated Malleus visual arts studio to prove it, but I can’t remember them ever quite going so deep into that notion as to manifest an album’s concept in the actual piece of plastic to which it’s pressed. Yeah, they’ve done special editions and on-theme colors, but Hidden takes that another step as you can read in the just-got-here PR wire info below. See also the sense of crushing weight and consuming atmosphere that’s defined most of their output over the course of the last two-and-a-half-plus decades. That seems to be well intact too, as demonstrated in their new animated video for “Leeched,” the first single from what will be their 10th full-length, out May 17 through Neurot Recordings and their own Supernatural Cat imprint.

Newfomammut is always good news as far as I’m concerned. Last Fall, they offered a sneak peak at Hidden‘s direction in the Crookhead EP (review here), the title-track from which features as the new record’s opener. “Leeched” finds the three-piece digging into the heart of their approach with clarity and efficiency across its five minutes, but if the other nine Ufomammut albums — the last of which was Fenice (review here), released just in 2022 — have taught us anything, it’s that you never know all the places the band will explore until you’re actually in the whole record itself. Even then sometimes you might lose track of where you’re at. Don’t worry, that’s part of the thing too.

Something to look forward to:

UFOMAMMUT: Italian Psychedelic Doom Trio To Release Tenth Album, Hidden, On Neurot Recordings/Supernatural Cat Records On May 17th; Animated Video For “Leeched” + Album Details And Preorders Posted

Italian psychedelic doom metal trio UFOMAMMUT celebrates their 25th Anniversary in 2024 including the release of their massive tenth studio full-length, Hidden. Today, the band confirms the album for May release on Neurot Recordings/Supernatural Cat Records, unveiling the cover art, track listing, preorders, and an animated video for the song “Leeched.”

Rising from the ashes of their prior band Judy Corda, UFOMAMMUT formed in the late 1990s by Poia (guitars, effects) and Urlo (bass, vocals, effects, synths), together with Vita (drums). With Levre taking over on drums in 2021, the band has undergone a rebirth, culminating in the release of the 2022-released Fenice LP, and on Halloween 2023, the Crookhead EP.

Over the course of two-and-a-half decades, UFOMAMMUT has developed a unique sound that combines heavy, dynamic riff worship with a deep understanding of psychedelic tradition in music, which has resulted in a cosmic, futuristic, and technicolor sound that fully immerses listeners. They’ve produced a wide spectrum of albums, EPs, live albums, a box set, compilation tracks, and covers – including a track on the Superunknown Redux Soundgarden tribute album.

Now, in 2024, as they celebrate their quarter-century milestone, UFOMAMMUT is set to release their tenth LP, Hidden. This album marks a shift in the band’s musical composition, aiming for a more intense and heavy sound, as they have displayed over the prior two releases. The title, Hidden, reflects the concept of the presence of everything in our existence and the ability to bring to light what lies within us. With Hidden, the band delves into a sonic journey that traverses vast expanses of space and time. From the crushing heaviness to the hauntingly melodies, from the textured compositions to the otherworldly atmospheres, Hidden testifies to the never-ending evolution of UFOMAMMUT and their mastery of creating immersive sonic experiences: a fitting celebration of their 25 years of sonic exploration and experimentation.

Like any good psychedelic trip, the music of UFOMAMMUT has always been inextricably intertwined with visual art. Poia describes longer compositions, “like a painting,” as if to reinforce the relevance and importance of visual art in their music. And as always, the artwork, videos, and all visuals/graphics for Hidden were created by Malleus Rock Art Lab, the rock/music graphic design collective of which Poia and Urlo are part of with Lu.

Hidden was recorded at Flat Scenario Studio in Piemonte, Italy, with Lorenzo Stecconi handling the mixing and mastering, and Luca Grossi overseeing vocal tracking.

With the lead single, Poia writes, “‘Leeched,’ the first song from the new full-length album Hidden, perfectly represents the new direction of UFOMAMMUT, which began with the album Fenice and continued with the EP Crookhead and reiterates once again that there are no failures or hesitations in our sonic research.

The fusion between heaviness and psychedelia, an obsession of the band since the beginning, takes on a new, changing form in ‘Leeched.’”

Hidden will be released on CD, LP, and digital on May 17th, in North America through Neurosis’ Neurot Recordings, the vinyl pressed on a Silver Nugget variant in a gatefold jacket. In Europe, the band’s Supernatural Cat Records will release it, a standard version on 180-gram Marbled Purple And Black variant, and a limited version of 500 copies on 180-gram Crystal Clear variant crafted by hand using photosensitive colors that are activated by sunlight, bringing the concept of the album to life, with multiple bundles and options.

Find US preorders/presaves at Neurot Recordings HERE: https://music.neurotrecordings.com/hidden.OPR

EU preorders at Supernatural Cat HERE: https://www.supernaturalcat.com/home/hiddenpreorder/

Hidden Track Listing:
1. Crookhead
2. Kismet
3. Spidher
4. Mausoleum
5. Leeched
6. Soulost

UFOMAMMUT will be touring regularly in support of Hidden, with a long list of tour dates already announced across Europe and the UK through all of May and into June, with much more being plotted. See the current 25 Years Anniversary Tour listings at the band’s website HERE: https://www.ufomammut.com/site/

UFOMAMMUT:
Poia – guitars
Urlo – bass, vocals, effects, synths
Levre – drums
Ciccio – soundlord

https://www.instagram.com/ufomammut
https://www.facebook.com/ufomammutband
https://ufomammut.bandcamp.com
https://www.ufomammut.com

https://www.instagram.com/SupernaturalCat_recs
https://www.facebook.com/Supernaturalcat666
https://www.supernaturalcat.com

https://www.instagram.com/neurotrecordings
https://www.facebook.com/neurotrecordings
https://neurotrecordings.bandcamp.com
https://www.neurotrecordings.com

Ufomammut, “Leeched” official video

Italian cosmos compilers Ufomammut will celebrate Halloween 2023 with the release of Crookhead, a new three-song EP. Releasing through their own Supernatural Cat imprint and of course handling the artwork in-house through their (partial) visual arts alter ego Malleus as per standard operating procedure, the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Poia, bassist/vocalist/synthesist Urlo (also The Mon) and still-recent-but-has-an-album-under-his-belt-now drummer Levre — all of whom make a great deal of noise — revel in raw spaces across the 17-minute outing, which serves triple duty as the follow-up to 2022’s Fenice (review here), a preface to their 10th album next year, and a solid merch-table feature for the Fall tour they’re about to start this weekend ahead of the EP’s actual release. No sweat to those in Maastricht and Munich, though. I’m sure they’ve got you covered as regards vinyl.

Also crush. Crookhead begins its offload with the title-track and works righteously longest to shortest through “Crookhead” (8:59), “Supernova” (5:12) and “Vibrhate” (3:35), and wholly justifies its release in about the first 15 seconds. “Crookhead” quickly establishes itself as a physical force of tonality. There’s historical context as regards the trajectory of their growth, but in order to make this sentence shorter than the actual EP, I’ll spare you some of it.

Suffice it to say that Ufomammut have never stopped seeking new dimensions within the void. Their heavycraft, which as the PR wire notes is nearly 25 years on from its initial manifestations, is singularly identifiable and constantly evolving within its sphere. When Poia and Urlo (both founding members) brought Levre on as drummer in 2021, coming back from a hiatus announced in Jan. 2020, the result on Fenice was reorientation of principles.

Crookhead shares with Fenice a play between the expansive and the claustrophobic. Ufomammut craft huge spaces and drop them on your bones with all due gravity, and Crookhead effectively and efficiently showcases the various sides of their methodology, from the title-cut’s ultra-low distortion rumbling at a mean clip into the sampled-speech-topped central riff.

They ride that current of aural concrete to a stop at 1:50 and kick back in with Levre setting the slow march on hi-hat, as the speech echoes, complemented by grunts or effects-twists, whatever it might be — since it’s technology I don’t understand I’ll just call it magic — and pummel themselves into a break after four minutes in with a pinging sound like the construction across the street from where I live when they pull out rebar (it’s not the same sound, I checked), and a creeping melody of mosquito-buzz synth to bolster the tension ahead of the smooth return to full volume. Onward they roll, to victory, death, or that spot on an accretion disk where you might get a bit of both at once as the light bends around you and you watch the universe’s entire future unfurl in whacked-out spacetime.

It’s a build, and they’re galloping by the finish, but because it’s Ufomammut, “Crookhead” is as much an expression of ambience as heft. With a memory-wipe 30 seconds of drone/synth noise, “Supernova” soon enough meets “Crookhead” on its own level of impossibly-dense noise riffing, but the turn toward atmospherics happens sooner, and is more patient, more willfully psychedelic.

Interesting to note that the vocals are spoken there too, but it’s a short stretch as Poia soon draws a solo over the soundscape, and a few more words lead into to a full-bore layered melodic verse before opening again to the speech and cycling through one more time. As will certainly happen, the vocals are in part consumed by the surrounding instruments, but that’s part of the immersion; the sense that all things are being consumed and so you are too. This is who they are.

They’re also the quiet psychedelics and the furious bludgeoning, and however fuck-yes-this-is-what-my-brain-needs the heaviest moments of Crookhead might be, dynamic is essential to the character of Ufomammut new or old. They have purposefully stripped down their style, but “Crookhead” and “Supernova” and “Vibrhate,” which also opens synthy and runs that thread alongside the relatively uptempo push of the guitar, bass and drums. For them, it’s a departure in structure and among the most straightforward, ‘traditional’-style metal songs they’ve ever done, but it’s neither out of place in style nor sound next to the other two, and the defined verses help ground the proceedings ahead of the last shove. In the spirit of the EP as a whole, I’ll call it ‘brutiful.’

And I’ll leave it there so you can actually hear the thing. You know the drill. Tour dates, preorder link and whatnot follow the EP premiere on the player below, courtesy of the aforementioned PR wire.

Please enjoy:

Ufomammut, Crookhead EP premiere

UFOMAMMUT presents a brand new EP, Crookhead, with three new songs that continue the expansion of the band’s sonic vision. The EP was recorded at Flat Scenario Studio in Italy by Lorenzo Stecconi in July 2022, and was mixed and mastered at Triple Sun by Stecconi. The artwork, as with all of the band’s releases, was designed and printed in Italy by Malleus Rock Art Lab, the graphic design collective of which Poia and Urlo are both founding members. The artwork, with its handprinted and numbered silkscreened cover, adds an artistic touch to the EP. Crookhead is a foretaste of the band’s impending tenth album, which will be released when the band celebrates their 25th anniversary in 2024.

The band reveals, “Crookhead is the Middle Earth, the gateway to something that lies within us and has yet to come, a bridge connecting our rebirth place called Fenice and the incoming journey. These three pieces perfectly represent how the new UFOMAMMUT form takes definitive shape and unfolds its fangs towards space, towards the unknown lands that await each of us. Crookhead is simply the final result of the urge to write new music, the natural introduction of our next record.”

UFOMAMMUT’s Crookhead EP will be released on Halloween, October 31st. The EP will released digitally and in a limited edition vinyl version of 500 copies: 200 on Marble Red Vinyl, 200 in Marble Gold Vinyl, and 100 in clear transparent vinyl which will be available only on the band’s fall tour. Preorders are now live at the Supernatural Cat shop HERE: https://www.supernaturalcat.com/home/?s=crookhead

UFOMAMMUT has booked a Fall tour across Europe in conjunction with the release of Crookhead, with dates running from October 29th through December 3rd. See the confirmed dates below and expect new tours to be announced into the new year.

UFOMAMMUT Tour Dates:
10/29/2023 Samhain Festival – Maastricht, NL
10/30/2023 Feierwerk – Munich, DE
11/04/2023 Sonic Rites – Helsinki, FI
11/15/2023 Mostovna – Nova Gorica, SLO
11/16/2023 Arena – Wien, AT
11/17/2023 Turbina – Budapest, HU
11/18/2023 Stadtwerkstatt – Linz, AT
11/19/2023 Kamienna – Krakow, PL
11/20/2023 Hydrozagadka – Warsaw, PL
11/21/2023 Kabinet Muz – Brno, CZ
11/22/2023 Club 007 Strahov – Prague, CZ
11/23/2023 Cassiopeia – Berlin, DE
11/24/2023 Hafenklang – Hamburg, DE
11/25/2023 4AD – Diksmuide, BE
11/26/2023 GeBAude 9 – Koln, DE
11/27/2023 P8 – Karlsruhe, DE
11/29/2023 Effenaar – Eindhoven, NL
11/30/2023 Le Bulle – Lille, FR
11/01/2023 Petit Bain – Paris, FR
11/02/2023 La Poudriere – Belfort, FR
11/03/2023 Old Capitol – Langenthal, CH

UFOMAMMUT:
Poia – guitars, effects
Urlo – bass, vocals, effects, synths
Levre – drums, effects
Ciccio – soundlord

Ufommammut website

Ufomammut on Facebook

Ufomammut on Instagram

Supernatural Cat website

Supernatural Cat on Facebook

Supernatural Cat on Instagram

Some emails you like to get, and word of a new release upcoming from Italian cosmic doom progenitors Ufomammut is never anything but welcome. The long-running trio will issue the three-songer EP Crookhead on Halloween through Supernatural Cat, which is their own label, with art by Malleus, which is their graphic design company/arthouse weirdo outlet. Multi-tier DIY, in other words. Preorders are up, including limited editions — there’s a clear version that will be sold on the Fall tour, 200 copies; those’ll go — and it’s a herald for the band’s next full-length, which if it shows up in 2024 will still be a pretty quick turnaround from 2022’s Fenice (review here), which was released on Neurot. An Ufomammut record every two years is pretty oldschool, but I’ll certainly take the productivity.

PR wire info follows, including the tour dates, which start Oct. 29:

UFOMAMMUT – CROOKHEAD EP – Pre Order Now

RELEASE DATE : OCTOBER 31, 2023

Preorder link: https://www.supernaturalcat.com/home/?s=crookhead

“Crookhead” is a 3 songs EP and it’s anticipating the 10th Ufomammut full length coming in 2024. It is a limited edition of 500 copies in total, of which 200 in marbled red vinyl, 200 in marbled gold vinyl and 100 in clear transparent vinyl (available only during the 2023 European fall tour). Designed, hand printed and crafted in Italy by Malleus Rock Art Lab, “Crookhead EP” is available worldwide via Supernatural Cat Recs.

CROOKHEAD TRACK LISTING:
1. Crookhead
2. Supernova
3. Vibrhate

Recorded (at Flat Scenario Studio, in Italy, JULY 2022),
mixed and mastered at Triple Sun by LORENZO STECCONI

Crookhead EP will be available in pre-order till the release date on a special price.

UFOMAMMUT / EU Fall Tour 2023
29/10. Samhain festival – Maastricht (NL)
30/10. Feierwerk – Munich (DE)
04/11. Sonic Rites – Helsinki (FI)
15/11. Mostovna – Nova Gorica (SLO)
16/11. Arena – Wien (AT)
17/11. Turbina – Budapest (HU)
18/11. Stadtwerkstatt – Linz (AT)
19/11. Kamienna – Krakow (PL)
20/11. Hydrozagadka – Warsaw (PL)
21/11. Kabinet Muz – Brno (CZ)
22/11. Club 007 Strahov – Prague (CZ)
23/11. Cassiopeia – Berlin (DE)
24/11. Hafenklang – Hamburg (DE)
25/11. 4AD – Diksmuide (BE)
26/11. GeBAude 9 – Koln (DE)
27/11. P8 – Karlsruhe (DE)
29/11. Effenaar – Eindhoven (NL)
30/11. Le Bulle – Lille (FR)
01/12. Petit Bain – Paris (FR)
02/12. La Poudriere – Belfort (FR)
03/12. Old Capitol – Langenthal (CH)

UFOMAMMUT are:
Poia – Guitars and Fxs
Urlo – Bass, Vocals, Fxs and Synths
Levre – Drums & Fxs
Ciccio – Sound lord

www.ufomammut.com
www.facebook.com/ufomammutband
www.instagram.com/ufomammut

http://www.supernaturalcat.com

Ufomammut, Fenice (2022)

[Click play above to stream Eye by The Mon in its entirety. Album is out tomorrow on Supernatural Cat and available to order here.]

Eye is the second full-length from The Mon, a solo-project helmed by bassist/vocalist Urlo of Ufomammut, and whether it’s for the echoing reach of its atmosphere, the finer detailing in the ticking-clock plucked violin strings on “Burning From Afar,” the empty-space minimalism from which “The Manure of Our Remains” swells, or the low-end drone that underscores opener “The Sun,” it is an album that feels very much made for headphones.

Produced, mixed and mastered by Urlo in follow-up to 2018’s Doppelleben and sundry multimedia experiments under The Mon‘s banner, the 11-song/37-minute collection sees issue through Supernatural Cat and features artwork by Malleus, as Urlo finds his way into a kind of multi-tiered Neurot Recordings-esque DIY structure while at the same time bringing in guest contributors throughout the release, whether it’s Amenra‘s Colin H. Van Eeckhout contributing lyrics and vocals on the wistful “To the Ones,” Steve Von Till of Neurosis doing likewise, plus synth, for “Confession,” or the artist Francesca De Franceschi Manzoni adding her voice to the channel-spanning layers amid the quiet guitar march/synth of second track “Secret,” which instead of exploding into heft for another seven minutes as an Ufomammut song might, instead turns to blinding synth wash for its payoff. So it goes.

Sarah Pendleton of The Otolith (ex-SubRosa) is the most prominent of the guests, at least in terms of affecting the sound of the record. Her violin fits seamlessly into the psychedelic synth and backward guitar of “This Dark o’ Mine,” the longest inclusion at 5:10 with samples of what sounds like some kind of crackling dug deep into the mix under the at-least-doubled lead vocal from Urlo — who seems throughout to be inventing an alien cosmic folk branched off of Ufomammut‘s alien cosmic doom — and songs like the subsequent “Burning From Afar” and the Eeckhout-sung “To the Ones” are greatly bolstered texturally by her work, never mind that she’s there alongside Urlo as “The Sun” rises at the start of Eye as one of the first impressions the album makes.

Not to be forgotten or minimalized are the two guest spots on guitar from White Hills‘ Dave W., on “Burning From Afar” and “This Dark o’ Mine,” the latter a manipulated backwards solo and the former — which of course is the track after because I’m bouncing around here and that seems to be what the record wants as it gives you different worlds to explore, some lush, some purposefully not — buried somewhere amid the violin, synth, chime-or-chime-sound, low-end undulations and vocals that make up the track, the total impact like krautrock and surprisingly un-manic for how much has gone into it. There are a few flirtations with prog throughout as some of the vocal patterns might remind of earlier Porcupine Tree in the album’s midsection, but as a whole, Eye is strange enough and enough its own thing that the only genre that applies is ‘weirdo,’ and that is a flag righteously flown.

But not gregariously. Most of Eye, at even its loudest, manifests its heft through atmosphere and emotionalism. And the guests of course add much to the proceedings and give reviewers something to talk about and it’s nice to have friends, etc., but the core of The Mon is of course in Urlo‘s craft and performance. He is all alone on “The Manure of Our Remains,” and the bulk of side B in the final four pieces, the brief instrumental “Mimmi” beginning a procession through the acoustic/synth-based poetic repetitions of “Where,” the sci-fi (or horror, I guess) drone ceremony of “Vampyr” — quick like “Mimmi” at 1:33 — and the finale “Pupi,” which builds on the folkish impression with a Donovan-from-space quiet, semi-spoken vocal delivery in layers and declarative guitar strum to announce the end of its lone verse, the song ending instrumentally before some last captured sample, obscure but likely significant if only to Urlo himself, finishes.

That shift in structure would seem to happen as “Burning From Afar” leads off side B, but with Eeckhout stepping in on “To the Ones” just prior to “Mimmi,” the feeling is more intimate by the end of the album. It’s still given aurally to breadth, but the interplay of short and kinda-short songs in that four-track last stretch of underscores the experimentalist heart of The Mon as an outfit, and highlights the shift from the voluminous drones and outright heavy — sometimes even drummed! — plods that made up Doppelleben to this more contemplative, vocally-focused style. But whatever else it does, and it does plenty, Eye does not allow for easy narrative. In its folkish shift, its experimentalist range around guitar-and-voice-centered traditions, and in the elements of sound that seem to come and go throughout, sometimes with personnel, it is a complex and multifaceted listening experience, Urlo‘s voice guiding the proceedings with emergent confidence and a still-explorational intent.

By which I mean that The Mon declares itself clearly in this material, but the clarity is in the act of feeling its way through the songs. Many artists will tell you they didn’t know where a song was going until it got there. There are moments in Eye that seem genuinely born out of that kind of experience, and the overarching impression is still one of forward growth to come, whatever that might mean in a context that’s already demonstrated such breadth and an ability to pivot in sound from one release to the next. The outer-reaches vocal chanting of “The Manure of Our Remains,” the sweet and ethereal winding of the violin and synth of “The Sun,” and the ideas-parade that caps, along with the fluidity of personnel and the general variation of sonic purpose give Eye a scope that goes beyond the hearing, but it remains emotionally resonant however far out it goes, and so its kaleidoscopic intimacy is cohesive when met on its own level. That’s not something every listener is going to want or be able to do — it never is — but The Mon is more dug into the approach than the outcome here, and there’s no guarantee that the same approach would be taken again, despite the fact that there’s enough vision at work in the material to flesh out an entire career arc.

In other words, it’ll meet you out there. It’s waiting.

The Mon, “Where” official video

The Mon on Facebook

The Mon on Bandcamp

Supernatural Cat website

Supernatural Cat on Facebook

Supernatural Cat on Instagram

Malleus website

One does not need an excuse to see Ufomammut. One simply shows up and receives a pummeling from the outer reaches of the known cosmos as expanded by the James Webb Space Telescope and is thankful for the experience. The long-running Italian trio already did a stretch of dates this Spring to support their new album, Fenice (review here), and Urlo, Poia and post-hiatus drummer Levre will again hit the road this Fall. They were previously announced for Keep it Low in Munich, and they’ll also be at the 25th anniversary celebration of Orange Factory in Belgium.

There are a couple dates TBA on the poster, and you’ll have to forgive me for assuming there’s something there that’s yet to be revealed rather than just empty slots. Worse to worst, Ufomammut, you’re always welcome by me and I’m just like a nine-hour flight from Denmark, so feel free to pop over for a day or two.

The band posted these dates on social media:

So stoked to announce our Fenice Fall Tour!
We will be touring Europe this September and October and we’re looking forward to meet you all again.

Thanks to Sound of Liberation for making this happen and Neurot Recordings and SUPERNATURALCAT for supporting our music.

20.09 – Lyon (FR) – Rock’n’Eat
21.09 – Nantes (FR) – Le Ferrailleur
22.09 – Paris (FR) – Backstage
23.09 – Tourcoing (FR) – Le Grand Mix
24.09 – Leuven (BE) – 25 Years Orange Factory – Het Depot
26.09 – Dortmund (DE) – Junkyard
27.09 – Hamburg (DE) – Knust
28.09 – Malmö (SE) – Plan B
29.09 – Stockholm (SE) – Hus 7
30.09 – Gothenburg (SE) – Valand
01.10 – Oslo (NO) – Kulturkirken Jakob (Høstsabbat presents)
02.10 – Copenhagen (DK) – Loppen
04.10 – TBA
05.10 – Leipzig (DE) – Ut Connewitz
06.10 – TBA
07.10 – München (DE) – Keep It Low Festival
08.10 – Linz (AT) – Stadtwerkstatt

Art by Malleus ROCK ART LAB
Photo by Francesca De Franceschi Manzoni

UFOMAMMUT are:
Poia – Guitars and Fxs
Urlo – Bass, Vocals, Fxs and Synths
Levre – Drums & Fxs
Ciccio – Sound lord

www.ufomammut.com
www.facebook.com/ufomammutband
twitter.com/ufomammutmafia
www.instagram.com/ufomammut

http://www.neurotrecordings.com
http://www.facebook.com/neurotrecordings
https://neurotrecordings.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/OfficialNeurot

http://www.supernaturalcat.com

Ufomammut, Fenice (2022)

For something so fluid in the listening experience, there are an awful lot of angles from which one might view Ufomammut‘s Fenice. Issued in continued association with Neurot Recordings, it is the ninth full-length from the groundbreaking Italian three-piece, whose Poia (guitar, synth) and Urlo (bass, vocals, synth) double as part of the visual arts collective Malleus, so long as one counts 2012’s two-part Oro: Opus Primum (review here) and Oro: Opus Alter (review here) as a single work.

It is also the band’s first album since declaring a perfectly timed indefinite hiatus in early 2020 and returning in April 2021 with new drummer Alessandro “Levre” Levrero, a longtime associate brought into the fold after the departure of Vita (now in Sonic Wolves), which was just the second lineup change Ufomammut have undergone in their 20-plus years of existence. And never mind that Ufomammut are responsible for no small part of the shape of what has become cosmic doom over the years of their tenure. Their blending of synthesizer/keyboard spaciousness, crushing riffs, atmospheric drones and a general sense of chaos — despite having a plan all the while — is singular.

While their influence has been present in the works of many who’ve come along since, Ufomammut remain unto themselves in sound, and Fenice is essentially the process by which they revamp and revitalize what that singularity is. Across the assembled six tracks and 38 minutes, the three-piece of Urlo, Poia and Levre set themselves to the task of remaking Ufomammut in the image of who they are today. Much of that will be recognizable to longer-term listeners or even those who took on 2017’s we’re-telling-you-this-is-definitely-our-eighth-record, 8 (review here), but from the energy with which cuts like 10-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) “Duat” and what follows are delivered, as well as the starkness with which they move back and forth between atmospheric experimentalism and drone and their rib-crunching low-end plunder, there’s a clear, refreshed sensibility to what they’re doing. The time away did them well, and among Fenice‘s strengths in production value and creative reach is the core desire to push themselves forward that has made Ufomammut so crucial and influential in the first place. No two Ufomammut records are the same — even the Oros had their own personalities — and the next one will be different from this. That should be comforting, whether you’re familiar with the band’s past work or not.

“Duat” spends its first three minutes world-building around curious depth charges, but by the time Ufomammut are another two deep, they’ve unfurled the full-bore tonal density with which they’ll work — Lorenzo Stecconi, who engineered, mixed and mastered, has been a mainstay presence of their output and his familiarity serves them well in these new songs and in their own new incarnation; that is to say, they had enough change to deal with going into the studio — and it continues to grow massive as it goes, with the on-the-beat punctuation of Levre‘s snare both along for the ride and propulsive in its own right in helping establish the overarching flow which will carry directly into the shorter drone piece “Kepherer” and on from there, weaving through the rest of the material.

Some right on rumble and bassy vibrations in “Kepherer” — those might be drums, actually — offset by high feedback and effects manipulation, and in just under three minutes, Ufomammut emphasize the hypnotic side of their approach in a way that may well be informed by some of Urlo‘s solo work in the multimedia experimental project The Mon, but “Psychostasia” brings those transcendental waveforms back to ground soon enough, Levre‘s drums and the far-back strum of Poia‘s guitar creating an open space for Urlo‘s melodic, dreamy-echo vocals. It’s further trance creation until about four and a half minutes in, then the guitar comes forward for a lead and, at 4:48, the move toward pummel begins in earnest.

They’ll get there step by step, here letting the drums go faster, there pulling back on bass, but at 5:31, they let it loose and the vocals return, and the sweep is a triumph of the promise of Ufomammut‘s aesthetic. A synth freakout is a quick bridge back to the onslaught, and as they crash into the ending of “Psychostasia” and into the beginning of the likely-autobiographical-on-some-level “Metamorphoenix,” a sample and the wash of synth noise again make the going immersive bordering on claustrophobic. As heavy as Ufomammut can get, sometimes it’s their quieter stretches that seem to most pull the air out of the room.

Just past two minutes in, “Metamorphoenix” introduces its central guitar figure, but it’s buried. Barely there, like a sumbliminal message. It’s not until the wash recedes — leaving the maybe-backwards spoken sample that accompanied behind — that “Metamorphoenix” seems to find the ground beneath it. There’s a build taking place, but the band have done this long enough that they won’t be rushed even for themselves, and each measure that ensues has a purpose of its own in feeding the forward movement.

By the time they’re seven minutes into the song’s 7:41, the tension is palpable to a near-skin-crawling degree, and it’s up to “Pyramind” to pay it off, which it does with an almost immediate turn into doomly crashes and out-the-airlock synthesizer, a lumbering that consumes the first two minutes of “Pyramind”‘s also-seven, and though they mellow out after two minutes in, the drums and bass under the heavy-but-floating guitar provide assurance there’s more to come. This part of “Pyramind” has vocals in layers — Ufomammut have never been a particularly singer-minded act, but I won’t take away from what Urlo does here or elsewhere in their catalog — and that covers the establishing a resurgent intensity of tone and riff, and at 5:36 into the 7:04, they move back to the nod and the crash that seem at first to be an apex for Fenice as a whole but with the turn to the 2:48 closer “Empyros” become just another stage of the setup.

There’s a stop, but on the next beat, “Empyros” is there and the impact is immediate, and Ufomammut finish this maybe-ninth record with a vital heavy groove, almost raw in its unfolding, but so clear in its message of riff worship as to be unmistakable. Synth swirls around, and there’s one change — at 1:43, into the next unbridled bit of skull-stompery. There are a few shouted lines, but they wrap Fenice on the relative quick and leave the listener to wonder how they managed to pack that much magnitude into a single LP. The answer to that, of course, is that they’re Ufomammut, and that’s what they do.

Whatever your level of experience with Ufomammut, whether you know them or don’t, whether you’ve been on board since 1999 or if Fenice is the first thing you’ve heard them, there are elements in these songs that have become staples of their style. They’re still two-thirds the same band, after all. But as much as Ufomammut have reaffirmed the progressive aspects of their past and remained loyal to themselves as songwriters, Fenice sounds like a new beginning too. That’s obviously not a coincidence.

Ufomammut, Fenice (2022)

Ufomammut, Fenice Interview with Urlo

Ufommammut website

Ufomammut on Facebook

Ufomammut on Twitter

Ufomammut on Instagram

Neurot Recordings website

Neurot Recordings on Facebook

Neurot Recordings on Bandcamp

Neurot Recordings on Twitter

Supernatural Cat website

Today, May 6, marks the release of Ufomammut‘s new album, Fenice, on Neurot Recordings. From where I sit, that’s enough of an occasion to fire up the webcam and have a chat with bassist/vocalist Urlo (also keyboards) about making the record and so on. But the story here isn’t so straightforward as band-has-new-album.

After celebrating their 20th anniversary in 2019, the Italian cosmic doom forebears announced in Jan. 2020 — perfect timing — they were taking an indefinite hiatus, which, honestly, felt well enough earned. Ufomammut didn’t owe anyone anything. Since 1999, they built and tore down huge walls of stylistic innovation, blending spaced-out synth, ambience, space rock and stretches of gloriously crushing riffs both in the studio and on tour, developing an aesthetic all their own and extending it even to their alter-ego visual arts concern, Malleus, and standing behind their own work and that of others with their Supernatural Cat imprint while also releasing through labels like Neurot, Rocket Recordings, The Music Cartel and Beard of Stars, reaping massive acclaim on the way and influencing a subsequent generation of interstellar destroyers in their wake. What the hell more would you want from a band? Touring the world? Well they did that too.

In April 2021, they posted they were back with founders Urlo and guitarist Poia joined for the first time by a new drummer in Alessandro “Levre” Levrero, who on Fenice steps into the position formerly held by Vita — who now is just one of the two former members Ufomammut have had in their 23-year stretch — for a six-song collection the 38 minutes of which both bear signature hallmarks of who the band have always been but hold an unmistakably shifted dynamic, finding a different path to walk than they’ve ever had before. Maybe that’s just what Ufomammut needed. Judging by how alive Fenice sounds on a creative level — shit, judging by “Psychostasia” alone — that’s precisely the case.

With the album out today, I’m thrilled to post this recent chat I had with Urlo about the changes in the band over the last couple years, their prospects for hitting the road on tour again, how he feels about their past and what might come in the future.

Please enjoy:

Ufomammut, Fenice Interview with Urlo

Fenice is available now through Neurot Recordings. More info at the links.

Ufomammut, Fenice (2022)

Ufommammut website

Ufomammut on Facebook

Ufomammut on Twitter

Ufomammut on Instagram

Neurot Recordings website

Neurot Recordings on Facebook

Neurot Recordings on Bandcamp

Neurot Recordings on Twitter

Supernatural Cat website

New Ufommaut! Or as I like to call it as of right this second, newfomammut! While I ponder just how many times I’ve made that joke in the last 13-plus years — how many records have Ufomammut made that time? — you’ll want to note the May 6 release for Fenice through Neurot Recordings and Supernatural Cat for the first Ufomammut studio LP since  2017’s 8 (review here), the first they’ve done since marking their 20th anniversary with the boxed set XX EP (review here) and their first since both going on hiatus following the departure of drummer Vita (now of Sonic Wolves) and coming back together with Levre behind the kit.

In short, it’s a big fucking deal. New song “Psychostasia” has a video streaming below and on first impression it wields the band’s signature cosmic crush ably and sets it against what feels like some more straightforward heavy rock groove. One way or the other, if you’re not already listening to it and looking forward to this album’s arrival, I got nothing for you today.

Fresh from the PR wire:

UFOMAMMUT Announce Their New Album, “Fenice”! Out On May 6, 2022 via Neurot Recordings!

Hear Their Bold New Sound On “Psychostasia”!

On May 6th Italian alchemists and power trio Ufomammut return with their ninth studio album, Fenice via Neurot Recordings and Supernatural Cat. But not as we’ve heard them before, now “more intimate, more free.”

For over 20 years, the band has combined the heaviness and majesty of dynamic riff worship with a nuanced understanding of psychedelic tradition and history in music, creating a cosmic, futuristic, and technicolor sound destined for absolute immersion.

Fenice (meaning Phoenix in Italian) symbolically represents endless rebirth and the ability to start again after everything seems doomed. The album is the first recording with new drummer Levre, and truly marks a new chapter in Ufomammut history.

“I think we lost our spontaneity, album after album,” says Urlo. “We tried to make more complicated songs and albums, but I think at some point we just ended up repeating ourselves. With Fenice, we were ready to start from zero, we had no past anymore – so we just wanted to be reborn and rise from the ashes..”

Whilst the band are well-known for their psychedelic travels into the far reaches of the cosmos, Fenice is a much more introspective listening experience. Fenice was conceived as a single concept track, divided in six facets of this inward-facing focus. Sonic experimentations abound in the exploration of this central theme; synths and experimental vocal effects are featured more prominently than ever before as the band push themselves ever further into the uncharted territory of their very identity.

The towering synths on the opening track “Duat” evoke an almighty machine rising from the depths of primordial ooze. There’s a shift to a frenetic garage-psych pace before mellowing out into a more familiar doomy stomp. “Kepherer” is a respite, albeit a slight one, returning to the pulsing rhythms of the album’s intro before plunging the listener into the menacing build and release of “Psychostasia” next.

The second half of the record brings with it an even greater sense of dynamic exploration. “Metamorphoenix” oozes with curious synth patterns and noises, before descending into sinister chords and an oddly choral chant. An explosion of emotion heralds the beginning of “Pyramind”, all-encompassing in its riff worship and quasi-religious climax of mantra-esque vocals. “Empyros” is groovy yet irregular, with rhythms interplaying and more chanting voices, bringing the records to its end with a sense of dedication and purpose.

Each oscillation of this extraordinary album feels inevitable – Ufomammut are after all, masters of their craft, and when it comes to creating enveloping sonic journeys into the unknown, it’s their uninhibited sense of exploration that breaches new sonic ground.

Fenice is the sound of a band whose very essence has been rejuvenated, and are welcoming the chance to create music in the way they know best; by unfolding carefully and attentively, by melding those extreme dynamics which render Fenice as a living and breathing creature – and by writing gargantuan riffs that herald their very rebirth.

Fenice shall be released on LP and CD formats via Neurot Recordings, with a limited edition LP version of 666 copies on Supernatural Cat.

Fenice Track listing:
1. Duat
2. Kepherer
3. Psychostasia
4. Metamorphoenix
5. Pyramind
6. Empyros

UFOMAMMUT are:
Poia – Guitars and Fxs
Urlo – Bass, Vocals, Fxs and Synths
Levre – Drums & Fxs
Ciccio – Sound lord

LIVE DATES:
07.05.22 – Alessandria (IT), Laboratorio Sociale – Album release party
14.05.22 – Mezzago (IT), Bloom
24.05.22 – Vienna (AT), Arena
25.05.22 – Karlsruhe (DE), Dudefest
26.05.22 – Bremen (DE), Tower
27.05.22 – Ghent (BE), Dunk!festival
28.05.22 – Groningen (NL), Vera
29.05.22 – Berlin (DE), Desertfest
30.05.22 – Dresden (DE), Chemiefabrik
31.05.22 – Salzburg (AT), Rockhouse
10.06.22 – Munich (DE), 17 Years Sound of Liberation Festival
11.06.22 – Piacenza (IT), Desert Fox Festival
24.06.22 – Wiesbaden (DE), 17 Years Sound of Liberation – Official Festival Warmup
26.06.22 – Clisson (FR), Hellfest
18.08.22 – Pescara (IT), Frantic Festival

www.ufomammut.com
www.facebook.com/ufomammutband
twitter.com/ufomammutmafia
www.instagram.com/ufomammut
http://www.neurotrecordings.com
http://www.facebook.com/neurotrecordings
https://neurotrecordings.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/OfficialNeurot
http://www.supernaturalcat.com

Ufomammut, “Psychostasia” official video