To be reborn and rise from the ashes…
Ufomammut proudly present Fenice (“Phoenix”) as their moment of rebirth. The band welcome a new drummer and a revised approach after many years away from touring, but their classic psychedelic doom metal sound, crafted over more than twenty years of studio releases, has survived this rebirth. On Fenice, they double down on their obsession with becoming more than the heaviest jam-band around.
Fenice is a tightly interconnected suite of six songs which is difficult to digest in any way except as a continuous front-to-back experience. Lead single “Psychostasia” best demonstrates the band’s reverence for heaving drones, hypnotic drum beats, and humble riffs. Vocals are barked through chasmic curtains, as if an all-knowing voice is muffled beyond our reach. Whilst the riffs and rhythms are straight and narrow, the band’s sonic palette is anything but. The three piece round out their sound with lots of oscillating guitar whirrs, squelchy synthesisers, and occasional voice samples. These decorations arise no matter the moment – quiet passages and loud breakdowns are decorated alike.
The strongest passage of the record is its second half, at which point you will have hopefully acclimatized to Ufomammut‘s unwavering approach to composition. On “Metamorphoenix”, amorphous ambience gives way to a soft and steady guitar melody. The track’s entire run time is used to build, extremely gradually, towards the full heaviness of the next track, “Pyramid”. The final track “Empyros” might look like an ambient outer-lude based on its runtime, but it’s actually the record’s most powerful moment, delivering on all the pace and volume gathered before it. The whole album carries an oppressive mood, not just in the alien feel of the soundscapes, but also in the vocals, so wrought with effects that they border on unintelligible.
Alike much music in the tradition of Black Sabbath, Ufomammut bank a lot of their appeal on how deeply you can connect with their straightforward doom riffs. The additional textures and extensive ambience are also a critical part of their offering, but to call this a fully ambient experience would be a stretch. When they’re doing heavy things, the band sounds immense, but the meat-and-potatoes compositional ideas are likely to leave you wanting a bit more. A more complex song writing approach is best left to proggy, psychedelic bands like genre contemporaries Elder. On Fenice, the jam-band approach of Ufomammut is to be respected for its charms.
7/10
Fenice is out this Friday, May 6th via Neurot Recordings and can be pre-ordered here.