Ufomammut - _Eve_
(Supernatural Cat, 2010)
by: Jeremy Ulrey (9.5 out of 10)
Almost two years to the day after releasing their previous masterpiece, _Idolum_, Ufomammut return to one up themselves with this year's _Eve_, a mostly instrumental five piece suite totaling about 45 minutes of psychedelic, progressive doom. With far less emphasis on detuned grooves and space rock effects this time out, _Eve_ is instead a simmering build up of kinetic energy.

The first movement opens with swelling, arpeggiated chords and dimly announced background chants which gradually evolve into volcanic cymbal crashes and heavily reverbed, wordless voices. Percussion is the primary vehicle of evolution on this track, the guitar riffs mostly restating the theme over and over in hypnotic, drone-like fashion up until near the end, when the floodgates open and the drums break into an almost tribal sense of brutality a la High on Fire.

By the time the second movement begins, this furious energy has been spent and we're tossed back into a void occupied only by disembodied whispers, threatening alarmist chord plinks and vaguely identifiable, sinister organ drone. The dread continues to mount as the volume rises, and the rolling, tribal percussion re-emerges to act as prime mover, stirring up the slumbering, full bodied riffs once more. It all peaks with the busy racket opening the third movement, a din which only partially subsides into a bass heavy groove for movement four, and then only momentarily.

For the remainder of _Eve_, the complexity and fever pitch intensity fracture off into numerous complementary directions. By the finale we've been dragged through a series of ponderous, recursive interludes which cyclically turn back on themselves after a period of heightened action. Structurally, this is Ufomammut's greatest achievement, and even from a sheerly visceral perspective _Eve_ lays down a pretty heady quaff of cerebral doom.

Contact: http://www.ufomammut.com

(article published 31/10/2010)


ALBUMS
16/9/2012 J Carbon 9 Ufomammut - Oro: Opus Primum / Opus Alter
2/4/2012 D Lake 8 Ufomammut - Oro: Opus Primum
19/11/2008 J Ulrey 9 Ufomammut - Idolum
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