Ufomammut
15 Years of Ufomammut (Supernatural Cat)“We wanted to play the heaviest stuff in the world – with elements of weird sounds from deep space,” explains guitarist Poia via subtitles in 15 Years of Ufomammut. That’s the Italian trio in a nutshell: cosmic doom. At the decade-and-a-half mark, the band sums up its career thus far with a straightforward documentary interspersing standard interviews with live footage, and includes video messages from fans during the credits. Also featured is Magickal Mastery (Live), a full-length concert covering the band’s current repertoire. Despite blowing minds with ocular hoo-ha in person, here Ufomammut performs in front of a plain curtain sans audience, with psychedelic visuals – distortion, lighting effects, split-screens, blurring – added in afterward. It’s an odd choice for the veteran studio sorcerers who claim their live set trumps recordings, not that only a handful of U.S. dates over the band’s lifetime are enough to substantiate the claim. Watch with headphones for best effect. They give Ufomammut’s sternum-rattling space sludge the best chance to overwhelm.
This article appears in December 19 • 2014.
