ALBUM REVIEW: Fenice – Ufomammut
UFOMAMMUT, the masters of cosmic doom, are back with their ninth studio album Fenice. Italian for ‘phoenix’, this album marks the trio’s rebirth as they move away from a past that saw them repeating themselves by their own admission. Armed with a new drummer, the trio is teeming with renewed life and vigour, and it may have resulted in their best record to date.
Originally recorded as a single 38-minute epic, Fenice now exists as six songs throughout which their sound surges and evolves from sprawling soundscapes to crushing doom. For the most part, the album seems to exist in pairs, allowing it to carve a clear, logical path from beginning to end.
Duat spends the first three minutes of the album building up synths and feedback; at times it resembles sirens and warning systems, ahead of some other-worldly invasion or attack. Rising to meet this threat though, the track unfurls into a sci-fi riff fest, before culminating in a vicious breakdown that is impossible to resist. Kepherer follows as an all-synth respite; a resting spot for cosmic travellers as they prepare for the journey ahead.
Psychostasia and Metamorphoenix are the most proggy offerings on the album and introduce effect-drenched vocals to the mix. Used sparingly enough, they serve as an accoutrement rather than a main course. Tucked away mystically into the mix, there are some passages and lines that could easily be missed, but all together it conjures up something ethereal that feels like a treat to notice. It’s a far more introspective and considered approach for UFOMAMMUT than we have seen on their previous work. More intimate, more textured, they are all the better for it.
The one-two punch of Pyramind and Empyros to close out the record resorts to breath-taking heaviness; the latter in particular may be the heaviest weapon in their entire armoury. Thick, fuzzy, chugging riffs blast deep into your very soul with nary a second to breathe. Though standing at a diminutive 2:48, it’s a spine tingling barrage that ends with one final reverberated vocal flourish. And just like that, the record ends. This stands to be toward the shorter end of the scale of doom records released in 2022 anyway, but it’s such a spellbinding listen that it feels as if it slips by in less than half the time.
Most strikingly of all, in drawing from the proggy origins of 70s doom, the art rock synths of the 80s that were so instrumental in the continued evolution of alternative music, and the increasingly heavy lens of the past three decades in which bands pushed sonic boundaries further, they’ve achieved something incredibly difficult. In just six songs, UFOMAMMUT has managed to not only showcase their considerable strengths, but also represent the full spectrum of everything that has made this genre the success it is today. This band deserves to be recognised as a leader in the genre, and Fenice is the album to make that a reality.
Ninth albums do not come around very often, but after 20 years in the game, UFOMAMMUT have firmly cracked the formula. Fenice may stand to be a career-defining record for the veterans, and serves as a warning to newer bands on the scene: never underestimate the old guard.
Rating: 8/10
Fenice is set for release on May 6th via Neurot Recordings.
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