The ultimate sonic titan of 2015 is here. Remember the sound of that earthshaking breakdown riff around the third minute of “Stigma” that made your jaw drop and –quite possibly- fall in love with UFOMAMMUT’s music? Imagine now that this sound is the entirety of “Ecate”.
I know that as a reviewer I should not write things in heat because scripta manent, but I think it is highly likely that 1) We have found the beast which will be sitting beside “Dopethrone” and “Satan Worshipping Doom” in the throne of all time, monstrously heavy stoner creation 2) This is the best album by UFOMAMMUT. The only thing that will do justice to my praising claims is time, so for now we wait and we play “Ecate” as loud as we can.
They took me by surprise, yes sir they did. I mean, how possible was it that they would take such a turn in their sound after 16 years of existence and 8 albums? When it comes to me specifically, the exact sonic turn that makes my heart skip a few beats. But let’s get more specific here. It is already apparent from the intro of “Somnium”. Although the love of these Italians for mixture of psychedelic sound effects with deep, booming stoner explosions is known, somehow the notes immediately took hold of my attention. It was fishy, it was… Wizard-y if you’d like (and I’m not implying any kind of “lending” or “theft” here).
And then comes that holy-fucking-shit riff and the rest 10 minute epic, chaotically mesmerizing, doomed out, stoner litany to show you, oh unprepared listener, that “Ecate” is not like the rest of their creations. They did it their way, no big fuss, no big press madness before release, just one day they say “Hey, we have a ten ton hammer out there if you need to bang your head on it”. And the trip just starts there; I don’t think it is needed to focus on any other song, since they can all stand magnificently on their own, yet when put together as a single entity will melt your brain.
I don’t want to ramble on about “Ecate”. I don’t want to waste line after line to point out its mind-blowing, exquisite art cover; I don’t want to analyze the meanings and titles of songs or the album itself. What matters here is that you need to listen to UFOMAMMUT’s masterpiece right now, especially if you are fascinated by the sound represented by BONGRIPPER, early ELECTRIC WIZARD and BELZEBONG.
It is a sonic creation that loves the stellar chaos surrounding Earth, a sonic creation that pushes their green amplifiers to their very limits, a sonic creation that encompasses all their familiar and trademark elements (the mixture of the bass and drum that gives the slow marching rhythm to annihilation, married with spaced out clean, screaming vocals and psychedelic effects, while all of the above obey the leader of the pack, the ground –and gut- shaking guitar) only, this time, all in their simultaneous peak.
Every riff is stuck in your head, every song demands a replay and you, the listener, have 45 minutes of magnificent music ahead of you to decide what to do with each sound presented in “Ecate”. Will you dare to take a taste? I say dare, plunge your head into their world of intoxicating cosmic violence and let the -possibly- heaviest stoner album of 2015 travel you to places you’ve never seen or felt before. May the “Chaosecret” be with you…
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