Ufomammut + Lento
Supernaturals: Record One

During my Isis-Neurosis phase, I was searching for something new in the style of these bands when I stumbled upon a group with a strange and unusual name: Ufomammut.

Browsing the internet, I not only realized that the genre these guys play perfectly fits what I love to listen to, but also that they are Italian!! At that point, I realized (around mid-last year) that the band had just released an album through an Italian label, Supernatural Cat, along with another band, Lento, who are also Italian and create a genre of music strikingly close to what I was looking for. The CD in question is the present "Supernaturals: Record One," composed by the two aforementioned bands. The guys have joined forces to form a supergroup and have composed and recorded these six wonderful tracks together. Their base commonality is a slow and pachydermic sound, with echoes and reverberations creating an atmosphere with threatening apocalyptic characteristics, seasoned with typically psychedelic touches (although more of a negative trip). The difference may lie in an attitude towards rock that is more shifted towards sludge and stoner for the Mammuts, and more ambient for Lento. The result is a first-rate album, definitely a pride for the anemic Italian production, which certainly doesn't boast many musicians in such an extreme or niche scene.

The second track, "Down," is an excellent example of how powerful and rocky the music of the two groups can be. An initial riff with nocturnal and hypnotic hues leads us by the hand into this cave of sounds, where sound waves, emitted by hooded sorcerers' instruments, leap out from enormous amplifiers and crash against the rock walls. The riffs are incessant and mystical barrages, intertwining with one another and gradually, in a spiral, forming the song's structure. Then the voice arrives, screamed and hyper-filtered, as if from the netherworld, and the evil spell of the sorcerers is cast: we are their prisoners, the earth is cracking, and we are descending into the bowels of the earth.

Enormous seismic shocks accompany us as we slowly descend into a bottomless pit, while magmatic rivers of sound surround us and flow alongside us. Smoke is everywhere, our eyes burn, our heads ache until finally, the fall stops, and we reach the bottom of the abyss. "Painful Burns Smoke As The Presence Sets Us Down In Supersonic Waves" is the title of the third track, and the perfect continuation of our journey into the Abyss. Red figures move in a macabre and frenzied dance, with strong acidic hues but always slow and tantric. The rhythm increases as the song progresses, and by the seventh minute the apocalypse is complete.

From here on, the noise subsides, and everything becomes calm and atmospheric: the next three tracks seem to see the atmospheric mood of Lento prevail over the malice of Ufomammut. "Maestoso" is a magnificent piece, hypnotic as it sneaks under your skin like a virus infecting you. It's a crescendo that only peaks when the song is almost over, with a post-rock guitar loop and a drum pattern sketching a tribal and mystical rhythm. Suddenly everything ends, and "The Overload" begins its triumphal march, gathering the remains of the previous "Maestoso" and erecting an imposing and misty cathedral of sound. The atmosphere this song evokes is solemn and distant from the flames of the first tracks. Of the bonfires and fires that had spread upon reaching the bottom of the abyss, now only ashes seem to remain, from which a slight smoke occasionally rises, a memory of an apocalypse that was.

But it's precisely when everything seems to have returned to calm that the virus revives, the malice of Ufomammut and the alluring and evocative melodies of Lento. This time the attack is fierce and lethal, "Infect Two" imprints itself upon you with its seemingly chaotic progression, a cauldron from which all the demons that had so far remained hidden emerge, warmed by the pale warmth of the dead ashes. The sonic whirlwind grows in intensity and emotion, enveloping you in ever tighter coils, the tantric dance resumes supported by the malevolent guitars, and it is in this pandemonium that the true essence of this record is realized. It is a journey without beginning or end, a malignant mental digression born from musicians undoubtedly above the norm who have been able to stage a work that will definitely leave its mark on you.

They are not Neurosis nor Boris nor Melvins, but Ufomammut and Lento, even taken individually, certainly have much to say, and this record is proof of that. Give it a listen and drown in this fierce and at the same time hypnotic sonic magma. This is "Supernaturals: Record One."