Ufomammut () is an Italian

doom metal Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres.K. Kahn-Harris, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'' ...

band formed in 1999 by guitarist Poia, bassist and vocalist Urlo, and drummer Vita. They have released eight studio albums to date, the last three through

Neurot Recordings Neurot Recordings is an American independent record label founded by members of avant-garde metal band Neurosis in 1999. Gradually expanding, it has showcased a variety of artists including a number of sludge metal, post-rock, and noise bands. ...

History

Ufomammut was formed in Italy in 1999 by Poia, Urlo and Vita, a lineup that has remained stable until 2020, when Vita left the band to dedicate himself to other musical projects. The trio has developed a sound characterised by lengthy songs centered on repeated heavy riffs coupled with droning vocals and the use of sound effects and synths. Ufomammut released their debut studio album '' Godlike Snake'' in 2000 through Beard of Stars Records. It was followed in 2004 by '' Snailking'', which was later reissued by Supernatural Cat Records in 2009. The third album '' Lucifer Songs'' was released in 2005 and brought the band to discover new sonic paths with a massive use of droning sounds and synths, while in 2007 the band recorded a collaboration album with fellow Italian band Lento titled ''Supernaturals: Record One''. Ufomammut Live at the Shagoo Shagoo Festival 2008

Ufomammut Live at the Shagoo Shagoo Festival 2008

In 2008, they released their fourth studio album, ''Idolum'', pushing even further the monolithic sound and psychedelic vein of their music to a new level of composition. In 2010 the band released ''Eve'', their fifth album. ''Eve'' consists of one 45-minute atmospheric track, divided into five distinctive movements; it depicts

Eve Eve (; ; ar, حَوَّاء, Ḥawwāʾ; el, Εὕα, Heúa; la, Eva, Heva; Syriac: romanized: ) is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the ...

as a figure reminiscent of both

Lucifer Lucifer is one of various figures in folklore associated with the planet Venus. The entity's name was subsequently absorbed into Christianity as a name for the devil. Modern scholarship generally translates the term in the relevant Bible passage ...

(in her rebellion against God) and

Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titan god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, know ...

(in bringing knowledge to humanity). ''ORO'', divided into ten movements, was delivered by

in two separate pieces during 2012: the first chapter, '' Opus Primum'', in April, and the second, '' Opus Alter'', in September. The concepts behind ''ORO'' are expansive and multi-faceted, mutating the Italian palindrome which translates to "gold" with the Latin translation of "I pray." ''OROs two chapters can be considered as a single track, as the last part of '' Opus Primum'' is able to flow easily into '' Opus Alter''. ''Ecate'' came out in 2015 and it is the seventh album of the band, released again by

. Its title is Italian for the pre-Hellenic goddess

Hecate Hecate or Hekate, , ; grc-dor, Ἑκάτᾱ, Hekátā, ; la, Hecatē or . is a goddess in ancient Greek religion and mythology, most often shown holding a pair of torches, a key, snakes, or accompanied by dogs, and in later periods depicte ...

. The seventh album of the band is an evolution in terms of composition and song structure, it is an aggressive and complex album that bring the previous works to a new form. The band's latest studio album ''8'' came out on 22 September 2017 through

and Supernatural Cat for the vinyl release in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. It is a continuous flux of music (its title symbolizing infinity), a single stream divided in 8 songs, recorded live together with no overdubs with the exception of vocals and synths. Ufomammut live at Soulcrusher II Festival

Ufomammut live at Soulcrusher II Festival

Ufomammut have made continual appearances at festivals like

Roadburn Roadburn Festival is an international music festival held in Tilburg, Netherlands every April since 1999. It was set up as a spin-off from the Roadburn music blog founded by Jurgen van den Brand and Walter Hoeijmakers. Originally focused on stone ...

Hellfest Hellfest (), also called Hellfest Summer Open Air, is a rock festival focusing on heavy metal music, held annually in June in Clisson, France. Its high attendance makes it the French music festival with the largest turnover. It is also one of ...

Asymmetry Asymmetry is the absence of, or a violation of, symmetry (the property of an object being invariant to a transformation, such as reflection). Symmetry is an important property of both physical and abstract systems and it may be displayed in pre ...

Dour Festival Dour Festival is an annual music festival in the municipality of Dour, Belgium. Since its creation in 1988, the festival has grown to an attendance of about 225,000 in 2015 (over 5 days). The first year, only five bands were programmed (includin ...

, Ieper Fest, Stoned from the Underground, South of Mainstream, Festival d'Affaire, Metalride fest, Le Guess who festival, Maryland Death Fest, Brutal Assault Festival, FIMAV and more and have been touring several times around

, reaching the

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in 2015,

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in 2016 and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

in 2017. Ufomammut's live shows are supported by the video and graphic art studio Malleus Rock art lab, a rock artist collective of which Poia and Urlo form a part .Sleeping Shaman interview

The band announced Vita's departure and their temporary hiatus in January 2020. In April 2021 Ufomammut are back, Levre is the new drummer.

Style

The sound of Urlo's bass and Poia's guitar are typically distorted, Vita's drum rhythms are slow and the band uses

psychedelic Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of ...

and

hypnotic Hypnotic (from Greek ''Hypnos'', sleep), or soporific drugs, commonly known as sleeping pills, are a class of (and umbrella term for) psychoactive drugs whose primary function is to induce sleep (or surgical anesthesiaWhen used in anesthesia ...

visuals during the live shows. During the live performances the band syncs loops of videos with the different parts in their composition, adding up to the sound layers. The songs' structure is in many cases similar to the one typical of ''

Progressive Rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

''. The sound of Ufomammut is the product of research around the instruments and amplification setup, resulting in the use of custom tube amplifiers with heavy full size cabinets, and ''

Drop B tuning This article contains a list of guitar tunings that supplements the article guitar tunings. In particular, this list contains more examples of open and regular tunings, which are discussed in the article on guitar tunings. In addition, this list ...

'' on guitar and bass.

Members

Current

*Poia –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

sound effect A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. Traditi ...

s (1999 - present) *Urlo –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, synthesizers, sound effects,

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

(1999 - present) *Levre -

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, sound effects (2021 - present)

Past

*Vita –

(1999–2020) *Tavor – bass, drums *Alien –

Korg MS-20 The Korg MS-20 is a patchable semi-modular monophonic analog synthesizer which Korg released in 1978 and which was in production until 1983. It was part of Korg's MS series of instruments, which also included the single oscillator MS-10, the ke ...

, guitar *The Flyeater – Korg MS-20 *LeGof –

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

Discography

Studio albums

* '' Godlike Snake'' (2000) * '' Snailking'' (2004) * '' Lucifer Songs'' (2005) * ''Supernaturals: Record One'' with Lento (2007) * ''Idolum'' (2008) * ''Eve'' (2010) * ''Oro: Opus Primum'' (2012) * ''Oro: Opus Alter'' (2012) * ''Ecate'' (2015) * ''8'' (2017) * ''XX'' (2019) * ''Fenice'' (2022)

Compilations

* ''Stone Deaf Forever!'' (2000) * ''Blue Explosion'' (tribute to

Blue Cheer Blue Cheer was an American rock band that initially performed and recorded in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was sporadically active until 2009. Based in San Francisco, Blue Cheer played in a psychedelic blues rock or acid rock style, and ...

) (2000) * ''The Mob's New Plan'' (2001)

Others

* ''Satan'' (demo, 1999) * ''XV: Fifteen Years of Ufomammut'' (DVD, 2014) * "Warsheep" (single, 2017)

External links

*
FacebookInstagramYoutubeBandcamp

References

{{Authority control Musical groups established in 1999 1999 establishments in Italy Italian doom metal musical groups Italian stoner rock musical groups Sludge metal musical groups Drone metal musical groups Italian musical trios Italian psychedelic rock music groups Italian experimental rock groups