Ufomammut – Idolum

Posted by douchemike on June 30th, 2008 filed in Doom Metal, Heavy Metal

Ufomammut at Myspace

One of the metal bands I was always embarrassed about liking is Deicide, and one of the reasons why was that any satanic rite undertaken to “Satan spawn the cacodemon” or the like would be one of the lamest blasphemous acts ever committed. It would be the ritual that the guys who went to the A/V club at school and the Young Conservatives at University went to. You want to know the music all the cool kids sacrifice virgins too? Its “Idolum” by Ufomammut, a record that drips with a supernatural malevolence rarely seen in doom metal. Sinister riffs evolve throughout the course of each song producing an air of foreboding that pays off magnificently when each new segments comes into play and chills you to the bone. Behind these gargantuan riffs are haunting keyboard lines played on vintage synths and moaning and howling yet somehow ethereal male and female vocals that bring to mind Jarboe of Swans fame. Add some unsettling laughing, crying and cursing in the background and what you have is possibly the most evil doom record since “Black Sabbath”.

It’s also one of the most original ones I’ve heard in a long while. While the influence of genre staples Hawkwind and Neurosis can be heard within this vile connotation, there are some more unorthodox comparisons that come to mind, like the thought that “Idolum” does for psychedelic doom what Blut aus Nord’s “The Work Which Transforms God” did for industrial black metal, in that it created the genuinely wicked and malicious atmosphere that was always capable of being spawned from the genre’s roots.

The pinnacle of “Idolum” is “Void”, a 21-minute epic that is the penultimate track on the record. It starts with a low-key yet evocative build up, which by the 9 minute mark turns into a sludgy murmuring segment that is somewhat reminiscent of Moss, then subsequently turns into a pulsating yet hypnotic drone that might be considered too much for even Sunn0))). This continues with various intoxicating changes in frequency and tone for 8 minutes before reaching a crescendo with some disturbing spacey synth and distressed female pleading, before kicking into the motherload of all riffs with “Elephantom” acting as a post rock-cum-sludge bookend to the record. This record is so complete for the occult metal experience that the only thing missing is your own virgin to sacrifice, but hopefully you can find one at your local Young Conservative / Republican branch office to enhance your “Idolum” experience. If you want evil metal, as in actual malevolence rather than teenage cartoon theatrics, then this is the album for you.