Italian trio Ufomammut are coming to Australia for the first time this October.
Looking back on the band’s release history, it’s hard to know what to expect from their live shows. Since emerging in 2000, the group have released six albums plus the double-EP set ORO, and while some of their records feature more conventionally-structured songs, others are conceptually oriented, consisting of lengthy instrumental movements rather than succinct songs.
Though the group can be broadly categorised as an experimental metal band, their catalogue encompasses everything from sludge, drone and stoner metal, to psychedelic rock and ambient. So what does an Ufomammut set look like then? “Because we are still promoting that album, the main core of our live show is [2015’s] Ecate,” says Poia, the band’s mononymous guitarist. “And then we will add some other old tunes from the Ufomammut discography. But basically it’s focused on Ecate.
“With the live show, even if we play the same songs off the albums, there’s something different about them,” adds bassist Urlo. “We try to give more than what you can listen to on an album, because there is an exchange with the people listening in the crowd. It’s more physical and intense, hopefully. Another thing that is different is that we have a very important visual part behind us that is all the album explained through images too. I hope it will be something interesting because we are looking forward to coming to Australia.”
Released early last year, Ecate followed 2012’s two-part ORO project. Composed of Opus Primum and Opus Alter, the songwriting on ORO wasn’t particularly concerned with immediacy, and the work is full of languid, experimental tracks.
The band’s previous release, Eve, was an even more left-of-centre project, featuring a continuous 45-minute slab of music. By contrast, Ecate is a harder-hitting affair – although it contains six tracks that all last for around 10 minutes, there’s less emphasis on the quieter, tension-building side of the band’s sound. No matter what era of the group’s discography the songs come from however, they’re likely to mutate and intensify in the live environment.
“Usually when we record an album it is not finished,” says drummer Vita. “We always play the album on the road, when we tour, so little by little the songs become something a little different. They expand, they change, they shrink in some parts. What we play live is Ecate for sure, but I think it’s in a different way than the album. It’s changing every show and it gets – I hope – better and better.
“The idea of playing Ecate in its entirety is very important for us because it gives the people the idea of what the album really is,” he continues. “We play songs from the past that probably are quite different from what they were.”
Given the prominence of their ambient instrumental sections, ORO and Eve aren’t the best place to start for new Ufomammut listeners. However, this relative inaccessibility isn’t what prompted the added heft and structure audible on Ecate.
“We don’t ever really plan when we do the new albums,” Poia says. “Ecate is very different from ORO, and more from Eve too. I think [throughout] our discography, we use the new stuff to find a different way of playing Ufomammut.
“There are still a lot of ambient parts in Ecate,” he adds. “For example ‘Chaosecret’ – the first part is a very long ambient part, and on ‘Revelation’ there are a lot quiet parts too, but they are played in a different way than in the past.”
Ever since the release of their debut record, Godlike Snake, Ufomammut have garnered comparisons to stoner and doom bands like Kyuss, Electric Wizard and Earth, as well as classic rock acts such as Hawkwind and Pink Floyd. This is indicative of the band members’ broad tastes and stylistic choices.
“We all listen to different things,” Urlo says. “Vita is more of a metalhead guy and we are more into softer, electronic music and so on. We have been inspired by bands like Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath. Actually the Melvins is another influence. We have also been inspired by bands like The Beatles, even if you probably can’t hear it in our music. We like to do what we feel in the moment without thinking too much that we have to play doom or metal or whatever. We just want to play the way we feel. Probably that’s why we cross between genres.”
They haven’t stopped seeking out new inspirations, either. “Our doors are always open,” says Vita. “We try to get inspirations from every kind of music we like. Like Urlo said, I’m a bit more of a metalhead than them so I’m always inspired by heavy metal bands from the ’80s. But maybe we will be inspired by something different.”
“For example Poia and me and Vita too, we very much like the band The Prodigy,” Urlo says. “I think they do all the heaviness with something that is really peculiar. We can find our inspiration from other music. The music of the past is very important, but just as a foundation.” “There are the roots, but we want to listen to the branches also,” Vita says. “It’s what we need – to discover new things, to get inspired in a new way.”
Ecateis out now through Neurot and you can catch Ufomammutlive atBald Faced Stag on Friday October 7, withMonolord.
