ECATE

Forgive me for mentioning my personal issue but I've done a wine tasting / winery tour in North Italy a while before. A lot of bottles of Italian wine are quite favourable and acceptable, especially Piemonte red wine produced in the wet, foggy air (Nebbia in Italian) is one of my faves really. Anyway, we experimental rock fans cannot avoid such a world- class Italian Experimental / Post-Metal combo UFOMAMMUT hailing from Tortona (Piemonte) who play as if they were veiled in deep "Nebbia". "Ecate" has been released as their seventh full-length album flooded with powerful, aggressive, and violent sound exudation. On the contrary, I'm afraid if it's only me who can feel friendly to their soundscape, as Italian sense of humour. (Any opinions?)

Their foggy, fuzzy, and sludge-y metal sound is compiled in the first track "Somnium". Electronic infernal confusion, heavy and deep downtempo abyss, smell of danger arising beneath the sun ... no delightful impression you cannot grab out via the whole track. But for me, sounds like they drive us into sorta pleasant madness. Repetitive riffs of muddy water and bombastic shoegaze tastes of melody, both are their perfect method to knock us down completely, like sweet but addictive flavour of Piemonte wine. ON the other hand, we can more easily accept the following song "Plouton" as a straight, strict hardcore post metal one. Plus, another sound strategy of theirs can be heard in "Revelation" where we can touch more hallucinogenic atmosphere just like electro-filled Krautrock.

Please let me say "Temple" should be one of the most offensive but simultaneously depressive tracks. Explosive melodic grandeur is broken and fixed again and again, like our whole real life. Sounds like they might say "it would be quite tough to live full of darkness but mind you, something would happen anytime anywhere" ... at least for me. This mysterious texture can be felt in the last track "Daemons". In the former part more uptempo earachy clusters of tone must break our inner heart in pieces but the last scene is incredibly beautiful enough to give permission for us to make it again. Such a delight could be called as Italian taste of honey I imagine? Quite mystic obvious to encourage us vigorously.