Congratulations to Italian megadoomers Ufomammut, and really, congratulations to Planet Earth. This is some of the best news I’ve seen in a while. A perfect storm of apocalyptic tonality. As Ufomammut make ready to follow the stunning work they did with last year’s Eve, I shudder to think what devastation they’ll unleash this time around.

This from the PR wire:

It comes with absolute honor to finally announce the meeting of marvelous minds, as Italian masters of thunderous psychedelic doom Ufomammut sign to Neurot Recordings for their next album. Their last album, Eve, was met with great critical acclaim worldwide, and judging by the studio updates we are receiving, their next opus will be even more epic in its proportions and probably their heaviest and most cacophonous record to date.

This is what Neurot owner Steve Von Till had to say about the signing: “Welcome Ufomammut to the Neurot family. Ufomammut is our kind of band. These sonic brothers from Italy are heavy, psychedelic, and driven. We couldn’t be happier than to have them working with Neurot Recordings for their next full-length album. Though we have been fans of their music for a while, being able to meet them and share the stage with them on our recent trip to Europe was awesome. We formed a great and meaningful bond, which of course is the most important aspect of what we do. We admire their prolific nature as visionary musicians, as members of the Malleus art collective, and as owners of their own label, Supernatural Cat. They truly embody the same spirit of music and art that we all strive for. Ufomammut is in the studio at this very moment working on their next epic.”

Ufomammut also commented…”Working with Neurot signals an evolutionary change for Ufomammut. In the last years we’ve built up our own music world, doing everything by ourselves, working on our own art and recordings, creating a label, and taking care of every aspect of our projects.

We feel very excited by this change because this confirms that we did a good job, especially coming from these guys who we have always considered a great inspiration.

We’re sure this Neurot and Ufomammut friendship will open new perspectives and directions in our sonic adventure, because we feel we have the same vision and attitude about what music should be. In few words we feel totally honored and proud to become a part of the Neurot Family.”

This news really does mark the alliance of almighty talent and we hope that you will follow this story as it unfolds in the coming weeks, more news as and when we can bring it. In the meantime, European fans can catch Ufomammut on tour beginning next week and into October.

09/14 Groovestation Dresden D
09/15 Festaal Kreuzberg Berlin D
09/16 Stengade Copenaghen DK
09/17 Inkonst Malmo SWE
09/18 Blitz Oslo NO
09/19 Truck Stop Alaska Goteborg SWE
09/21 Nuclear Night Club Oulu FI
09/22 Lutakko Jyväskylä FI
09/23 Yo-talo Tampere FI
09/24 Korjaamo Helsinki FI
09/26 Molotow Hamburg D
09/27 Underground Cologne D
09/28 013 Tilburg NL
09/29 Bastard Club Osnabrück D
09/30 Baroeg Rotterdam NL
10/01 Het Depot Leuven B
10/03 The Croft Bristol UK
10/04 The Well Leeds UK
10/05 The Continental Preston UK
10/06 Purple Turtle London UK
10/07 Nouveau Casino Paris F
10/08 Gaswerk Winterthur CH
10/09 Les Caves Du Manoir Martigny CH

Someone once told me that if you had three of something, that was enough to legitimately call it a collection. By that standard, I’ve always considered three dates in a row as the marker for a tour. Even if it’s a weekender, you need to throw in that Friday or Monday date to really make it count. Can’t just be Saturday and Sunday.

Enter Italian fuzz rockers Black Rainbows, whose quality second album, Carmina Diablo, was released last year on Longfellow Deeds. They’ve got a tour scheduled, and on the poster, they list a series of Friday/Saturdays and then, toward the end of March, a five-date run.

My question is this: Does the entire group of shows count as a tour? They’re all certainly supporting the same album, and even though the shows until the March 22 TBA date are all in Italy, they still require the band to get in a van and drive somewhere. The last five dates certainly are, but are all the shows part of the same tour? Does this count?

Feel free to check out the poster below while you decide:

Whether or not you think it’s all part of the same tour, if you’re in any of these places, you should go see Black Rainbows.

I know most people have already split to do the family Xmas thing or at very least get drunk, but I just wanted to take a second to wish everyone a happy holiday and to say thank you for checking in on this site, for registering for the forums, and most of all, for coming back once you’ve already been here. Today we passed 250,000 page views for the month of December alone, and that’s the best present I could ask for.

It seems like kind of a random choice, but I thought we’d end this week with Italian fuzz rockers Black Rainbows. The track is “Himalaya” from their 2010 album, Carmina Diablo, and it doesn’t really have anything to do with the holiday — you could argue the Himalayas are cold and it’s cold on Xmas, but that’s a stretch at best — but somehow it seemed to work. It’s straight-up riff rock. Stoner rock. I hope you enjoy it.

Much to come next week. We’ll finish up the top 20 of 2010 countdown and I’ll also have a bunch of other “Best Of”-type posts. If you’ve been wondering what my favorite cassette of the year is, that’s just one of the secrets to be revealed.

Until then, a merry Xmas to you and yours. I wish you the happiest and safest of yules, and please remember that if you need a place to get away for a couple minutes, the forums never close. I know I’ll be checking in.

There’s a definite ‘90s vibe coursing through the second album, titled Deus, by hard-rocking Roman collective Ossimoro. Some of their strongest moments recall grunge greats like Alice in Chains or the brash dissonance of Helmet, but the novelty of the native-language vocals and an edge of desert influence puts Ossimoro in a category somewhere between heavy rock/doom and more straightforward hard fare. Deus, released in Europe on SG Records, is nine tracks/42 minutes of material which doesn’t seem diverse at first but actually runs across a range of sounds and approaches, displaying emotion in the vocals that’s palpable whether you speak Italian or not and a musical congruence befitting a band who have been playing together for eight years as Ossimoro have.

Deus gets off to a rough start with a 34-second intro that, by my estimation, doesn’t do much either to set the tone of the record or give the listener some idea of what Ossimoro are trying to do atmospherically. Fortunately, the band picks right the pace right up with “Deus ex Machina,” the closest thing to a title track we get and one of the more Kyuss-style songs on Deus. The guitars of Federico Venditti turn out to be a defining characteristic of Ossimoro; their thickness being a key factor in the band’s separating itself from the bulk of its influences. With the staccato riffage of “Splende il Fuoco” and the even more Page Hamilton-esque “Sierra” (also one of the stronger cuts on Deus), what chiefly gives the songs their musical distinction is the heaviness inherent in Venditti’s sound. The rhythm section of bassist Paolo Recchia and drummer Fabrizio Ferrante do an admirable job propelling that track and “Assassino,” making it clear that the middle of the album is also where the bulk of its best accomplishments lie, but there’s not necessarily much flash or technical showing off in their playing.

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Oh, Europe. Not enough that you have centuries of beautiful art and tumultuous history on my shabby American ass, but do you have to have Ufomammut too? Tomorrow night, the Italian megadrone trio embark on their latest continental jaunt. Dates from the PR wire are below:

Upon the massive success of Italian doom trio Ufomammut‘s recent European touring on the Eve album — which included Germany, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Poland, Austria and more — the band are already set to embark on the next assault through the continent this week. Set to kick off this Wednesday, Oct. 6, Ufomammut will this time invade Spain, France, the UK and Holland, and will return to Denmark and Germany as well in support of the material on Eve.

Ufomammut October European tour:
10/06 Ground Zero – Lyon, France
10/07 Le Baloard - Montpellier, France
10/08 Santana 27 – Bilbao, Spain
10/09 Le Barouf – Cholet, France
10/10 Le Ferrailleur – Nantes, France
10/12 The Croft - Bristol, UK
10/13 The Star and Garter - Manchester, UK
10/14 Fighting Cocks - Kingston Upon Thames, UK
10/15 Baroeg – Rotterdam, Holland
10/16 Magazin4 - Bruxelles, Belgium
10/18 Molotow - Hamburg, Germany

If the quizzical title Phantom Hell and Soar Angelic presents a twist for your brain (do they mean “phantom” as a verb, like you could turn Hell into a ghost of some kind?), then that’s just the beginning of the puzzles Italian trio Void Generator have to offer on their third release. Following a 2004 self-titled EP and 2006’s We Have Found the Space, Phantom Hell and Soar Angelic (Phonosphero Records) is four tracks and well over an hour of anti-gravitational psychedelic rock, the finest attribute of which might be its timing. The Roman four-piece (five if you count Bob the Rich on “accumulation,” which I think means “recording”) have an impeccable sense of when to rock and when to space out.

To wit, the memorable Phantom Hell and Soar Angelic opener, “Message from the Galactic Federation,” which manages to work both a catchy chorus and hyper-extended airy parts into its 15:14 length. My first time through, I waited the full three-plus minutes (not an unreasonable amount of time given the scale of the song) for the vocals to come on and ruin it, but guitarist Gianmarco Iantaffi didn’t disappoint, his delivery maintaining a balance between rough rock and melodic crooning that’s got just enough effects behind it to cut through the guitars, synth, bass and drums. Vocals aside, what sets Void Generator apart from the space rock hordes seems to be their willingness to rein in their jams, to bring them back to the songs, and where many bands seem to plow through their verses and choruses like they’re punching a clock waiting to get to the 10-minute go-nowhere jam – not always a bad thing, mind you – Void Generator remember they’re writing songs here, not just showing off or screwing around. “Message from the Galactic Federation” repeats parts at just the right times, and manages to remain what political pundits call “on point” for its duration. No small achievement.

If the opener sets the bar high, though, the rest of Phantom Hell and Soar Angelic delivers on its promise. The shortest track on the album, a mere 13:04, is “The Morning.” It’s more open-ended feeling than was the opener, but it’s also a show-off point for the rhythm section. Bassist Sonia Caporossi and drummer Marco Cenci (who plays on the latter tracks, while Marco Ricci played on the first) carry most the song, leaving Iantaffi and synth-specialist Cristiano Lodi to add flourishes and contribute to the gradual build, which they do in subtle, confident fashion. Toward the song’s end, Lodi’s work becomes especially apparent, and adds a soft melody to the driving rock behind it in the mix. As a setup for the ostensibly “final” cut, the wonderfully-named 18:12 overture, “The Eternaut,” it works immaculately and with considerable flow.

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