If you heard that girlish squeal a little bit ago, don’t worry, it was just me reacting to the latest PR wire teaser of info about the forthcoming two-part Neurot Recordings debut by Italian space doom progenitors Ufomammut. Oro: Opus Primum is due out April 17. Here’s the latest, including the Malleus (of course) cover art, which you can click to enlarge:

More details on Oro: Opus Primum – the first installment of the new two-album series from Italy’s supernatural doom sorcerers, Ufomammut — have this week been confirmed.

Already known for their attention to detail with each release, including meticulous, quality artwork and packaging as expansive and layered as every obliterating Ufomammut release is musically, this time they take it one notch higher and have completed a massive two-part album, set for release months apart.

Now confirmed for release in the UK on April 9th, throughout the rest of Europe on April 13th, and in North America April 17th, this week the artwork and track listing for the incredibly anticipated first installment of the series — Oro: Opus Primum — have been unveiled for the first time:

Oro: Opus Primum Track Listing:
1. Empireum
2. Aureum
3. Infearnatural
4. Magickon
5. Mindomine

More details on the album will be released in the weeks ahead as the world awaits the arrival of Ufomammut’s latest art. The second chapter in this monolithic two-part album, Oro: Opus Alter, will be released sometime in September with more details to be unveiled throughout the months following Opus Primum.

2012 will see Ufomammut expanding their touring circles wider across the face of the planet in support of Oro. Stay tuned throughout the year as more details on the release and the act’s tour schedule are confirmed.

I’ve said a couple times now that I only like comps after the fact. When they’re first released and they need to be reviewed, they’re a pain in my ass, and they sit and sit and nag on me until I finally write them up. It’s not until a few years later, when the material is rare as hell and a few of the bands have collapsed, that I’m even remotely interested. You say Welcome to MeteorCity has a different version of a song from Lowrider? Sign me up.

For a while now I’ve been trying to chase down a copy of Bastards Will Pay: A Tribute to Trouble to absolutely no avail. Amazon, eBay, Gemm, physical stores, stoner and doom distros — nobody’s got this friggin’ thing. And yeah, I know I can just type it into Google and download it. I don’t wanna do that. I want to own it. I like my little plastic discs, thanks. You keep the cloud.

To quell my tributary jones and in the meantime hear a couple badass bands, I recently placed an order on the cheap for a copy of Blue Explosion: A Tribute to Blue Cheer on Black Widow Records out of Italy. Released in 1999 and featuring the likes of Drag Pack and Norrsken, among others who don’t exist anymore, it fits my law of comp appreciation perfectly. I don’t even know Garybaldi, but their version of “Fresh Fruit and Iceburgs” is killer and doomed and gives me something to look up tonight while I’m sitting on my ass, so that’s an immediate plus.

Perhaps best of all, though, is that Blue Explosion is bookended by Pentagram. And not just any Pentagram — it’s Joe Hasselvander on all the instruments and Bobby Liebling on vocals, and that’s it. They were working with Black Widow at that point (released Review Your Choices in ’99 and Sub-Basement in 2001 with the duo lineup), and so the disc opens with a nine-minute version of “Doctor Please” on which Hasselvander pretty much just jams with himself. It’s amazing, and his tones are unbelievably heavy. Internal Void follows with “Parchment Farm” and it’s like a one-two punch out of the Doom Capitol.

And Norrsken (the Swedish band from which both Witchcraft and Graveyard were born) are indeed a highlight — they present “Pilot” with expectedly killer vintage sounds — but Natas doing “Ride with Me” and Rise and Shine‘s take on “Sun Cycle” are also standouts, and “Peace of Mind” might be the most purely psychedelic I’ve ever heard Ufomammut sound. Whether it’s the boozy Euro-rock of Space Probe Taurus or the loose organ jamming of Standarte, I’m into it, and the fact that it’s all Blue Cheer material makes it even better.

So yeah, if it was coming across my desk for review now, I’d probably be all huffy-puffy about it and bitch about how compilation reviews are basically just plugs for the bands involved and there’s never any flow or basis for any overall analysis of the release, but in buying something like Blue Explosion: A Tribute to Blue Cheer, I don’t give a shit. It rocks and the rest is secondary to that. For something that was a consolation prize, I definitely feel like I won out.

Still gotta find that Trouble tribute, though.

As every new year starts, there’s always a glut of rumors that kick around. So-and-so is going to have a new record, this or that band is going to reunite, someone just got signed, etc. However, when I look to my left at the post-it note on my wall of threatened 2012 releases, the prospect is actually daunting. Could we as a species actually live to see a year that boasts releases from Clutch, Kyuss, Neurosis and Saint Vitus?

It’s the kind of thing that, centuries from now, some puffy-haired weirdo (not the good kind) will get on tv and say must have been the work of ancient aliens. These things have a habit of not working out as planned, but even the thought is staggering.

These releases have all been announced one way or another, so like I said last year, I’m not breaking any news, and unlike yesterday, I haven’t actually heard any of them yet. Basically I just wanted to nerd out for a bit on cool stuff that’s supposed to be coming out in 2012.

So here goes:

Ufomammut, Oro: Their 2010 effort, Eve, was a defining moment, both for them as a trio and pivotal act within their genre, and for the genre itself. With Eve (review here), Italian three-piece Ufomammut took cosmic doom to new reaches of psychedelic complexity, and though I know I’ve said it a few times, it’s worth repeating that it was a true work of mastery. It’s only grown richer with time, and Ufomammut‘s two-part follow-up, Oro — which will be divided into Opus Primum and Opus Alter, both of which are set for issue on Neurot in 2012 — is set to expand on the form, if such a thing is possible. We’ll find out.

 

Saint Vitus, Lillie: F-65: I wouldn’t be surprised if it showed up under a different name, and likewise if it didn’t show up in time for its currently-slated March 27 Season of Mist issue, but whenever and however it arrives, the first Saint Vitus album since 1995 and the first with Scott “Wino” Weinrich on vocals since 1990 is easily the most anticipated doom release of the year. Put to tape by Tony Reed — with whom I was fortunate enough to recently speak about making the album — most of the record was recorded live, and since that’s where Vitus has shined since coming back in 2009, I’m definitely looking forward to hearing how they translate their momentum into a new studio outing.

 

Colour Haze, She Said: I can’t imagine how frustrated the German heavy psych progenitors must be by now. Seriously — She Said was on my list last year. The trio, led by guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek, who also helms the Elektrohasch label, spent all of 2011 hindered by technical problems, and though we did a track premiere back in October for the song “Transformation,” the album has yet to materialize around it. It’s a heartbreaker every time Koglek sends an update, and we can only hope at this point that they continue to stick with it, because if there’s ever been a worthy cause, it’s a new Colour Haze record.

 

Greenleaf: According to reports, the Swedish trad-rock supergroup with members of Dozer, Truckfighters and Demon Cleaner started recording the follow-up to 2007′s fucking incredible Agents of Ahriman in November, and the latest is that Oskar Cedarmalm was set to start vocals on Dec. 26. I’ll tell you flat out that when this record arrives, I’m gonna be such a dork for it that you’re going to be tired of hearing about it. You’re going to load up this page and be like, “Ah Jeebus, not another post about how much ass Greenleaf kicks.” They’re the reason I’m going to London Desertfest in April and the prospect of a new album kept me from jumping in front of a train on several occasions throughout the recent holiday season. No shit.

 

High on Fire: The prospect of a new High on Fire album in 2012, on the other hand, wasn’t all that exciting to me initially, but when it was announced that Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou was manning the production at his GodCity studio, that was more than enough to change my mind. My whole complaint with High on Fire‘s last album, 2010′s Snakes for the Divine, was that it sounded too watered-down and there wasn’t enough grit in the production. If anyone’s going to fix that, it could be Ballou, who recently brought Black Cobra‘s massive thrash intensity to bear on the excellent Invernal. Either way, will be interesting.

 

Neurosis: I don’t even remember where I saw it at this point, whether it was Thee Facebooks or the forum or what, but the news that Neurosis had started preliminary recordings with Steve Albini for their next album filled me with enough dorkish glee that I chose to include them as the sixth in a five-band feature, despite having zero confirmation either that such has actually happened or that the album will be out by the close of this year. And really, it doesn’t matter. If Neurosis are possibly making a new record, then I’m definitely looking forward to it, and that’s just the way the universe works. Hard to believe it will have been half a decade since Given to the Rising was released, since I feel like I still haven’t digested that record, but if it takes the rest of my life to catch up (and it probably will), then I know my time won’t have been misspent.

Ditto the Pt. 1 post: there’s more. Full-lengths to (possibly) come from Kyuss, Ancestors, Conan, Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Night, Samothrace, Crippled Black Phoenix, Earth, Wight, Curse the Son, Cathedral, Wino/Conny Ochs, Shrinebuilder, Om and I don’t even know how many others set up 2012 as an incredible year yet to unfold, and tired as I am even just thinking about all the adjectival phrases it’s going to take me to get through it, I can’t fucking wait.

Because, really, it’s the music. If we don’t have anything else, we’ve got that, and it’s comforting to know that on the hardest days this year will bring — and I don’t doubt that for many of us it will bring no shortage of hard days — we’ll still have music. I look forward more than I can say to hearing these creative works, and hopefully sharing them with you as much as this weird internet portal makes me able to do so.

If I’ve missed anything, I hope you’ll leave a comment to remind. The only thing better than a bunch of records to look forward to is even more records to look forward to, so have at it.

Master Italian purveyors of the mega-heavy, Ufomammut will make their Neurot debut this coming April. Today it’s announced they’ve finished the recordings for Oro, the two-part follow-up to 2010′s excursion into the alpha and omega, Eve. The first half of Oro will be out in April and the second in September, and the PR wire has more specifics on what’s to come.

Goes without saying this is one of 2012′s most anticipated releases, but I just said it anyway, so there you go.

Ufomammut, Northern Italy‘s sorcerers of supernatural and obliterating doom, have completed the recordings for their sixth full-length, and first as part of the Neurot Recordings family. This week we are beyond excited to announce the details of this highly anticipated, mammoth follow-up to their 2010 full-length Eve, the band’s most critically-acclaimed and devastating piece of magic to date… until now.

Oro is the title for Ufomammut’s latest work, divided into ten massive movements overall which is now confirmed to be delivered in two separate pieces during the coming year. The first chapter, Opus Primum, will see arrival in April, and the second, Opus Alter, in September. The vinyl versions of both chapters will be handled directly by Ufomammut‘s own label Supernatural Cat Records, who were responsible for the release of all of the band’s previous material. This is the third album in a row the band recorded with Lorenzo Stecconi.

As with all previous Ufomammut albums, the concepts behind Oro are expansive and multi-faceted, mutating the Italian palindrome which translates to “gold” with the Latin translation of “I prey.” Oro explores the concept of knowledge and its power; the magical stream controlled by the human mind to gain control of every single particle of the World surrounding us. Oro is the alchemical process to transform the human fears into pure essence; into Gold. Although Oro‘s two chapters will be released months apart from each other, they must be considered as a single track in which the musical themes and the sounds show up and hide, mutating and evolving, progressively and increasingly stratifying culminating in the crushing final movement. Oro is like an alchemic laboratory in which substances are flowing, dividing and blending themselves in ten increments from the alembics and stills, culminating into the creation of Gold. The band are also in the process of crafting a full video/visual version of Oro which will accompany the audio.

Ufomammut is:
Poia – guitars and effect
Urlo – bass, vocals and synths
Vita – drums
Ciccio – soundlord
Lu – visuals

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

 

As ever, I thank Walter and the Roadburn crew for their generosity in allowing me to host the links to the official streams from Roadburn 2011. As we Americans get ready to celebrate Memorial Day, I can think of few better complements for a barbecue than The Machine‘s Hendrixian take on heavy jamming, or, as the evening wears on, drinks are imbibed and fists are raised in triumph, Black Pyramid‘s doomy gallop. And, of course, just in case the universe comes to a crashing end (as my work email account just did), there’s Ufomammut playing Eve in its entirety for sonic complement. You can’t ask for more than that. From life. But there’s more anyway, so enjoy the aural hubris:

Black Pyramid
http://3voor12.vpro.nl/speler/ondemand/44772202#ondemand.44772202

Dragontears
http://3voor12.vpro.nl/speler/ondemand/44772206#ondemand.44772206

The Gates of Slumber
http://3voor12.vpro.nl/speler/ondemand/44772216#ondemand.44772216

Place of Skulls
http://3voor12.vpro.nl/speler/ondemand/44772220#ondemand.44772220

Sourvein
http://3voor12.vpro.nl/speler/ondemand/44772226#ondemand.44772226

Spindrift
http://3voor12.vpro.nl/speler/ondemand/44772231#ondemand.44772231

The Machine
http://3voor12.vpro.nl/speler/ondemand/44772239#ondemand.44772239

Ufomammut
http://3voor12.vpro.nl/speler/ondemand/44772244#ondemand.44772244

These and all Roadburn audio streams were recorded by the vigilant Spacejam team headed by Marcel van de Vondervoort (also of ass-kicking rockers Astrosoniq), so if you see him, please say thanks for all the hard work. Roadburn 2011 took place April 14-17 at the 013 Popcentrum in Tilburg, The Netherlands. If you’d like to read more than you could ever possibly want to read about it, click here.

In the wake of YOB‘s unfortunate cancellation, Roadburn has announced that Italian drone metal gods Ufomammut will be appearing at this year’s edition of the festival, playing the whole of last year’s brilliant Eve album. This is, as if I needed to say it, very good news. Eve was chosen by Roadburn-website patrons as the album of 2010 (who could argue?), so it’s all the more appropriate.

Here’s this from the Roadburn site:

Roadburn is thrilled to announce that Italy’s psychedelic drone lords, Ufomammut, will perform their much acclaimed 2010 album, Eve, in its entirety at this year’s Roadburn Festival, Saturday, April 16 at the Midi Theatre in Tilburg, Holland.

Ufomammut commented: “Since our Eve album was voted best of 2010 by Roadburn readers, playing it at the upcoming festival will have a very special meaning for Ufomammut! It’ll be our chance to properly say thanks to all the people who have supported us throughout the years. See you in April!”

We’re getting into serious “don’t leave home without it” territory now. I didn’t realize it at the time I put the list together, but every album in my top 10 is on my person at virtually all times. With the top 20 stuff, some of it I had to take off the shelf at home to write about, but Kylesa, Yawning Man, Asteroid, Clamfight? These are records I haven’t been willing to part with since I got them, and the same goes for the crushing single-song (five-track) opus Eve by Italian über-doomers Ufomammut.

In fact, not only is Eve in the CD wallet that comes with me just about everywhere I go, but it’s in perhaps the most venerated of positions therein, right next to YOB‘s The Unreal Never Lived. Yes, I organize my CD wallet in such a manner, and yes, Eve is that fucking good. Several incarnations of this list had it as number one, and really, it could just as easily be there as here or anywhere in between given my mood that day. Eve demolished my ears unlike anything else in 2010. It was amazing.

The trio, who double as the visual arts collective Malleus and triple as the Supernatural Cat label (home to Lento and now OvO as well as Ufomammut) are without question one of the finest acts in doom the world over. They have mastered the art of hypnosis via riff, and going by Eve, it feels like their creativity is boundless. I heard a lot of albums this year — just look at the reviews category. Know that I mean it when I say Eve was a landmark whose appeal will last longer than 2010. I said at the time I reviewed it that I felt lucky to be alive when music like this is being made, and I absolutely still feel that way every time I listen to Ufomammut. Eve is a masterpiece.

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

Italian trio Ufomammut are the best drone doom band in the world. There, I said it.

Months after the fact, I still hear something new in their latest album, Eve (released through their own Supernatural Cat imprint), every single time I listen to it, and where so much drone feels bent on keeping the listener as far from the action as possible, Ufomammut engulfs your ears, and your mind, in torrents of undulating psychedelia, brutalizing repetition to the point of near-madness. By the time you come around to the conclusion of Eve‘s five tracks, you can’t believe only 45 minutes has passed, the album has had you so hypnotized. It’s like going through a wormhole.

Comprised of singly-named guitarist Poia, bassist/vocalist Urlo (both also handle synth and sundry noises) and drummer Vita, Ufomammut also operates as a graphic arts collective under the moniker Malleus, and their unique visual style has become a lasting part of the stoner/doom aesthetic over the course of the last decade, doing album covers for bands like Nebula, Baby Woodrose and Bongzilla and posters for even higher profile acts like the Melvins, Robert Plant, The Cure and the Roadburn festival, where Ufomammut laid waste to a crowd hungry for more in 2009.

But more than anything, Eve feels like the culmination of where Ufomammut‘s progression over the course of their five albums (plus one collaborative improvisation record with countrymen Lento) has been leading. Its creative expanse accommodates both huge riffs and minimalist noise, sounding like a transmission from whichever planet is about to destroy our own while also remaining memorable and loaded with sonic pummel. It is one of the best albums of 2010 and no one out there does what Ufomammut does better than Ufomammut does it.

After the jump, please find enclosed my email Q&A with Urlo, who explains some of how Eve came together and what inspired his band to take on such an ambitious project in the first place. Enjoy.

Read more »

I’ve been to Italy once in my life, for my honeymoon early in 2005, arguably the height of anti-American sentiment in Europe. Nonetheless, The Patient Mrs. and I basked in the glory of the Trevi Fountain above and many other of Rome‘s famous artifacts and tourism highlights. It was a beautiful country that I could have easily spent a lifetime getting to know.

This Where to Start comes by request, and I’ll confess to being no expert on the Italian scene, such as it is. Unlike Sweden, which has been a hotbed for heavy rock decades running, Italy doesn’t have the reputation of producing a killer desert or psych scene in particular, but what it does have as a diverse array of individual acts whose contributions to their respective subgenres has been considerable.

Through labels like Black Widow and Beard of Stars (both of which sign international as well as domestic Italian bands), Italy has had a slew of killer bands over the years. Here’s but a sampling to which I hope you’ll add in the comments section. Artists and albums to start with:

Paul Chain, Park of Reason: I started with Whited Sepulchres and it was a mistake. Paul Chain‘s catalog is intimidatingly huge, as it runs from his time in Death SS in the early-’80s to now in Translate, but if you stick with his solo stuff and Paul Chain Violet Theatre, you should be alright.

Ufomammut, Eve: These guys might be the best drone metal act on the planet right now. To put it simply: their doom is bigger than your doom. Most people will tell you start with 2004′s Snailking, and if you buy vinyl, they’re right, but it can be pricey on CD, so I went with the latest, Eve, instead. Either way you win.

Read more »

Well friends, it looks like there’s a technicality issue with this year’s TFFH. I thought I’d be all set to go with Clamfight‘s righteous Vol. 1 at number five, but I got this comment from guitarist Sean on the original post:

To clarify, the CD has not been officially released, we are aiming to have it out for a release show in Philly on August 13th with some incredible bands. We’ve been doling out home-burned copies to a select few and some songs will be up for download on the various sites shortly.

August clearly is not June, and since this is the Top Five of the First Half of 2010, Vol. 1 is hereby disqualified.

Controversy! I’ll give you a second to gasp…

Now that the shock has (hopefully) subsided, we can deal with the issue on a practical level. We all know Clamfight‘s Vol. 1 will be seen again at the end of the year, so it’s not worth crying about that, and obviously this change is no value judgment on the record — which, let me emphasize, fucking rules — but if I include a record that won’t be out until August on this list, then I’d have to include stuff like the new Zoroaster too, which comes out in July, and that’s not really what the TFFH about.

Without further ado, here is the revised Top Five of the First Half of 2010:
1. Asteroid, II
2. Solace, A.D.
3. Ufomammut, Eve
4. Fatso Jetson, Archaic Volumes
5. The Wounded Kings, The Shadow over Atlantis

There. Now we can all dance like Ewoks and be happy that the list is fair and only includes albums which were released in the first six months of the year. Honorable mentions go out to Apostle of Solitude, The Brought Low, Sasquatch and Brant Bjork, any of whom could have been on this list easily.

With that cleared up, that’s it for the 2010 TFFH. If you’ve got a list of your own, leave a comment and let me know what I’ve been missing.

Sometimes, when I listen to Italian drone metallers Ufomammut‘s fifth album, Eve, I feel a little silly. I mean, what’s the point of anything after a record so unstoppably huge? With just one 45-minute song, the trio have managed to engineer a cannibalistic apocalypse so vivid that it’s impossible for me to come out of hearing the album without feeling like someone’s been gnawing on my leg.

Because, seriously, what is Eve if not the sound of humanity eating itself into oblivion? From the second I heard it, I knew it was going to be one of the best records to come out in 2010, and to be honest, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if, come list time at the end of this year, it’s higher than number three. It just feels so much like the culmination of everything Ufomammut have been driving toward. It’s their Dopesmoker.

The drone, the ungodly thickened tones, the immense room of it — it seems like Eve‘s sonic reach is endless and ever-expanding, and it’s one of those records where every time I hear it, I hear something new. And at this point, I’ve heard it plenty. It’s my go-to driving record for late at night when the road is empty and I’m tired and alone on the highway and there’s nothing to do but space out and be hypnotized until I can get back to the valley, roll down the windows and watch the stars die.

I thought 2008′s Idolum was as far as Ufomammut could go stylistically — and had they put out another record in that vein, I probably wouldn’t be complaining about it in the slightest — but with Eve, they’ve propelled themselves to a different realm entirely and are among the upper echelon of doomed innovators the world over. Easily one of the year’s best.

In light of the badassery of Ufomammut‘s subsequent releases — 2005′s Lucifer Songs, 2008′s Idolum and this year’s excellent Eve — the band’s second album, Snailking, is a record whose legend has grown much in the six years since its 2004 release. While the Italian drone metallers made their debut in 2000 with Godlike Snake, more and more, Snailking has become the measure by which fans judge each new album.

The band did a vinyl reissue last year through their own Supernatural Cat label, but the CD has been out of print in the US since The Music Cartel, which handled the original release, went under in 2005. Amazon regularly has copies for over $100, which is unreasonable (even half that is ridiculous), and mostly on eBay it’s just the vinyl being sold and resold. Fine.

I first encountered the album when it came out and was sent a CDR with a photocopied cover as a promo that I still have today for use on the college radio show I was hosting at the time. I never bought it before it was too late, until recently I came a chance to do so in a forum listing on StonerRock.com and decided to make an offer. Sure enough, for $25, I finally got a full copy of Snailking.

Not only do I feel good about the price — which I think is a rational amount of money to pay for an album that’s legitimately out of print and rare — but it’s given me a chance to go back and actually enjoy the record instead of just frustratedly staring at the CDR’s jewel case, mad at myself for not having bought the real thing when I could have. If you’ve never heard Ufomammut‘s Snailking and collect vinyl, the reissue is probably the way to go, but given my disposition otherwise, I was glad to have stumbled upon the opportunity the way I did. Sometimes you have to take what you can get.

Comp reviews — is there anything worse? In my experience I’ve found it’s basically impossible to write about a compilation as one would a normal release. Discussion of album flow is out, and with each artist only getting one track, there’s never really any chance to develop an atmosphere or mood before it’s changed by the next band. And even more so when it’s two discs. All you can ever do is list the bands involved and say, “Oh, this is good, this isn’t good.” So what the fuck?

Well, Falling Down II — put together and released in a 2CD digipak by the good people at France’s Falling Down ‘zine — have obviously donated a lot of time and a lot of love to put together this sequel to their first comp, and they’ve gathered an impressive roster of acts, and I guess if nothing else, we’re here in honor of that. Beginning disc one with Across Tundras and ending disc two with Mumakil, Falling Down II does somehow manage to keep an ear toward flow from one band to the next, as demonstrated in exemplary fashion when Kongh’s “Thunders Collide” bleed into Latvian ambient post-hardcore outfit Tesa’s “Untitled.”

Which disc you prefer is going to depend on the bands involved, so we should get the list out of the way:

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