By Rich Collins
It’s only been around 6 months since Ufomammut’s mind altering show at London’s stoner rock headquarters (The Camden Underworld) for Desertfest and they’ve only gone and come back to give us another dose of their unique brand of Italian doom. This time, they are on their ‘Magikal Mystery Tour’ which promises a journey across all their albums; basically a greatest hits tour but you can’t call it that for a cosmic doom band because it just sounds absolutely stupid.
First up we have South London’s sludge doomers Ghold. This duo seem to have come from absolutely nowhere over the previous six months; personally I had not heard of them before then and now they are playing epic shows such as this at the Underworld, well done lads! Is it deserved? Yes. The room was probably less than half full when they started but they are giving it their all and they sound crushingly heavy. Their setup is just bass and drums with both of them taking on vocal duties and it all just seems to work so well, they deliver harmonies and quirky sludge numbers with complete ease. The locks of bassist Alex are swinging over his face keeping him pretty much anonymous and the drummer is a relentless power house and together they churn out entertaining yet filthy jams. It was a great set, they sound more like Big Business than Big Business at times but fuck it, the world needs more bands that sound like Big Business and they would be a great edition to 2014’s Desertfest *Hint hint*.
Next up we have Italian math doomers and Ufomammut’s Supernatural Cat label mates Zolle. (((o))) reviewed their debut album this year and it kicks absolute ass. A really unique and fun slab of heaviness this duo managed to lay down in the studio. The good news is they can really deliver this live and then some. You can’t help but smile when watching the drummer, he’s kind of like a really enthusiastic cave man who is playing like his life depends on it, he’s sitting on a full on chair for some reason and then frequently hops up and stands on it to jeer the crowd. He plays seriously complicated mathematical stuff, which is truly something to behold. The guitarist (who is one of the bassists from the brilliant Morkobot) is playing his guitar in a fascinating way delivering anything from doom to thrash metal within a single beat. An excellent performance where both members of the band did not stop smiling, they seemed to play nearly every song off their record too… top stuff!
What’s up now? Oh yeah one of my favourite bands ever… Ufomammut, how could I forget? These guys have come a long way over the last few years which is mainly down to the ground breaking releases of Eve and Oro which has propelled them into the world of stoner rock heavy weights.
The first time I saw them was October 2010 at the teensy tiny Fighting Cocks in Kingston, now here they are… playing to a rather full looking Underworld. What a band they are! They take to the stage and instantly create a swirling wall of sound which just makes you feel that the world is ending (in a good way). Nasty yet spacey riffs which build at the slowest pace ever but before you can gather what’s left of your mind it’s just fucking chaos with hair everywhere and visuals which deliver twelve tons of delight around your looking globes.
The atmosphere is insane, if anyone in the room wasn’t feeling it on some kind of ridiculous level then I will eat an Orange amp. Set list wise it really was a magical journey across the albums including ‘Stigma’, ‘Deityrant’, ‘Oboborus’, ‘Hopscotch’ and sections from Eve sprinkled all over the place. None of this matters though, the main point is that this band creates another world when they play together. It’s a cosmic hurricane which is beyond anyone’s grasp or understanding… all that’s left to do is stand there and try to take as much of it in as possible. Class!
