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Ufomammut writes dark, dense music with sprawling soundscapes coupled with ultra-heavy guitars and anguished vocals. If smog were a musical genre, Ufomammut would be its kings.

Idolum is a crushing work of sludge absolutely drenched in heavy psychedelia. “Stigma” opens with a pounding, unrelenting riff peppered with swirls of effected samples and swirling noises followed by an even more crushing riff. This is a very dense listen. Even on the fifth or sixth pass, new things bubble to the surface. One thing that this release gives us that has been absent on previous Ufomammut releases is simply melody. There are more hooks and memorable parts on Idolum than on previous releases. That is not to say that the band has softened their attack in the least. If anything, the melody just provides an excellent counterbalance to the merciless pounding that ensues.

“Stardog” is a fairly upbeat track with a lot of excellent dynamic shifts. There are points where the music grinds to a halt while feedback takes over or an odd noise fills the space only to be run over by the band kicking back in full force. “Hellectric” is an other-worldly dirge rife with sludge and heavy groove. The band pulls back for a minute and just lets the song ride along quietly before plunging back in headfirst. “Destroyer” is one of the most aptly named tunes on this release.  It opens big and continues down that path before sliding down into the closing “Void/ Elephantom.” The “Void” half of the closing track is probably the only disappointment here simply because it takes so long to develop. At the beginning, it feels like the music is drawing you in and pulling you down, but then it just continues on simply to fill time to end with a gimmicky runtime of 66 minutes and 6 seconds.

In the end, I’d have to say that Ufomammut are taking heavy music to places that it hasn’t been yet. Are they the future of heavy? Possibly. One can only hope.

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Reviewer: Dave Warren Added: June 3rd 2008