The beauty of the full album stream is you get a chance to take in the entirety of a creative piece of work—from the music to the album art to the artists’ reflection on said work. Italy’s Ufomammut offer up an incredible package with their ninth full-length, Fenice. In listening to the psych-doom trio’s latest offering, we were particularly taken by the way the dense, psychedelic, Art Deco-informed artwork (done by members of the band) reflected the density and complexity of the music. Fenice is Italian for “phoenix” and you can see in the artwork, and feel in the music a transformation, as the roiling sound—heavy, distorted, affected—ascends and crescendos.
The Italian trio—Poia (guitars/effects), Urlo (bass/vocals/effects/synths), Levre (drums/effects)—created Fenice as a “single concept track” that they divided into six movements. The album shuttles from spacey to grinding to mind-expanding with an underlying heaviness. Like the cover art, it’s dark and saturated, but highlighted by an illuminating brightness. Definitely a record to be consumed in its entirety. Fenice is set for release on vinyl, CD and digital formats on May 6 via Neurot Recordings, which you can preorder here. There will also be a limited edition of 666 copies of a vinyl version released through the band’s own Supernatural Cat label that can be ordered here.
