Ufomammut - Snailking

A devastating album! Ufomammut's Snailking is the perfect synthesis of Doom, Sludge, Shoegaze, Post-Rock and Psychedelic music. Not for the faint of heart. The iItalian band sounds like theyve been at this for year, and this is onyl their second album. The whole thing is drenched in acid, rolled through the mud and thrown through the windows of your soul.
Seriously heavy hooks, great builds, trippy interludes, and tortured screaming. This album should be listened to as a whole, but if you need to know, there is something for everyone. (Well, maybe not your Barabara Streisand-loving parents, but you get the point.)
"Blotch" gets thing started off right. An eerie lurching march towards some inevitable fate with crushing leads and pysch flourishes abound and ending with some seriously creepy organ playing. Next track, "Hopscotch" proceeds to rip your speakers into tiny little pieces and leaves your stereo a melted puddle of plastic and metal. Fuzzed out synths and chopped up samples and some foreboding drumming introduce the next track, "Lacrimosa", which continues with very thick swirling shoegaze guitar work and some well placed feedback. This is one of two emotional highlights on the album. A gong crashes and "Odio" begins, making Black Sabbath wish they had de-tuned their guitars a bit more. This is the most derivative track here and it is still quite a ride. "God" is another creepy track that would make Sunn O))) proud. (though it uses a great rhythmic drum line). "Alcool" is all chills up your spine, leading into the second emotional peak on the album; "Braindome". This track uses sampling that describes the effect of a nuclear bomb. It is a extremely effective track, and heavy as....a nuclear bomb, i guess. Amazing combination of heavy as hell music and great sampling. The last track, "Demontain" is a medley employing all the tricks that Ufomammut have. Lasting almost a half an hour, it goes from Sunn O))) like drone to feedback to crushing riffage to acocalyptic builds and explosive psychedelic crunch.
This album is a mind-altering experience, to be listened to on headphone or good speakers, lights turned down, with the hour set aside to absorb this monolithe known as the Snailking.
This is a definite favorite of mine in the Stoner/ Doom realm of music.