live-report : my HELLFEST 2012

Most are cool, but lots of mixed feelings after this new edition of the World's biggest Festival of extreme musics, which for the negative ones I could sum-up in just a few words : TOO MUCH of everything !!!

Too much crowd, too much noise : the site was bigger but there wasn't enough space between each tents which means you never had quieter moments between two bands; after a Doom or Stoner gig, it's hard to stand a constant harsh background noise of a Black Metal band playing too near and if that wasn't black then it was brutal DM or Grind... Too many waiting also, which was not the case previous years, 2 or sometimes 3 hours of waiting between bands you really want to see, that's too much when repeated several times in the week-end .

 Ok,  it can be cool to see unknown bands or old ones but on that point the problem is that this year the old dinosaurs proposed were not as interesting as usual : for example MOLLY HATCHET (photo below), URIAH HEEP were to my opinion just cool to see for a few songs, ok the technic is still here but it's too wheezy physically to create something that can wake up the audience in the beginning or middle of the afternoon... 

 I just really enjoyed LYNYRD SKYNYRD that were consistently more sharpened and ended with both anthemic songs that everyone was waiting for... I regret not to have seen BÖC but was too fucking tired in fact yesterday and left the site by the end of the afternoon; YES I know I'm an ageing fucker and missed PENTAGRAM and THE OBSESSED.... it was hard to take the decision though but I had seen all those bands before and needed to stop this edition a few hours before planed; another thing is that after 3 days, maybe for the 1st time in such circumstances, I really missed my wife and kids too.

Of course, it would not be decent at all to complain, considering the luck to have this happening each year just about 2 hours from where I live but that doesn't prevent to feel a bit blasé, even if it's mostly tiredness that prevails today.

 In order to host 40 000/45000 metallers, the site has been enlarged and is now too big and makes you walking a lot more; the organization did a lot of nice efforts for evrybody's cumfort and more than 150 bands is absolutely exceptionnal in the principle, especially for the youngers, but beware of a prematured indigestion !!! this can be more debatable for old metallers who have yet seen a great part of the bands in their earlier days and/or in more appropriated conditions...

This said, I have of course enjoyed more than a fair amount of bands with :

ORANGE GOBLIN : an oustanding energic set of Metallic STONER and what a hell of a frontman !

NECROS CHRISTOS : on the Temple stage, this scene dedicated to the blackest sounds was pretty much fitting for those German mortified souls and their awesome mix of hauting Death/Doom was pure excellence, the vocal performance was perfect again, can't even say that Roadburn was better as being the first time I saw them ! 

THE DEVIL'S BLOOD : first thing that comes in my mind is the very impressive musicianship; like the 1st time I saw them, it's about an hour of guitars climax, extremely rich of twirling melodies, almost reducing each vocal apparition as a simple accompaniement but still brillantly valued as some kind of enchanting incantations.

 SAINT VITUS : great set, including 3 songs from the new album... I was surprised to hear 'I bleed black" so quickly in the set (2nd song) but everyone was in good form and - save a few doubtful improvisations of Dave Chandler-, the performance  was topless.

ACID KING : even if maybe not in at her best (last song was surprisingly messed-up in the soloing) Lorrie's is one of the rare woman whose voice suffers from no difference on stage and shit I think I could see her dozen times and would be always impressed by such a little build playing so crushing stuff !

THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX : I just have one album but should quickly give more attention to this fuzzy trio... They have completely returned the audience with their powerful and fuzzy Heavy Rock, proving once again that a POWER TRIO can be often devastating !!! 

 HANK 3 : what a nice moment during this Friday's evening with this memorable show of  a bit more than 2 hours... First  45 minutes were composed of his predilection style :  Country n' roll. Honestly I don't know anything concrete about this style but in this ambiance with prefectly well-adapted lights, it's like I felt transposed in "Deadwoods", almost hearing Al Swearengen insulting with passion and affection at next door !!!  and fuck that was something pretty unique :) Then during about 20 minutes the guys turned progressively into something more thick with skillfully infused Metal, Psychedelic and Stoner touches... then during the last 45 minutes Hank played alone with another drummer, a lot more hammering in his style than the first one believe me ! and a completely different set began... something TOTALLY crushing, a mix of Sludge/ Industrial/Metal, harsher and harsher, to end in a hardly standable maelstrom, CRAZY !!! I even left a few seconds or minutes before the end (at least I think... after 2 hours and a few minutes of uninterrupted set, more than 30 songs), that was so NOISY !

THOU : it was a bit hard to start the fest with them, early in the afternoon those yelled vocals were a bit difficult to get into, but I would be curious to see them in more enclosed conditions.

UFOMAMMUT : I'm not an unconditionnal fan of the italian Sludge/Stoner band but their gig was agreaable, catchier and more accessible than 3 years ago.

 ENSLAVED : too bad I was really too far the stage to take pics but the half of the set that I've seen was excellent, they're still pretty wild on stage and terribly epic... I've heard great Doomy riffs from in their newer songs and think their new album deserve a quick purchase.

 YOB : 3rd time I saw them in less than one year but still a special moment, even I've been bit disappointed by Mike's setlist and I think the context was too big for him and the band to feel and share the usual communion...

 I saw other bands during one, two or three songs, a part of them were cool  like ENTOMBED, DISCHARGE, ANAAL NATRAKH, COLOUR HAZE (I think this was a mistake to place them just a few hours after Atomic Bitchwax), NASUM...

Looking back at this, I think this was again a rather complete edition, it's just that I'm getting older and certainly a bit blasé (sorry if that hurts !); I think next year(s) I won't do the 3 days anymore, just one or two days if a few bands I never saw before will be coming or friends will be playing (hum, got a few cool infos for next year !). Of course it's hardly comparable but for my little fucking body I feel if there's just one to save : Roadburn is THE essential festival that is not to be missed each year, then it's now time to try discover smaller festivals like Muskelrock or Heavy Days in Doom Town... gonna think about that seriously !!!

UFOMAMMUT Complete Five-Part Video Series + Full Album Stream Via Roadburn

Intent on stimulating your visual senses in addition to simply your auditory receptors with each release nowadays, today UFOMAMMUT have released the final two installments completing the series of five visual accompaniments to each track from their Oro: Opus Primum full-length, as the album sees release in Europe this week, and will see release in North America on Tuesday.  

Documenting the final two tracks of UFOMAMMUT's Opus Primum, the audio/visual installments of the songs "Magickon" and "Mindomine" finish out the five-part video series that showcases the entire album, following the three previously released clips. To sum it all up, Roadburn.com has hosted the two video pieces, as well as a stream of the entire album. Delve into it all RIGHT HERE.

Although this completes the cycle for the Oro: Opus Primum LP, as the second part of the Oro series -- Oro: Opus Alter -- nears release in September, each track from that album will be released in the same visual/audio format. The full visual adaptation of both Opus Primum and later Opus Alter will be available as DVD installments which will accompany the limited edition LP versions of each chapter, hand-build by Malleus Rock Art Labs and released on the band's own Supernatural Cat Records.

http://www.ufomammut.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/UFOMAMMUT/83336386071
http://www.malleusdelic.com
http://www.neurotrecordings.com
http://www.facebook.com/neurotrecordings

(thanx to EarsplitPR)

UFOMAMMUTian Q&A with Urlo and Vita

As you probably already know the extraterrestrial heaviness of the new UFOMAMMUT record will be unleashed upon us next month. Partially, so it can be more fun. They promise something very different from their previous recordings and I’m pretty much inclined to believe that this could very well be another masterpiece from the Italian doom magicians. The new baby is called “Oro”, its first part, “Oro: Opus Primum” will be released in the UK on April 9th, throughout the rest of Europe on April 13th, and in North America on April 17th. The second one “Oro: Opus Alter” will come out somewhere in September.

The very kind Urlo and Vita shared few thoughts on the album and things of life. And I’m especially excited about hearing the new UFOMAMMUT material. What about you?

Congratulations on your signing with Neurot Recordings! What it is that you couldn’t achieve through Supernatural Cat that made you think of another label and eventually sign with them? What will change in the way you’re doing things?

Vita: I think that it won't change our way to see and play music, we are just trying to collaborate with Neurot because they seemed us really interested in UFOMAMMUT's music.

Urlo: We're still under Supernatural Cat too, because two of us are into Malleus that runs the label.

And the vinyl versions of “Oro” will be out via Supernatural Cat.

We received a lot of requests from different labels after “Eve” came out, some bigger and some smaller then Neurot and Supernatural Cat, but we thought Neurot was the right one for trying a new experience. We totally respect what they did till now and viceversa.

UFOMAMMUT was the official NEUROSIS support on their European tour in summer 2011. Did the Neurot proposal to sign you came as a result of this tour or they approached you before that?

Vita: We knew Steve Von Till before, probably that tour has been a kind of test, we had fun with NEUROSIS and, I hope, they had fun too...Maybe he just wanted to see better UFOMAMMUT on stage, for more concerts and not only a single show.

Urlo: It's been a great experience and the consequence of Neurot's coming in touch with us for a possible record with them.

Was it a difficult step for you, are you going to lose some of your independency as a band?

Vita: I don't think so because they are musicians since many years, they know what means making music or touring. I think we won't have problems.

Urlo: We're with Neurot, not Universal....... and to be UFOMAMMUT we need to do what we want and I guess this is clear at Neurot's headquarter:-)

You say that the two parts of “Oro” should be considered as one whole, why did you decide to split it in two?

Urlo: It's been a choice, since the beginning. We've started in working around some riffs to build “Oro”, we tried to create a weave of recurring parts, always different, tough. In this new record you'll hear parts coming back changing in a continuos growing and melting. We knew it was a very long work and that the result would have been a very very long record. So we thought about Kill Bill, the genious idea of splitting the movie in two parts and we said: will it work with music too? I think it'll be great to finish first record imagining what will come next. And make sure it'll be quite difficult to do cause the two records are, even if the same track, pretty different.

There is a wonderful description of what “Oro” is on your site. Do you believe that people are able to find a way to control their fears and that fears can be turned into gold? This Gold that is made of fears - could it be something positive?

Urlo: Humans have always kept their fears to transform them in power, to build their own world. Think about fire, think about wind, about water, the elements: things that are apparently destructive and we now control to live a better life (at least it should be).

And into a more philosophical way, we forge our souls from our fears.

That description I mentioned is great but very abstract one. Could you say something about the actual sounding of “Oro”? Explain heaviness and evil.

Urlo: It'a a different approach to music, we worked a lot and a lot on layering and heaviness, trying to create dense atmospheres even in the slower clean parts.

Then we tried to work a lot with the riffs, changing them to use them again in different parts of the record for creating, with the same ones, totally different parts.

It's been cool to work on the building process and we've done a very different record, expecially “Opus Alter” is a new path in our song writing.

Who’s the main rhymester in UFOMAMMUT? Do you pay special attention to the meaning of your lyrics or you just make them fit as a sound to the general flow of the music?

Urlo: It's me. Sure, our lyrics have a meaning, maybe not clear, but they have it. They have to be a part of the music, but at the same time they need to have a meaning. I like to use vocals as an instrument, that's why I use several effects on my mic.

 Urlo and Poia are both part of the Malleus Rock Art Lab that creates some incredibly good images for people to enjoy. Vita is also a very talented jewellery artist. I know this is a stupid question but if you had to choose between music and visual arts what would it be for you?

Vita: Personally there is nothing better than music for my life, jewellery gave me and still gives me money for living, my hometown was the best on earth for jewellery so was very easy finding a job on that field but, I repeat; there is nothing better than making music and play on stage, no drugs, no substances, no sex, nothing..

Urlo: Malleus and UFOMAMMUT come from the same roots and they're linked in music.

I need them both to be myself. I'd be a mutilated guy without one of them.

Images of women obviously play a big role in the Malleus art. Why is it so? What kind of women are they?

Urlo: Our female form is the representation of Beauty. They're strong women, powerful ones, not nice chicks.

Vita, can you tell me something more about the jewellery you create? Will you still be doing it when you all become mega stars?

Vita: Mega stars. LOL.. When I quit school I've started that job, as I already said, before this big crisis, was really easy working on it, every one in my family was into jewellery but we've never been rich even if my dad had a lab.

Anyway I like sculpting pieces of wax 'till making rings, or pendants or whatever because it's a part of my life. And probably yes, I will make it even if we'll become mega stars because I think to be good on this job.. But playing music is another thing.

You recorded “Idolum”, “Eve” and now “Oro” with the sound engineering of Lorenzo Stecconi who is also a member of LENTO. You are obviously happy with his work and LENTO is an amazing band. Could you describe recording and playing live “Supernaturals: Record One” with LENTO? I bet it is a mind blowing experience both for the bands and the audience…..

Vita: Lorenzo is very talented on his job and he knows perfectly what we want and what is our idea about music. And we are friends so everything becomes easy.

We played the first time all together in Rome, we thought it would have been tough having 8 person on stage but in the end everybody was satisfied (and personally I was proud) and the crowd too I guess.

Is there going to be “Supernaturals: Record Two” any time soon?

Vita: Who knows, we'll see..

Urlo: There's some ideas, let's see!

Big companies from the music industry are complaining of the decrease of the music sales. I would suggest that one of the reasons is it has become more industry and less music. How a boutique label like Supernatural Cat manages to survive in the present market situation? What are your observations – do people still buy music?

Urlo: I've always thought that the main important thing is quality.

Record Industries and big labels are in a huge crisis because they've started a politic of crap music, quantity of useless music to raise more money. So people started in downloading music that has no value.

As Supernatural Cat we've noticed that people is buying music, cause what we offer is Quality. It's simple.

Thank you very much for your time! Is there something I didn’t ask but you really need to share with the world?

Urlo: Apart from our music? Nope, see You on the road!

http://www.ufomammut.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ufomammut/31142261935

*** interview by Vania***