Ufomammut – Hidden
Release Date: 17th May 2024
Label: Neurot Recordings
Bandcamp
Genre: Doom, Cosmic Doom.
FFO: Om, YOB, Conan, Kylesa.
Review By: Hillary Wisniewski
Formed in the late 90s, Ufomammut have been perfecting their craft for a quarter of a century. Impressive! Now, some acts could become a bit stale in that amount of time and just keep churning out the same old same old, but that is not the case here. In 2022, I had the pleasure of reviewing Fenice and was well pleased with what I heard. I ended that review by saying, “If Fenice is the rising of Ufomammut out of the ashes, I look forward to seeing them soar as they continue to experiment with their sound.” And soar they do, my friends. Hidden traverses massive time and space externally and internally, both lyrically and musically.
First off, this album is HEAVY and especially when compared to the previous release. Sometimes I wondered what these poor instruments did to deserve such a pummeling, but then there was this nice, fuzzy warm blanket that everything was laid out upon nicely. I like my layers of sound and not everyone can pull it off well, but Ufomammut knows what’s up. Lush, weighted, doomy, and spacey sounding riffs carry forward the guitar, heavy hitting percussion and rumbling bass undergird everything nicely, and distorted vocals sound fantastic against the backdrop of comprehensive sounds. Much like Fenice, this album also features synths that are well incorporated and well-timed; it just wouldn’t be the same without them, as listeners would miss out on that psychedelic element they bring. There are times in which the tracks are hypnotic and will be your ticket to a different state of mind. I feel I would be remiss not to point out that despite this being massively heavy, there are a lot of melodic elements to boot. The subject matter of Hidden appears to focus on internal pain, loss, connection with the natural world, and the recognition that time, space, and matter are intertwined and as much part of us as they are separate from us.
I don’t really have any major beef with Hidden; perhaps there are some moments in which I would have liked to be able to better discern the lyrics, but I also think less distortion on them would not have meshed well with the overall sound. Don’t play this album as background noise; carve out the time to really listen to it so you can appreciate everything Ufomammut are bringing to the table. 
(4.5 / 5)
