While many bands and artists spend their careers within boundaries of a genre, some others like to tread between boundaries and make their own mark. Italian psychedelic doom group, Ufomammut have and continue to do so with their latest album, 8 (Neurot). Forty-five minutes of mind-melting fuzzy bass and guitar riffs over spacey synth is sure to warp your brain. Also to note, the marketing of naming this album 8 while there are exactly eight tracks on the album is simple, yet gratifying.

Each track on 8 is able to keep the same framework of remaining heavy, doomy, yet trippy but also standing out from one another that really brings this album together. ‘Warsheep’ is one of the shorter tracks but also really jumps out to make a lasting impression and then fades back into obscurity until the next listen. The climax of the song is both catchy and yet almost eerie like a cult is chanting out readings from some ancient book. Suddenly, without any notice, the following track ‘Zodiac’ kicks in with a continuation of what ‘Warsheep’ started but quickly evolves into its own story.

The highlight of this second half of a bad trip is when the time signature suddenly changes and then does exactly the same when the track suddenly ends and the next track, ‘Fatum’, kicks in with its own riff. ‘Womdemonium’ is another favorite of mine from this latest album. The opening riff just oozes Black Sabbath which is always a good decision for even the most elder of doom bands. This track, too, suddenly ends as the next track begins… a continuous theme of the record.

This latest album from Ufomammut may be one of their best pieces of work to date which speaks volumes given what they have already accomplished together. It is a good thing that this album is a digital copy otherwise, I fear, I would burn a whole through the physical disk in no time. Every listen releases a new hidden feature of different tracks and the sudden track changes still grab me by surprise. To be frank, 8 is an album that is as blemish-free as some of the classics.

9.0/10

TIM LEDIN