Descending into Pleistocene with Ufomammut and RoadkillSoda

review of the Ufomammut & RoadkillSoda gig

Bucharest, 31 march. In a relaxed atmosphere, in Fabrica Club two bands will delight us with extreme sounds and catchy tunes. This day was warm and sunny, after a prolonged winter, a true spring day. I take advantage of this beautiful day and decide to go to this promising concert.

RoadkillSoda is a well-known Romanian band. The style they approach is a mixture of stoner and sludge metal, very catchy live. They light up the atmosphere instantly with old and new songs. It took only few minutes and, from the first song, the band has captured all the attention. Even from the beginning, the club was pretty crowded. I don’t know how to estimate, but I think it was a good concert-evening.

RoadkillSoda enchanted us with many songs from the newest album “Mephobia” released in November 2017. Songs like “Bipolar”, “Dip”, ”Trust”, “Prometheus”, ”Wrong” make the crowd dance and  feel fantastic. The good vibe was present as long as the band was on stage. I, myself was having a really good time. The energy induced by this band is overwhelming. You simply cannot stand still, you have to blend-in with the energy wave. In the end, the band members presented us the new vocalist which sang the hit “Made of Stone’” together with Mircea ”Hotshot Eagle” Petrescu the actual vocalist. The band promise us more details soon. The setlist also included songs from the 2014 album” Yo No Hablo Ingles” (Eyes of Emerald) and 2016 full-length” Space Echo Time”(Can’t Take Control).

In an recent interview, Mihnea Ferezan, the guitarist of RoadkillSoda, speaks about the meaning and the crucial importance of support for the local bands. Inspired, hard-working local-bands are often neglected or minimized for the benefit of foreign bands which might not be so talented or assiduous. This live piece of excellence showed me that this metal band deserves much more attention from the public and the media.

After a short break, long enough to refill our drinks, the megalithic stoners of Ufomammut appeared on stage. With almost twenty years of experience, and nine full-lengths (or eight if you consider both “Oro” albums as one part) on market, Ufomammut is already renowned in the metal-scene. Unique acts such as Ufomammut serve as a breath of fresh air floating above a sea of recycled riffs and kitschy distortion.

The band, located in Piedmont, Italy, was in Bucharest for the second time. The members (Urlo-Bass; Poia-Guitar; Vita-Drums) of Ufomammut are also a part of the critically acclaimed graphic design and fine art collective “Malleus” “Malleus” features all members of Ufomammut, who specialize in doing predominantly screen-printed gig-poster art and art prints. Pieces of their art were projected all through the show on the back wall.

At first, there were little problems with the sound (I couldn’t hear Urlo’s voice, the bass guitar was too loud) but the issue could be ignored for the sake of the atmosphere.

Urlo’s bass still resonates in my ears, the gig was filled with surprising effects, and everything felt exactly how an Ufomammut show should. I recognized songs like “Babel” and “Zodiac” taken from the newest album “8”  All songs are revolving around the occult and ancient mythological lore. There were some huge riffs one can’t get enough of… Repetition really is a weapon with this sort of music. The massive wall of sound was present all through their show. It was like  three people are playing tricks on your mind. Their music works like psychedelics but without the side effects, heavier than many other metal-acts.

A friend once  told me that if you like a band, you should buy their t-shirt(merch) and if you don’t have a T-shirt with that band, that means it is not that important for you. So, now, if I ask him if he likes a certain band, he just tells me if he has the t-shirt or not (and he has a lot of them). Now I know he has one with Ufomammut.

In the end I think it was a great evening, with good music, thanks to the two bands, and to  Final Step Production, and I think Ufomammut remains one of the heaviest and most interesting acts to watch in the doom metal and psychedelic metal/rock scenes of today without neglecting the blasting sound of RoadkillSoda.

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