Recently, Ufomammut bassist/vocalist Urlo compared the gap between Oro: Opus Alter and its predecessor Oro: Opus Primum to five months of feedback. This is in reference to how the trio keeps live audiences on the edge of their bongs with anticipatory squealing before barrelling into the next stoner doom colossus.
It’s this sort of tension/release that not only leads Oro: Opus Primum into Oro: Opus Alter, but drives the body of part two’s 40-minute conclusion. Ufomammut draw inspirational influence from home, abroad and the cosmos, and where Opus Primum slow-burned along a quiet-loud-quiet trajectory, Opus Alter spins their musical yarn across the board.
Oroborus kicks things off with a slinky bassline that could have been nipped from a 60s spy thriller, before the rollicking waves of psychedelic sludge hit. The hypnotic swirl of Sulpherdew revels in a repetitive, accented march, Sublime recalls the progressive rhythms of Astrosoniq, while Luxon sounds like the Melvins downloading sounds from NASA’s Curiosity and proves there’s something to be said for pushing the expected through the wringer of the uncharted.
