Ufomammut / Morkobot / Evil Blizzard – Preston 05/10/2011
The Continental, Preston 05/10/2011
Italian Doom mammoths Ufomammut made their way back to our coasts again for a four date tour with fellow nationals Morkobot, Tonight’s gig being held at The Continental in Preston, had all three bands make use of the huge screen, housed behind the stage. The venue manages to cope well with the sound; the only issues really being the drums being too loud during Ufomammut and the vocals being too low but this is quickly resolved.
Up first are Preston’s own Evil Blizzard who take to the stage donned in all types of creepy masks, the band consists of two Bassists and a Drummer/ Vocalist playing a type of psychedelic noise with elements of funk and progressive rock which they have cleverly named Drum and Bass and Bass. The performance is energetic and accompanied by a series of slides, most of which are disturbing or just strange. The performance ends before the slides, to which the drummer exclaims “the next one is a whale” and he was right, it was!
Up next are Morkobot, who due to transport problems missed the Bristol & Leeds dates. They mix a cacophony of instrumental weirdness spanning musical influences from industrial, psyche, doom and space. Filling the venue with a mixture of sporadic tempo changes, they too consist of 2 bassist’s and a drummer however a guitar is not missed. Like Evil Blizzard their music shifts between both light and dark passages.
Ufomammut take the stage around half ten meaning that I only caught just over half of their set as I had to catch the last train back to Manchester. They open up with “Stigma”, off their well received “Idolum” album and it serves as an impressive start with the strobe visuals accompanying as the song kicks in at full force. As they finish the first number the familiar symbol from their critically applauded album “Eve” flashed up on the screen which seems to please the audience as they understood that they, perhaps for the last time, are going to be treated to the album in full.
The visuals by Malleus which included a view from space and snakes disorientate the audience as the real weight of the album can be felt more intensely within in the live environment. Ufomammut seem to improve on their formula better and better with each album so it will be interesting to see how their next album fares and where else they can go from the gargantuan “Eve”.
Scribed by: Drian Nash
Photos by: Lee Edwards
