UFOMAMMUT

MONOLORD THE GARAGE, LONDON

It’s a tribute to Monolord’s rising status that the sell-out crowd that materialises for any Ufomammut show is already out in force by the time the Swedes hit the stage. But as much as their latest album, No Comfort, has taken them down a more melodic and mournful path, there’s still an air of sense-dulling familiarity hanging over them. Whether it’s the Sleep-derived heft of Empress Rising or new track Larvae’s

singed cadences channelling Pallbearer via Warning’s autumnal ruminations, Monolord’s ability to hit a resonant vibe is never in question, but finding an intrinsic, animating spark is, despite the attention they get from the crowd. In contrast, Italians UFOMAMMUT have been forging their own path into ever-more-expansive and headily heavy climes for two decades, the immersive perspective they bring to every aspect of their vision creating a cultlike following in the process. Tonight, even without their trippy backdrop, the likes of Stardog’s adrenaline-fuelled lurches into bristling, ever-shifting headspaces, or Mars’s cranium-scraping excursions, create a co-ordinate-warping sensurround that turns the Garage into a chapel of four-dimensional riff-worship.

JONATHAN SELZER