MAMMOTH

Overall this is a very interesting album. One of Beardfish's best composed albums, it nevertheless fails to capture the atmosphere that made Sleeping In Traffic, Pt. 2 so great. That's my opinion anyway.

With that said and out of the way, this is still a great album. It has a lot in common with their previous album, Destined Solitaire, but this one is a bit tighter and about 20 minutes shorter. The heavier touches that appeared on DS are back, with the opening track "The Platform" sounding almost like a prog-metal track in parts. "And the Stone Said: If I Could Speak" is probably the highlight of the album for me, with a killer opening melodic line that gets built upon until the song switches motifs and the vocals enter. From there, the song goes through various themes, including another almost-prog-metal moment at about 10 minutes in.

Other highlights for me include "Akakabotu," a very good instrumental and one of the mellower points on the album, and the closer, "Without Saying Anything" which fits very well as the finale of the album. The rest of the tracks are very good as well, they're just not as memorable or impressive as those mentioned.

A really solid Beardfish album which is probably my second favorite of those I've heard (both parts of SiT and Destined Solitaire), and falls just short of their masterpiece "Sleeping in Traffic pt. 2" while definitely succeeding as a follow up to Destined Solitaire. I do feel that this album deserves more than just 4 stars, but I can't give it the full 5.

4.25/5