MAMMATUS

Even from California it's a surprise to hear a band that still makes music like this. Defying time and any sense of fashion, the Santa Cruz foursome churn out the heavy cannabis-rock with distant space voyages in the shadows. Perfect riffs are built upon with roomy bridges, grinding trance, Aaron Emmert's flailing drums and the lock-in-step bass of Chris Freels creating a huge progressive sea, supple and unwieldy but never quite out of control. Though Sabbatic on the surface, Mammatus shares as much with early Floyd, Hawkwind and many of the European spacerockers but tightened with a direct, more American sensibility and prog complexity. All these elements are heard on the 12-minute 'Dragon of the Deep Part Three', showing great harmonic interplay between the guitars of Mike Donofrio and Nicholas Emmert as they make mountains out of molehills, and the album is almost worth it for this track alone. A touch of jazz opens 'Pierce the Darkness' but it soon grows dark with Nick Emmert's witching wail and dives deep into the plasma pool, reaching stoner heaven about halfway through. Haunted folk tale 'The Changing Wind' is strange and entrancing with tortured souls, majik circles, spirit dances and incantations, and the title cut has them back to their anchor-heavy earth rock. Absolutely hits the spot if you're in the mood for it, and no one is doing this kind of vintage stuff better at the moment.

In this recent album by this new band called Mammatus we see them experimenting more with their sound. They seem to have taken some influences from Acid Mothers Temple while they were on tour with them. It also looks like they've been listening to more prog since this album sounds more complex and less straightforward than their unrelentingly heavy self-titled debut last year. The other good thing is that they sound less like their peers in this album and more like an entity as compared to their debut which sounded like a normal "been-there-done-that" stoner rock album (although a pretty good one at that).

The album starts off where their debut left us. "Dragon Of The Deep pt. 3" Is the continuation of their now 40+ minute epic although like in the first 2 parts of the epic they share little to no resemblance to one another nor they sound like one single piece. This song shows their AMT influences specially in the synth sound that is widely recognizable from the AMT discography. From the start of the album you'll also notice that they left some of the Stoner Rock of their first album behind. You can also note their prog influences here in their changing themes and their complex melodies. The rest of the album shows more variety than their debut as well leaving more space in their sound. The contrast of heavy and "soft" parts is excellent and it's good to see their "softer" and trippy sound for a change like in the start of "The Changing Wind". This album is also more lyrical and it has vocals on all 4 songs.

A good thing about this band is that they don't take themselves seriously and they like to play and fool around. Such is the case with "The Changing Wind" which is a fun song to listen to even though its the shortest. I don't know what the singer is saying, but in this song he sounds like a little Japanese girl. It all ends up with seals sounds to give it even more novelty.

In the end this is a nice departure from their debut. It shows a lot of improvement and change. Their Stoner Rock sound isn't as similar from other bands and there's a good variety of themes and moods. Fans of the genre will find something interesting here to listen to and although there's still chance for improvement, this album is worth the listen.

3.7 or almost 4 stars

The two guitar powered cosmic stoner rock group from Santa Cruz offer a powerful trip to the caverns of stoned dragons on their debut album. The hypnotic beat for spacey levitation is pleasantly created without synthesizers, giving the record's tone an earthbound rustic edge. If the detailed album covers wouldn't succeed giving a fine first impression, the opening song "The Righteous Path Through The Forest of Old" should do it with great rhythmic innovations and intense feeling. The main epic of the album "Dragon of The Deep" reaches over half hours duration, and the droning epic divided to two parts really dives into depths of intensive repetitive paths of imaginative sludge music. If you like Earthless and similar impressionistic stoner music, verify this album also.

Mammatus is a stoner rock band that released their self titled debut in 2006. It got a fairly decent amount of attention, not for innovation, but for its well played stoner rock. It has all the good characteristics of the genre: a lot of repetitive heavy riffing, aggressive playing and excellent jams. The vocalist is almost always drowned in the distortion of their sound, but that really isn't a problem and it works well with their music and style. The jams are well executed and their energy really shows on these four songs. The name titles of the album may look pretentious, ("The Righteous Path Through the Forest of Old") but there isn't really a story to follow here (although you're free to create one if you wish). There are some nice trance-inducing psychedelic passages in the middle of the jams specially on their 20+ minute "Dragon of the Deep pt. 2" ,which is the stand out track on the album, and they add a nice dimension to their heavy music.

There isn't much to say here really. If you're a fan of stoner rock then you'll feel right at home with this band and if you don't know what the heck stoner rock is then give Mammatus a try. They are very accessible and have all the good qualities one can expects from stoner rock, but for fans of the genre don't expect anything new here only well played music.