MAMMOTH MAMMOTH
Volume IV: Hammered Again
Napalm (2015)
Rating: 8/10
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The Australian rockers claim to be “the most rock ’n’ roll rock ’n’ roll band in the history of history”, and already I’m getting tired of the repeated words. I guess they couldn’t call themselves Mammoth though, otherwise they’d be expecting a call from John McCoy’s defunct UK rockers.
Anyway, Mammoth Mammoth are a quartet consisting of Mikey Tucker (vocals), Ben Couzens (guitar), Pete Bell (bass) and Frank Trobbiani (drums), and they play straight up heavy rock if you ask me. As you may have guessed by the clue in the title, this is their fourth offering coming after a debut self-titled EP in 2008 and two full-length albums – Mammoth (2009) and Volume III: Hell’s Likely (2012).
So there may be some who like to call this stoner rock, but there’s no real lean towards a dope-smoking dreariness; in fact, all the tracks are upbeat fiery rockers boasting passionate vocals, riotous guitars and sweat-soaked guitars. It’s nothing fancy – certainly nowhere near original – but all delivered with high energy and simplicity through the likes of ‘Life’s A Bitch’, ‘Lookin’ Down The Barrel’ and ‘Black Dog’; there’s enough weight to appeal to the metal crowd but also enough groove to garner attention from a wider audience.
I guess if you like big, dirty riffs and no frills rollicking rock then you could do far worse than indulge in the fury of ‘Fuel Injected’, in which Mikey Tucker tells us of how he “keeps a knife in the heel of my boots” to a streetwise, unkempt lick, while with ‘Sick (Of Being Sick)’ we get a Black Sabbath-esque, sun-soaked crashing riff, gargantuan rolling percussion and Tucker’s volatile raps.
You might wanna take a long draw on that cigarette and flick it into the nearest person’s eye once you’ve strapped this opus on, because Mammoth Mammoth seem genuine in their aim to rough you up like the rock rebels they are. The tracks just keep on coming like heavy punches in a bar room brawl; the solos swirl out of the fag-smoke haze and the booze stains may take a while to wash out, but the bruising manner of this romp is unrelenting.
There’s no time for subtleties either; ‘Reign Supreme’ comes chugging in on a drugged up riff lace with fuzz and oil, ‘Hammered Again’ hangs Corrosion Of Conformity out to dry and beats it to death, and ‘High As A Kite’ is delivered with the same monolithic aplomb, only lengthier, bluesier and more psyched out and gruelling.
Indeed, this album really grows on you like a bad habit you don’t really want to break, and through all of its sludgy behaviour once it soaks into your skin you’ll feel as if you’ve been lying under a pile of rubble for a week. In a sense it’s good and bad, but always mighty in its message which of course is to break open another bottle and get hammered again.
Unfair to call it straight up stoner rock, Mammoth Mammoth’s latest chunk is more akin to sipping a can of gasoline and swallowing a match. Heavy, retro, bruising and confrontational.
Neil Arnold
