Last month I reviewed an album by the American band The Midnight Ghost Train. In the review I said that sludgy rock is one of my favorites. And now, at the end of March, the band Mammoth Mammoth will be releasing their fourth album. I won’t go over the sludge rock again, but ‘Volume IV: Hammered Again’ is one of those rock records.

Mammoth Mammoth from left to right: Pete Bell (bass), Mikey Tucker (vocals), Frank Trobbiani (drums) and Ben Couzens (guitars)

Mammoth Mammoth (MM) is situated in Australia, not exactly around the corner but it is the birthplace of a lot of good bands. If an Aussie band makes it out to Europe and America, it’s a good one. Not only AC/DC, of course, but also bands like Wolfmother, Mortal Sin and Cog. Also MM have been going down that road of success, the last couple of years.

One of the influences that you can clearly hear on this new MM album is Mötorhead. The distorted guitars are ever-present on ‘Volume IV: Hammered Again’. Most songs are raging through my speakers like a never-ending freight train. With the not so pleasant, but oh-so matching vocals of Mikey Tucker it truly becomes a great rock album.

The entire album has this really dirty and filthy feeling to it, with the lyrics clearly adding up to that. ‘Black Dog’ is about the band being “snowblind” and ‘Sick (Of Being Sick)’ about being fed up with being hung-over. It all adds up to be a complete and coherent picture of four very sleazy drugged up dudes in a thrashed tour bus.

But, with all the fun that this album brings, it’s also hard to listen to it in its entirety. Every single time I listened to this album I kind of lost a couple of songs. Realizing that when I was at the closing piece of the album. Every time it were different songs that I couldn’t recall listening to.

Which means that it’s pretty hard to praise this record if you listen to it while doing something else. You really need to focus on the album, otherwise you’ll miss a lot of the fun. The last song on the album is a typical one. It’s called ‘High As A Kite’ and it is the band in a, just over nine minutes, nutshell. A slow, dragging song that’s at its very best on the end of the record. My absolute favorite song.

Well, if you like raging and distorted guitars, up-tempo riffs and harsh vocals, you should dig into this new Aussie record. This could very well be the record that takes Mammoth Mammoth to the bigger festivals, because that is where their music belongs. With beauties like ‘Fuel Injected’, ‘Electric Sunshine’ and the nine minutes long ‘High As A Kite’, this is an album you’re thoroughly going to enjoy!

9,0

Released: 27 March 2015
Record-label: Napalm Records
Website: http://www.mammothmammoth.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mammothmammothband

Tracklist:

1. Life’s A Bitch
   
2. Lookin’ Down The Barrel
3. Electric Sunshine
4. Fuel Injected
5. Black Dog
6. Promised Land
7. Reign Supreme
8. Sick (Of Being Sick)
9. Hammered Again
10. High As A Kite

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