Ik trek even de lijn uitgezet door collega Kurth De Clercq door en gooi me op Scandinavische heavy psych doom (stoner, desert, ...). Het Zweedse Mammoth Volume doet zijn naam alle eer aan met dit 'slaapliedje': helemaal vroege Sabbath stijl, inclusief de vocals, maar toch een stukje eigenheid die hen net boven het pack doen uitpiepen. Wat mij betreft toch. Ligt het aan mij of worden we de laatste tijd terug overspoeld met straffe bands in dat genre? Hopelijk voor deze band niet opnieuw een winterslaap van zo'n twintig jaar.
The Cursed Who Perform The Larvagod Rites verschijnt op 19 augustus 2022 via Blues Funeral Recordings.
Lees
Mammoth Volume was founded in the small Swedish town of Lysekil in 1996, during a recording session where Daniel Gustafsson was the artist and Nicklas Andersson was the sound engineer. Also at the session was Nicklas’ brother Jörgen (known then as THE metal singer in Lysekil). A friend of the three, Kalle Berlin, was invited to complete the lineup of the new band on bass, an instrument he hadn’t played before. A truly humble beginning. At the time, stoner rock was new, cool, and catching fire in Sweden, and Mammoth Volume immediately sought to differentiate themselves. Proggy sections, unusual melodic phrasings, jazzy breaks, shady tempo changes and wistful ballads became hallmarks of their sound.
A band who never thought anyone but friends and family would listen to their music signed with American record company The Music Cartel in 1998, and released their debut album the following year. Emails and phone calls began to flow in. The visitor counter on their official website increased noticeably, and Stonerrock.com – the place to be if you followed the genre – praised the record.
Noara Dance was released in 2000, a seven-song EP on CD and vinyl. Another positive response followed, and the band embarked on small tours in Germany and Holland with Dozer and Terra Firma, among others. In 2001, A Single Book of Songs was released and hit like a bomb in the scene. The album won the year's best album on Stonerrock.com, even though the record made it clearer than ever that Mammoth Volume was as influenced by Yes and Mike Oldfield as by Kyuss. The band took to the road for the biggest tour of their career across Europe, playing in some places to packed houses, while other venues were almost comically empty.
The first phase of Mammoth Volume came to a close with the release of the 17-song "DEMO" album The Early Years. With that, the band took a long break. They recorded a few demos in the mid-2000s, had a couple of rehearsals, gigs and recording sessions in the early 2010s, but all in a fairly underground way. But Nicklas always had the vision to restart the band properly, convinced that, with Daniel at his side, Mammoth Volume had more to give. At last, the band officially reactivated in 2019, stronger than ever, and ready to present their comeback album of genre-bending stoner-prog fusion to an unsuspecting world.
Mammoth Volume is
Jörgen "Aston" Andersson - Vocals
Daniel Gustafsson - Guitars, Keyboards
Kalle Berlin - Bass
Nicklas Andersson - Drums, Vocals, Percussions
