For those in need of a dose of hard rock, meet Aye Mammoth. The band, claiming Murfreesboro as home, evokes all of your sludgy rock ’n’ roll favorites.
Phil Stem plays drums on the Bring the Dawn album, while all other parts are credited to Micah Loyed, whose droning, chant-like vocals and fuzzy, distorted guitar work, along with the steady, driving beats, give Aye Mammoth’s project a swagger to it throughout.
The album opens with a thunderous and assertive, but not too fast, drum beat before a nifty sixteenth-note guitar riff is sprinkled in between the tom-tom hits on “Weary Traveler.”
Aye Mammoth probably owes a lot to many wonderful rock bands over the decades: Soundgarden, Helmet, Clutch, Anthrax, White Zombie, Stone Temple Pilots, something like that. While Aye Mammoth keeps it distorted and powerful, the band plays the majority of the music with a certain restraint, creating a personality that’s as groovy and head-bobbing as it is metallic.
Guitar harmonies (à la Avenged Sevenfold, perhaps), stand out in “Maritime,” and Loyed gets as dark as Danzig on “Serpents in the Sky.”
The pounding, driving pace is pretty unrelenting until track 8, where listeners can get a little air with “Temple of Light,” a genuinely pretty, breezy instrumental change of pace featuring plucking guitars and spacey, psychedelic sounds.
On its penultimate track, Bring the Dawn finally lets loose with what feels like the true explosion of the album, as well as some of Loyed’s best guitar solo work, before another instrumental closes the album, punctuated by a sitar-like solo effect.
Aye Mammoth doesn’t meander around too much, or waste time getting to the point of a tune; all clock in under three and a half minutes, so rarely does a beat feel too repetitive. So, for a quick dose of rock, listen to Bring the Dawn at ayemammoth.bandcamp.com (and check the site in the future for the release of upcoming new material). Summon the war drums today!
