Devoid of light, rumbles Aye Mammoth vocalist Micah Loyed on the trio’s most recent release, Strigiformes Gaze, one which he describes as a “dark and lumbering blues and boogie album inspired by characters, places and events from Twin Peaks.”
Aye Mammoth plays a style on the darker and sludgier side of rock, fitting in with Black Sabbath, Danzig, Clutch, Helmet, Queens of the Stone Age and such in the hard rock world with music that could serve as a soundtrack to crawling out of primeval sludge. So, if deep, dark and distorted sounds good to you, saddle up with the Mammoth.
Strigiformes (owls) Gaze gets the listener’s head moving from the outset, and by design, it moves from slow and subtle head-nodding on “Owl Eyes”—which contains a little “heavy metal” jangling as part of the rhythm section—to giving rock fans a little something to stomp, hop, dance and boogie to by the time the collection reaches its last track, “Gooder’n Hell,” as the record increases the tempo on each track (Loyed said the band aimed to capture a sonic mixture of John Lee Hooker and Black Sabbath on that final tune).
The tempos vary from track to track, but each exhibits the signature Aye Mammoth aesthetic of heavily distorted guitar fuzziness and droning, deep, chanting vocals.
For eight years in a row the Murfreesboro group—Micah Loyed, Paul Haggard and Phil Stem—has released an album each year. Aye Mammoth already has plans in the works for the next two releases to round out a full decade of original music.
The brief “Bang Bang” marks something of an outlier for the band, even featuring some real “doo-wops” and a vintage, early rock ’n’ roll walking bass line, bringing to mind Queen’s throwback classic “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”
The instrumental passages creep up in intensity as the album progresses, with the opening track’s more minimalist passage climaxing into some ripping, screaming guitar solo work on “Slave to the Fear.” (The instrumental section on “Gooder’n Hell” feels more like a thunderous groove in unison rather than a scorching solo.)
Even with the nasty, overdriven feel of the sound overall, each item in the mix comes through with clarity on the album.
Check it out. The release is a quick hit, with a total runtime of less than 15 minutes. The band certainly captures its own unique flavor throughout the release, but the sections and pace change often enough to keep it interesting.
Find Strigiformes Gaze, and previous releases from Aye Mammoth at ayemammoth.bandcamp.com. The whole of the group’s catalog, while most songs can fit into a dark, distorted, mid-tempo, stoner, fuzzy, hard rock description, displays an interest in a wide range of cross-genres, with a little blues, punk, metal, alternative and doom thrown in the cauldron.
