MAMMOTH

After listening to most of their music stuff I could not help but notice their incredible variety of different style adding any time something fresh and new, release after release. Their music backgroud is obviously quite the same as other well-known swedish bands like The Flower Kings for instance but, what it seems to be different in Beardfish, in my opinion, is their unique attitude and approach to the usual Prog music of the seventies: It is clearly evident the presence of those typical influences of bands here like Zappa, King Crimson, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Yes or even Jethro but that is only closely related to their sound than style and the music in"Mammoth" can easily demonstrate the concept that I meant before:

"The Platform": The song starts with an evocative double guitar arpeggios that soon introduces a more heavy & complex, but still dynamic, instrumental passages, It all sounds like King Crimson Meets Mastodon but when it comes the verses, the music, while remaining in the epic tone, suddenly becomes less harsh and surprisingly it reminds me a lot of the style of Big Country, even in the way of singing Rikard Sjöblom seems to be so close to Stewart Adamson's tone!

"And The Stone Said: If I Could Speak" : After a brief introduction with radio tuning effect, The piece starts with a very passionate guitar riff that might sound like King Crimson's "Starless Part Two" because it sounds like it was written by Mr. Fripp in person and forgotten in a drawer somewhere for years and years...Seriously, this is the longest Piece of Music and, probably, the best of the entire record...Evocative lyrics, Growling effect which suggests you how the rocks would speak to us. Great Keyboard solo but special mention goes to the bass player: Robert Hansen, He is always cool with its extreme rhythmic & melodic inventiveness.

"Tightrope": the song perhaps more relaxed of the entire work, it is full of pleasant moments with clear melodic folk influences in the Jethro Tull style.

"Green Waves" : This is in my opinion the second highlight of the disc, The sludge-metal influences a la Mastodon powerfully returns here, and it is much more evident in an exasperated , even if effective, vocal performance of the always good Sjöblom. There are plenty of instrumental parts with very good solos from both Zackrisson and Sjöblom and the dramatic chorus turn out to be the best part of the whole song!

"Outside/Inside" : a simple, but effective, piano intro to the next song.

"Akakabotu": The only instrumental piece on the album and...what a track!!!...The guest sax player literally shines here as like as all the other members of the band do!

"Without Saying Anything (Feat. Ventriloquist)" : With the last track, Beardfish are playing safely at home just going back to their classic style that characterized them in the previous albums and suddenly Zappa does it again peeping between the lines...the song is pleasant and more relaxed than before and the final section is my favourite one sounding epic and tragic at the same time.

In conclusion a work that confirms once again the incredible talent of these young musicians who are able to renew themeselves every time, while still remaining true to their greatest passion for classic Prog Music!

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