MAMMATUS

Mammatus is a stoner rock band that released their self titled debut in 2006. It got a fairly decent amount of attention, not for innovation, but for its well played stoner rock. It has all the good characteristics of the genre: a lot of repetitive heavy riffing, aggressive playing and excellent jams. The vocalist is almost always drowned in the distortion of their sound, but that really isn't a problem and it works well with their music and style. The jams are well executed and their energy really shows on these four songs. The name titles of the album may look pretentious, ("The Righteous Path Through the Forest of Old") but there isn't really a story to follow here (although you're free to create one if you wish). There are some nice trance-inducing psychedelic passages in the middle of the jams specially on their 20+ minute "Dragon of the Deep pt. 2" ,which is the stand out track on the album, and they add a nice dimension to their heavy music.

There isn't much to say here really. If you're a fan of stoner rock then you'll feel right at home with this band and if you don't know what the heck stoner rock is then give Mammatus a try. They are very accessible and have all the good qualities one can expects from stoner rock, but for fans of the genre don't expect anything new here only well played music.

The two guitar powered cosmic stoner rock group from Santa Cruz offer a powerful trip to the caverns of stoned dragons on their debut album. The hypnotic beat for spacey levitation is pleasantly created without synthesizers, giving the record's tone an earthbound rustic edge. If the detailed album covers wouldn't succeed giving a fine first impression, the opening song "The Righteous Path Through The Forest of Old" should do it with great rhythmic innovations and intense feeling. The main epic of the album "Dragon of The Deep" reaches over half hours duration, and the droning epic divided to two parts really dives into depths of intensive repetitive paths of imaginative sludge music. If you like Earthless and similar impressionistic stoner music, verify this album also.