BLUE MAMMOTH

The debut album from this new and very promising Brazilian band.

Listed as a neo-prog band, this band is much more in the AOR vein of the neo-prog spectrum than a traditional neo-prog band. The band rocks it out with a vintage 1970s hard prog sound too. But there are also some more pastoral, reflective pieces of music here too. The song titles gives associations to concept albums and the symphonic prog genre. A very true association it is too. There are a lot of Yes inspirations throughout this album. In short; the sound is vintage 1970s with today's rich and crystal clear sound. A blue mammoth, this album most certainly is.

The vocals is superb, the musicians knows what they are doing. The flutes are a good addition to the usual keyboards, guitars, bass and drums. I wish there had been some more Hammond organs here because that would had enhanced the songs a lot more. There is no doubts this is a very good album. I am missing that dot over the i which would had elevated this album to a higher level. The missing thing here is a couple of killer tracks. But as a debut album, the band should be really proud of themselves. They have landed themselves into an over populated scene and they will find it hard to get a foothold here. But this band has a lot of good things going for them and I will keep an eagle eye on them and watch their every move.

For fans of the 1970s hard prog scene, this album is a sure winner.

3.5 stars

'Blue Mammoth' - Blue Mammoth (6/10)

To paraphrase a quote Frank Zappa once made about jazz: prog isn't dead, it just smells funny. That is something of the impression that I get with Blue Mammoth, a promising new hard rock band from Brazil. Although many of the traditional school in prog tend to go for that 'symphonic' sound that Yes and Genesis made popular, these dudes instead go for a harder rocking, guitar-driven sound. Although they do not go around sporting the sort of virtuosic pomp that prog has become somewhat notorious for, they earn a firm place in Brazil's progressive music scene. Blue Mammoth's self-titled debut does not possess the sort of standout quality that would have warranted an unquestioning recommendation, but the band's tasteful approach to progressive rock is well worth keeping an eye on in the future.

Blue Mammoth's sound first reminded me of the popular Swedish group Beardfish; an ironic statement considering that Beardfish released an album titled 'Mammoth' the very same year this debut came out. The music takes a few pages from the classic 70's hard rock scene, but also from the highly melodic AOR brand of rock. Blue Mammoth are never technical, instead focusing in on melodies, only focusing on the arrangements when it suits the songwriting. Blue Mammoth execute and perform the album with a very professional sound and production. Where I am less impressed is that there aren't any 'highlights', or moments in the album where I was caught by surprise. Blue Mammoth sound like many bands in their league, and while they write some effective material, I never felt like the band was covering any new ground with it. The musicianship is fairly tame by today's prog standards, but as I said, it fits the sort of anthemic songwriting that the band feels drawn towards.

'Blue Mammoth' is a good debut album, but I cannot quite say that it's anything more than that. Blue Mammoth do not yet have the unique voice to boldly stake their claim within the progressive rock universe, but in regards to the evident artistic sincerity I am hearing here, I would not close the doors to the possibility that Blue Mammoth could have great things in store for them in the future.

3.5 really

Blue Mammoth is a young band from Brazil with one album released so far selftitled. I like what I've hered on this debute is , they melt very well the symphonic prog passages with more rockier sections, the resoult even is not spectacular or original is very enjoyble in the end. I like the voice of Andre Micheli he doesn't have that accet of forign language speakers, he has a very good voice for this kind of music and fits perfectly here, aswell he is responsable for the keyboards arrangements who are very good here. The album is balanced overall, going from slow and mellow parts to more up tempo with plenty of memorable passages, complex ones like on Metamorphosis, Growin or on the opening track. Pleasent from start to finish this guys knew to make a fairly pleasent album, maybe the brazilian prog scene is not so in front now , but from time to time there are bands that needs attention, even as I said before this is not a spectacular album, is decent with good pieces. The symphonic prog parts are present here on almost every piece, giving a more symphonic prog oriantation to their songs even are melted with more hrder edge and some neo passages in places. So, good, the cover art is ok, the rest of the booklet aswell, the music too, so 3 stars rounded to 3.5.

Blue Mammoth was initially a project by the Brazilian bass player Julian Quilodran (ex Octohpera). Later it became a real band and after a couple of years come to release this first self-titled album on the label Masque Records.

The band was betting on the Symphonic orchestral sound of 70's Prog but with a modern sound. The album was also composed as a 3 parts Suite, unfortunatelly, in the original album everything was divided into 14 tracks, which makes the tracklist a bit confusing.

In this album you can hear a bit of Yes influence and Andre Micheli (vocals and keyboards) has a voice that is a bit simillar to Blaze Bayley, especially on Iron Maiden's album The X- Factor (1995). Of course you would have to imagine Bayley singing Prog and not metal (hehehe).

The debut album of Blue Mammoth is an incredible piece of work and it shows us that you still can have Prog acts with originality even if drinking in the classic waters.

In time, the band is right now finishing their new album that'll have 10 tracks and two suites among them. For now you can listen and buy their first album through their Bandcamp: bluemammoth- progressiverock.bandcamp.com/album/blue-mammoth-2

Recommended!