The second album of ACID MAMMOTH has been released just after two and half years from their debut. The Athenian quartet is ready for the big step as their second attempt comes under Heavy Psych Sounds, a big deal for them as this will give them boost and a great chance if they work hard as a European tour will follow.
What about the music though? The album’s cover is the first thing that gains attention (especially on vinyl), impressive logo on a two coloured cover (red/black) and the mammoth that walks slowly and proud, ideal for a proper stoner doom album. The larger than life fountain of mighty Black Sabbath keeps offering inspiration to many bands and these greeks are no exception. Of course we all know that at this genre are not the truly original compositions we longing for, it’s more about the devotion on a proper heavy riff and the slow tempo that keeps you close even on long tracks. Speaking of duration, this time the album lasts only 35 minutes and none of the tracks is longer that 9 minutes while at their 60’ long debut there were some tracks up to 14’ and of course the “Black Rites” up to 18’).
It looks like that when it comes to composition they controlled themselves and the final result came out more solid. Their doom metal is sincere, it carries the appropriate heaviness and a good production that doesn’t tire the listener. Chris Babalis Jr. (vocals, guitar) follows the early era of Ozzy (I must admit I enjoyed him much more this time comparing to their live performance a few weeks ago during their live presentation of the album in Athens when they played a headline show at Ilion Plus) while at the same time they have another good guitarist, Chris Babalis Sr (and father obviously of the singer).
Smart choice to kick off with “Them!” (they also released a video for this one) but it is “Tree Of Woe” next up that develops nicely for nine minutes, definitely this is the track that I keep listening again and again. Side A has the only -so and so- track, the kind of boring “Tusks of Doom” but hopefully SIDE B sets the quality up high again and brings the necessary balance. The groups seems pretty compact, I enjoyed the Electric Wizard-like guitars tracks like “Jack The Riffer”, and last but not least Marios Louvaris (drums) and Dimosthenis Varikos (bass) are the ideal men for the effective rhythm section.
