Saturday 5 September 2015

Mammoth Salmon - Last Vestige Of Humanity (Album Review)


Release date: August 31st 2015. Label: Self Released. Formats: DD 

Last Vestige Of Humanity: Tracklisting 

1.Ad Nauseam 04:16
2.Acid Casualty 07:04
3.Last Vestige of Humanity 08:57
4.Memoriam 08:53
5.Shattered Existence 06:52
6.Believe Nothing 10:08 

Band Members: 

Paul Dudziak--Guitar, Vocals
Alex Bateman--Bass
Steve Lyons--Drums 

Review: 

Well it's been a long 18 month wait for Mammoth Salmon to return with another round of heavy riffs to rock out to. Last Vestige Of Humanity is possibly Mammoth Salmon's finest work to date after a string of acclaimed EP's. Mammoth Salmon are ready to show the world what they can do with their blistering debut album. What you get is 6 tracks of heavy down-tuned Sludge/Doom/Stoner Metal riffs with Mammoth Salmon showing why they're worth giving a damn about.

If you dig bands such as Weedeater, Bongzilla and Red Fang then Mammoth Salmon is the band for you. The album runs for an action packed 46 minutes or so. And it's jam packed full of great sludge/doom/stoner metal riffs. Opening track – Ad Nauseam – sees the band let fly with a barrage of non-stop riffs and grizzled vocals to match. It's the shortest song on the album and it perfectly captures what Mammoth Salmon is all about. Mainly having a good time playing down-tempo sludgy heavy as fuck riffs.

Second track – Acid Casualty – sees the band offer a more progressive style of Sludge/Stoner Metal. The rest of the album follows the same formula as this song. Long drawn out and doomy based riffs that have a slight NOLA sound though mixed with the familiar Portland sound that's becoming quite well known in Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal circles.

Obviously with this being a Portland band, they have tapped up one of the best recording mixers and engineers in the business – Adam Pike. Adam has been involved with a ton of great bands from the Portland scene. And it's good to see him doing the business on Mammoth Salmon's release yet again as the album sounds superb.

The stand-out track has to be the title track – Last Vestige Of Humanity. A bluesy psychedelic offering with the band creating an exciting tale of doom and gloom based riffs. The vocals take a while to get used to but Paul will soon win you over especially when he drifts into his psychopathic mad-man persona. The drumming is another highlight with Steve banging the hell out of the drums on this track.

It's to Mammoth Salmon's credit that they've included a huge amount of different noises and sounds for the album. You will need to listen to this album a few times to experience the full effect. Some people may think Mammoth Salmon have a simple approach to their music but trust me they don't. These guys have some brilliant ideas waiting to be discovered underneath the murky swamp based rhythms of the album.

Other great songs to check out are Memoriam, Shattered Existence and Believe Nothing as Mammoth Salmon unleash hell on earth with a wicked sense of humour to match. Last Vestige Of Humanity is a blast from start to finish and it's definitely been worth the epic wait. Buy this now as it's fucking awesome. No question about it.

You can buy Last Vestige Of Humanity on BandCamp Buy Now Download. A physical release will be coming later in the year. 

Words by Steve Howe

Links: 

Facebook | BandCamp