Swedish stoner rock band Mammoth Volume are an interesting prospect. Their work isn’t shy in sharing the kind of 70s guitar tones you’ll find on early Queens of The Stone Age recordings, or exploring the corners of retro sounds beloved by latter day Opeth, but there’s always more to their albums than fuzzy heaviness and Hammond drenched grooves. ‘Raised Up By Witches’, their fifth release, in many ways, finds their mix of blues, fuzzy stoner metal and jazz coming of age.
The record captures pretty much all of the band’s different influences, creating a broad and varied listen. In terms of relative heaviness, ‘Diablo III: Faces In The Water’ serves up some classic 70s sounds where the core of Sabbath is afforded more of a groove, and a swaggering riff is interspersed with a few busy fills to keep things interesting. A raw lead vocal stokes up a very natural sound throughout, and even the presence of a few chorus harmonies doesn’t really sweeten the overall tone. When it comes to featured solos, the band go a little further off piste, casting aside the core rhythm in favour of something a little busier, hinting at their love of prog and jazz when twin lead guitars battle against an off-kilter rhythm. This really shows off the band’s desire to take stoner-ish influences into unfamiliar climes. Conveying a similar sense of darkness, but exploring a very different sound in places, ‘Scissor Bliss’ is home to a massive sounding stoner metal riff on its chorus and a some really muddy moments worthy of classic Melvins, but the number’s other elements are all far more interesting. A distorted bass chugs through a steady groove, over which deep toned guitars lend a few stoner inspired riffs leaning into a heavy blues sound; retro organ noises drop between a near-spoken vocal, and MV settle into a hybrid sound where prog, blues rock and stoner intersect. Factor in a simple vocal hook and a hugely unexpected detour where all of the main melodic strands are replaced by quiet jazz noodling with flute sounds, clean toned guitar and backmasked noise for a full on psychedelic freakout, and this easily becomes an album highlight.
Released as a digital single ahead of the album, ‘The Battle of Lightwedge’ offers more of a “typical” Mammoth Volume sound with its obvious Josh Homme/Layne Staley inflected vocals and fuzz toned guitars, both building to a very retro, obviously stoner inspired sound. There’s a sense of progression here, too, though, since the production sound is arguably superior to earlier the band’s earlier work, and a really fat tone brings out the best in a more melodic guitar sound once the track’s heavier moments kick in. It could be argued that the result doesn’t bring anything especially new to the band’s chosen sound/genre, but everything is brilliantly played, and by the time it reaches a climax with the vocals in full roar, these Swedes sound like a stoner rock force of nature. ‘A Tale About A Photon’ takes the stoner fuzz and twists it around a distinctly un-stoner stop/start rhythm, exploring a strange hybrid of distorted desert rock and retro prog, but despite taking on a rather jerky feel in places, there’s a lot of interest here. The way the pointed lead guitar sounds as if its been transposed from a post punk band into a landscape of retro rock is particularly cool, and by the time this number finds its feet, it gives a greater insight into how naturally the rhythm section pulls together to give a sometimes quirky arrangement a proper sense of direction. The vocals, too, do a lot of heavy lifting in the melodic stakes, and although some of the finer points can seem a little mumbly, the way the voice floats over the heavier moments feels very natural. As with the best of the material here, at the point where you think you have everything worked out, MV throw yet another curveball; in this case, instead of dropping in the expectedly angular lead guitar solo to fit with one of the riffs, they opt for a soft, prog-ish twin lead, which lays a very harmonic drenched tone over the rocky elements. Although this album offers arguably better tracks (‘Scissor Bliss’ certainly among them), ‘Photon’ would be a fine place for first time listeners to dive in, since it showcases this band’s mix of complexity and melody in a really interesting way.
Although all of this album’s material is enjoyable, everything becomes more distinctive when Mammoth Volume deviate from the more obvious stoner tropes. Delving even further into an early seventies vibe, the brilliant ‘Lisa’ casts aside the band’s heavier elements to explore something with a very jazzy lilt. A busy melody totters back and forth, and the way the organ unexpectedly peeks out from a waltzing rhythm that’s overlaid by clean guitar favours more of an influence from older bands like Affinity than the usual 90s fare. Occasional glockenspiel sounds take everything further into a world of jazz prog, and very occasionally some of the jazz themed guitar work sounds as if it could slip into something Oldfield-esque. In addition, a semi spoken vocal adds plenty of atmosphere to the lolloping rhythm. This is one of those numbers where you’ll hear traces of influences from all manner of artists, but Mammoth Volume ultimately end up sounding like no-one else. You might believe this represents “peak experimentation”, but there’s something even better lurking on this elpee, which the band use to their advantage to create a very distinctive climax to an already great record.
The first half of ‘Sången Om Ymer’ blends stomping 70s rock with light prog quirks, which when set against a Swedish lyric becomes rather reminiscent of older cult Scandinavian bands like Ache and Blast Furnace, whilst also tipping the hat to a latter day Opeth. You’ll find more complex material here, but in terms of experiencing something that sounds great with the volume cranked, this really works. After exhausting the retro prog rock angle, the second half of the number does a complete u-turn to share a world of jazz-folk oriented guitar and a folk based vocal, exploring a melody that could easily be decades old. The off-kilter sound, mixed with the bursts of percussion and occasional electric guitar, feels like a weird marriage of Mike Oldfield and some Swedish hill dwellers, and as such, presents a very different side to the musicians compared to ‘Scissor Bliss’ and ‘…Lightwedge’. What this does, of course, is keep ‘Raised Up By Witches’ a step ahead of the musical competition – whether that’s stoner, blues rock or weird prog-folk. Very few would be brave enough to take on all of these genres at once.
The fourth Mammoth Volume album (2022’s ‘The Cursed Who Perform The Lavagod Rites’) marked the end of a twenty year absence for the Swedes and suggested there could be more great things ahead. Nothing on that record will prepare listeners for this. Whether exploring retro hard rock, stoner, prog, jazz or folk, these musicians really capture something special here, something that appears to be aimed at the stoner market, but is, in fact, so much grander. There’s every chance you’ll come for the heavier moments but actually end this musical journey having enjoyed so much more. ‘Raised Up By Witches’ doesn’t just ensure the band’s long overdue return now feels more permanent, it also gives extant fans one of the most interesting MV albums to date.
August 2024