Outlander is the sophomore release from Norway's Mammüth, a band who cross that fine line between stoner metal and progressive rock, with a healthy dose of thrash and groove thrown in for good measure. Expect lots of heavy riffs, screaming pinch harmonics, clean & growled vocals, atmospheric sludge, and all sorts of other fun stuff. The PR group lists the band as a good fit for 'fans of Mastodon, Corrosion of Conformity, Crowbar, and Anciients', and that's not a far off stretch, though I'd perhaps throw Black Label Society and Down into that mix as well. Adding some complexity to the music, especially in the riffs, has really injected a cool element to their sound (kind of luck Mastodon's first couple of albums), giving songs like "Dead Man's Trail", "Fortuneteller", and "Circling Vultures" massive impact. Some of the clean vocals on the album remind a tad of the late Layne Staley of Alice in Chains, but more often than not the attack is more of a gruff, growled nature. A few tunes see the band veer off into extended, proggy interludes, as on "Hadrians Wall', which plays off the pummeling sections quite nicely. The moody "Hierophant" is another example of this tactic, as prog, sludge, and stoner collide for a thunderous wall of sound, but then for a complete about face, the band also crank out fast paced mashers like "Monstrosity" and the 9+ minute title track, each one jam packed with a non-stop shortage of riff-o-rama and acrobatic drumming. Also, see if you can detect the slight Pink Floyd influence on the spacey title track, which is pretty cool, and the closing bruiser "Uncharted Waters" has a doomy vibe that is hard to ignore.
Overall, this is a damn heavy album with a lot going on. At 12 songs, with many falling in the 5-9 minute range, that's a lot of material to digest, but the riffs are well crafted and the songs push all the right buttons for any headbanger, so Outlander is an easy album to recommend, and another fine example of the great sounds coming out of Scandinavia these days.
Track Listing
- Circling Vultures 9:10
- Dead Mans Trail 6:24
- Fields of Bones 4:30
- Fortuneteller 4:04
- God Eater 5:40
- Hadrians Wall 8:47
- Hierophant 9:51
- Lightyears 5:58
- Monstrosity 7:46
- Outlander 6:26
- Space Ghost 9:06
- Uncharted Waters 6:44
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