I was pretty late turning in the playlist for this episode. Not as late as I could’ve been, mind you, but late enough. It kind of got away from me, as will happen from time to time with… everything, I guess. But I got it done and decided against doing a voice track to go with it because I didn’t want to take the extra time from the engineer, a nice guy named Henry who puts up with my late ass on the regular, when he has other stuff to work on. Plus, there’s some good flow to these tracks and I don’t need to screw that up sounding like a doofus, so yeah.

A couple of tracks from the upcoming Heavy Psych Sounds stuff — Cosmic Reaper and Acid Mammoth. You’ll note too the new Monolord single “I’m Staying Home” opens the thing. Kudos to those guys on being topical, even if the track was recorded in 2019. And then we do some long songs in the middle and get heavy and aggro at the end, just to change it up a little bit. Keep things lively some 51 episodes in. Still can’t tell you how flabbergasted I am Gimme has let this go on so long. I’m just gonna ride it out and see where it goes, like I do.

Thanks for listening and/or reading. Hope you dig the show if you check in.

The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmemetal.com

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 01.22.20

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Feb. 5 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

Gimme Metal website

The Obelisk on Thee Facebooks

Here’s what you need to know: On Sept. 18, Heavy Psych Sounds will release Doom Sessions Vol. 2, bringing together Italy’s 1782 and Greece’s Acid Mammoth. Yeah, I know, Doom Sessions Vol. 1, with Conan and Deadsmoke isn’t even out until July 17, but I guess the label is trying to stay ahead of the game. What it rounds out to is more riffs, and I know damn well you’ve got room in your life for more riffs, so quit yer yappin’ and dig into 1782‘s “Bloody Ritual” on the streaming doodad below in all its premiere-y goodness. It runs five minutes and it’s got like a whole day’s worth of Vitamin Nod. Take your pills, man.

How on earth did Heavy Psych Sounds get the notion to pair up these Roman and Greek titans? Well, both bands released records through the imprint last year. For the duo 1782 — which also features in its lineup Marco Nieddu, who runs Electric Valley Records — it was their self-titled debut (review here), rife with willful primitivism of its approach, drawing from VHS horror grain and a post-EWiz groove that remains well intact on “Bloody Ritual.” Acid Mammoth‘s second album, Under Acid Hoof (review here), arrived later in the year and shared some genre-on-genre aesthetic with their labelmates, both bands favoring a rawness of approach and themes centered around ritualism, darkness, the devil and all that other spooky fun stuff.

I haven’t been graced with the full release as yet, so I can’t speak to what Acid Mammoth are doing this time — please don’t go prog; sometimes I feel like everybody’s going prog — but if it’s up to 1782 to set the tone with “Bloody Ritual,” they’re setting it for all the fuzzy decay you can handle. Like body odor and liquor breath put to tape. Full on scuzz.

Dig:

https://soundcloud.com/user-224411652/1782-bloody-ritual/s-cx3vSg3JJOj

Bloody Ritual is the first single taken from the upcoming split album DOOM SESSIONS VOL.2 – 1782 // ACID MAMMOTH. This first single is from 1782.

The release will see the light September 18th via Heavy Psych Sounds.

ALBUM PRESALE:
https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/doom-sessions-vol-2-1782-acid-mammoth

TRACKLIST

SIDE A – 1782
Bloody Ritual
Hey Satan
Witch Death Cult

SIDE B – Acid Mammoth
Black Wedding
Sleepless Malice
Cosmic Pyres

Say 1782:
“A song that goes straight to the point, the emotions of the last moments of a ritual, fuzzy and heavy riffs, the battery like a boulder that enters your mind! Bloody Ritual is the track that opens Doom Sessions vol.2, 1782 & Acid Mammoth split album!”

1782 on Thee Facebooks

1782 on Instagram

Acid Mammoth on Thee Facebooks

Acid Mammoth on Bandcamp

Heavy Psych Sounds on Thee Facebooks

Heavy Psych Sounds website

Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp

Plucked from the crowded amalgam that is the Athens heavy underground scene and signed by Heavy Psych Sounds to become labelmates with the likes of Nebula and Brant Bjork, the Greek four-piece Acid Mammoth offer their second album, Under Acid Hoof, as a deeply referential testament to their self-identification as simply “doom.” Is it really that easy? “Doom?” Almost never, and certainly not in Acid Mammoth‘s case. Doom is a part of it, drawing from a post-Electric Wizard school of riffing that most shows itself on the “Witchcult Today”-esque penultimate track “Jack the Riffer,” but informs the vibe from the outset of opener “Them!” onward, mostly in the tone and lumbering riffs of the father-son guitar team of Chris Babalis, Sr., and Chris Bablis, Jr., the latter of whom also handles vocals.

Joined by bassist Dimosthenis Varikos and drummer Marios Louvaris, both apparently longtime friends of Chris Jr., the familial duo lead the charge across the five-track/35-minute long-player with a rolling sensibility playing toward mostly familiar elements, horror themes, descriptions of Satanic rituals in 9:10 second (and longest) song “Tree of Woe,” which seems to take particular glee in its plod as it presents some of the more nuanced complexities that make Acid Mammoth‘s “doom” tag something of an understatement. More so than in the shorter “Them!” before it, which is a speedier piece that works to set the stage for what’s to come in tone and even gives the bass a well-earned standout moment in the second half — more than an intro, but still very much a lead-in to the rest of the LP — the vocal patterning on “Tree of Woe” reminds of Kadavar, and thereby give an unexpected but still recognizable twist to the familiarity of the guitars’ sound and the air-push of low end added by the bass. Structures throughout are relatively straightforward, but flow well, and that’s something as well one might trace to Monolord, but to my ear rings truer to the methods in the earlier work of fellow Heavy Psych Sounds denizens Alunah.

By the time “Tree of Woe” is finished and as Under Acid Hoof nods its way into the unfolding side A closer/tracklist centerpiece “Tusks of Doom” — also shorter at 5:50, but with a choice hook — and delivers its chorus with a kind of lower-register chanting, that Alunah-circa-White–Hoarhound spirit comes through, despite the fact that instead of singing about the forest or nature worship, Acid Mammoth seem to be writing paeans to the riff itself. So be it. Maybe this is splitting hairs stylistically, but it all adds up to Under Acid Hoof being more than just “doom,” at least in the traditional sense of European Sabbath worshipers or the many acolytes of acts like Reverend Bizarre and The Obsessed. If one wants to consider it on such terms, while their lineup is obviously cross-generational, their sound is definitively next-generation; modern even unto how it plays toward the past as an authentic moment.

What exactly all this means will depend largely on the listener. Time and attention spans are short — though while we’re speaking of modernity, I refuse to accept this as a consequence of the digital age; it’s nothing new — and I suspect for some Under Acid Hoof will linger under (acid) radar as compared to some of the label’s higher-profile fare, at least in the immediate. Add to that the more readily familiar of some of the elements at play, and those who listen quickly en route to the next Bandcamp page might have too easy a time slotting Acid Mammoth in one category or another and moving on. I almost always advise repeat listens over working from a first impression, but especially in this case.

As Acid Mammoth roil their way into side B with “Jack the Riffer,” the darker side of their sound comes to the forefront, still keeping that similar vocal delivery, and even pushing the register somewhat in the pre-lead midsection of the song, giving the already-set course of the album some slight twist. With just two songs as opposed to side A’s three, the second half of Under Acid Hoof is a few minutes shorter than the first, but all the more immersive, playing off that hypnotic riff at the core of its leadoff. At six minutes in, vocals return in “Jack the Riffer” and Acid Mammoth drive the song to its slow, solo-laced crescendo and rumbling finish, giving way to the guitar at the outset of the closing title-track, which is quicker in tempo than “Jack the Riffer” but still holds to the thickness of tone and the marching sensibility brought to the proceedings by Louvaris‘ understated but effective drumming, the lyrics cutting through to create a kind of narrative and declaration of who the band are in the lines, “Darkness shall fall/Heavy shall rise/Yeah/And under acid hoof, I die” (or something similar).

They are not the first band to work with the stylistic aspects they bring to bear, but it’s worth pointing out that they’re not trying to be. There’s zero pretense about what Acid Mammoth are up to on their second record, and that’s something they carry with them from their 2017 self-titled, while at the same time also stripping down their approach to its more essential roots. It’s notable that Under Acid Hoof, at 35 minutes, is some 22 shorter than its 57-minute predecessor, and while much of that might be attributed to the first record’s 18-minute closer, it still speaks to a progression under way in the band’s take. Two of Acid Mammoth‘s tracks topped 13 minutes, none of Under Acid Hoof‘s touch 10, and that feels like a purposeful change in how the songs are constructed.

Likewise a somewhat grimmer turn on the whole that these five songs present, though certainly the debut had its horror influence as well. As to where it might be leading, from the fact that Acid Mammoth lead with riffs, worship volume, and plunder like slow-motion churning madmen, I’d suspect they’re keen to let their sound continue to develop as it will without forcing it in one direction or another, but neither does that mean they’re not cognizant of what they want the material to do. It’s a balance to strike, ultimately, and it’s one they do well with here. That is but one of Under Acid Hoof‘s promising characteristics.

Acid Mammoth, “Them!” official music video

Acid Mammoth on Thee Facebooks

Acid Mammoth on Bandcamp

Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp

Heavy Psych Sounds website

Having zero prior experience with Greek doomers Acid Mammoth, I opted to jump into their 2017 self-titled debut at the most reasonable point — its 18-minute closing track, “Black Rites.” This is not a decision I regret. The Athens four-piece thereby dig into dark classic doom vibes and choice riffs and melodies that offer stomp enough to suit the nodders and a sense of space in the proceedings that gives them an air of their own even as they still might reasonably call themselves “traditional” in form. The second album is called Under Acid Hoof, which, you know, I guess is fair game when you’re Acid Mammoth, and it’ll be released early next year through Heavy Psych Sounds.

That in itself is something worth noting. Not just because Heavy Psych Sounds is constantly picking up new bands — they are — but because so few of them are outright doom. Acid Mammoth legitimately bring something to the label it didn’t really have before, and as so much of the imprint’s focus has been on desert rock and psychedelia over the last few years, it’ll be interesting to see how Acid Mammoth fit in. Like the sludgy Deadsmoke, they’re a standout on the roster. Some bands thrive in that position, and doom has never been about being too comfortable.

Here’s the album announcement from the PR wire:

Heavy Psych Sounds Records & Booking is really proud to present a new band signing *** ACID MAMMOTH ***

Acid Mammoth is a doom metal band from Athens, Greece. The band was formed in 2015 by Chris Babalis Jr. (Vocals & Guitars) and Dimosthenis Varikos (Bass), good friends since high school, with a deep love for Sabbath and other heavy music. They were quickly joined by their very good friend Marios Louvaris (Drums) and Chris Babalis Sr. (Guitars), Jr.’s father. Acid Mammoth is more than just a band of friends. They are a family.

In late 2016, the band recorded its self-titled, debut full-length album, which they self-released digitally in autumn of 2017. The album was well received, and it wasn’t long before the band was in the studio again to record its second full-length album “Under Acid Hoof”. This time darker, heavier and fuzzier.

Heavy Psych Sounds Records welcomed the Greek Doomers in his roster after the first listening of the new album.

NEW ALBUM PRESALE STARTS: OCTOBER 10th

ACID MAMMOTH is:
Chris Babalis Jr. – Vocals, Guitars
Chris Babalis Sr. – Guitars
Dimosthenis Varikos – Bass
Marios Louvaris – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/Acid-Mammoth-200075070418110/
https://acidmammoth.bandcamp.com/
https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/
www.heavypsychsounds.com/

Acid Mammoth, Acid Mammoth (2017)