Sydney, Australia, sludge rock bruisers Amammoth will release their second album, Distant Skies and the Ocean Flies, on March 21, in continued cooperation with Electric Valley Records. Guess what? They’re heavy.

I know, with a name like Amammoth, somehow that’s not at all shocking even though with the ‘a’- prefix, there’s a suggestion of anti-mammoth. Like, in protest of the mammoth. Fuck this mammoth! I shall be the opposite! An amammoth!, and so on. (And yeah, I know I said as much when I reviewed The Fire Above in 2021.) But no, in fact Amammoth have way more in common in terms of sonic largesse with a mammoth than an amammoth, which isn’t a thing that ever existed so far as I know but if it did would surely cower beneath the grunt, roll and flourish of “Among Us” (video premiering below), the nine-minute post-intro opener and longest track on Distant Skies and the Ocean Flies. Drawing its expanse from sludge and doom and maybe even a little death metal in there somewhere of the European strain, pushing into psychedelia with organ and keys later on so that while Scott Fisher is gutting out vocals Kirk Windstein-style, what accompanies is trippier riffing (plus a bit of triangle, I think? maybe keyboard-triangle?) than one might necessarily expect. But that’s what one gets for having expectations in the first place. Gotta let that go. Zen and crushing riffs.

So there they are, Fisher, bassist Warwick Poulton (making his first appearance) and drummer Scott Wilson, hammering away at your cortex after setting an atmos-sludge course in the aptly-titled “Intro” like someone put an organ behind Souls at Zero, but “Among Us” isn’t post-metallic in its lumber necessarily, and its riffing leans more to Sleep than Neurosis, if we want to keep the comparisons to Jason Roeder bands. There’s something oldschool about the largely unipolar vocals — it’s gruff shouts and such, as noted, not screams for the most part, but not entirely “clean” singing either — like in the early ’90s when you could just get away with barking for an entire record; for what it’s worth, in the 40 minutes and eight songs of Distant Skies and the Ocean Flies, there’s enough variation in what Amammoth do around their central purpose in largesse that nothing feels like it’s missing.

“Among Us” caps with repetitions of “Walk among us” and a few homeward slams to make the point before they rumble to the finish, “Chosen” picking up almost immediately with its own muted crashes on the way to reveling in its combination of swinging drums and slogging riffs; the shift from what would be the closer on a lot of records (and is here the opener but for “Intro”) into the more-than-three-minutes-shorter track that follows letting Amammoth cast an open impression and then strip it down for a more direct attack.

To wit, “Chosen,” “So High So Numb” and the pointedly primordial “Sink or Swim” are positioned to feel comparatively immediate regardless of their actual tempos, and Amammoth bask in the lumbering reaches their tonal worship lets them conjure. And “Sink or Swim” coming through as so much of an epitome in this regard means “Satellite,” which follows, is a well-timed change.

Amid more Crowbar-esque seething and declarative steamrolling, the organ returns — joining the fray in a brazenly classic-heavy-rock manner that I can’t help but feel like would make Oppu from Amorphis/Octoploid smile in this context — and deftly calls back to “Among Us” before hitting its culmination and giving over to the penultimate “Ashes Remain,” which might be the rawest and angriest of the eight inclusions, and which serves as the whole-album crescendo accordingly before the thud-backed drone and noisemaking of “Interstitial” reinforce the atmospheric depth for three minutes on the band’s way out.

For a record that’s so much about throwing elbows, some of them at your larynx (heads up on that), the movement across Distant Skies and the Ocean Flies is remarkably easy. I guess the degree of that will be somewhat subject to one’s own tolerance for harder-edged fare, rough vocals, and so on, but Amammoth are perhaps not as monolithic in their approach as they would have you believe. In that case, “Among Us” represents the totality of Distant Skies and the Ocean Flies well, summarizing a lot of what the tracks that follow have on offer without giving away everything at the album’s outset.

The video has a flashing lights warning, and it comes up more later in the clip but they’re not kidding. More info follows from the PR wire below.

Please enjoy:

Amammoth, “Among Us” video premiere

Amammoth on “Among Us”:

Our second single “Among Us” is a B-grade psychedelic, sci-fi adventure, kind of like ET on acid.

Pre-order here:
https://www.electricvalleyrecords.com
https://www.evrecords.bandcamp.com

Sydney’s sludgiest stoner outfit Amammoth’s trippy sonic sensibilities and intellectually vitriolic lyrical approach blur the boundaries between sedation and stimulation, simultaneously submerging listeners into the distorted depths of the human experience while lifting them up with a distinctly groovy vibe and clean vocal style that shines through both in the studio and on stage. Following the release of their debut EP and their first full-length album, as well as a host of electrically frenzied live shows, Amammoth’s momentum is at an all-time high as they prepare for their biggest year yet, with a second full-length album set for release with Electric Valley Records, to be officially announced in due time, much to the delight of their diverse and growing global fanbase.

Tracklisting:
1. Intro
2. Among Us
3. Chosen
4. So High So Numb
5. Sink or Swim
6. Satellite
7. Ashes Remain
8. Interstitial

Amammoth are:
Scott Fisher : vocals/guitar
Warwick Poulton : bass
Scott Wilson : drums

Amammoth, Distant Skies and the Ocean Flies (2025)

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Electric Valley Records’ Linktr.ee

Electric Valley Records website

Electric Valley Records on Bandcamp

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