| CD REVIEW Mammutant |
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Band : Mammutant As many of you know, the mind is a powerful tool. For those strong enough to believe, it can change the current reality into an alternate new one, and that’s exactly what a trio of musicians from the town of Fürth in Germany’s province of Bavaria did in 2006…change reality, for themselves at least, that is! So, henceforth, they would be aliens come to Earth from the now destroyed planet of Xorgosh, from a galaxy not far away (enough). War had been waging on the planet for centuries between the tribes of Mauchians, Cugothians, and Nangorian hordes of cannibals. After the siege and downfall of the capital city of the Nangorians, the Cugothians turned against their former allies, the Mauchians, in an attempt to take control of the whole planet. But the Nangorians, who were far from defeated, saw their chance to eliminate their enemies, and attacked in a sudden onslaught, an attack which eventually led to the destruction of the complete planet. The only survivors: a small number of Cugothian cyberzerker warriors, called Mammutants, who were out in a small spaceship when the apocalyps on the planet occurred. Scourging space to find new meat resources (they are after all still cannibals), they eventually landed on Earth in 2006, in the backwoods of Bavaria. After a quick study of Earth peoples’ morals, they devised a cunning plan to enslave and devastate humanity…through the means of music!!! Well, as I said before, the mind is a powerful tool, so here’s me nitting a follow-up on the story (mind you, it’s not all just fiction, at least not for those who can read between the lines) : among other stuff, the guys must’ve watched MTV’s Headbangers Ball a lot, finding their appearances would blend in perfectly with the other weirdness on that show. They invaded the nearest music instrument shop and retreated into their spacecraft with the intent to rehearse once their technician (the only other Mammutant survivor, but with less war-like programming than their own and therefore an underling) had found a way to connect the instruments and amplifiers to their power grid. It was then decided to have Gabul play the guitar and sing, Maschgullh play the bass, and have Sardukh bash the drums. Thanks to their cyber implants, they soon had gathered a collection of songs, the lyrics based on the adventures they had gone through on their home planet (well, what do you expect…it’s the only thing they knew besides Headbangers Ball, to which they were completely hooked by now). After a while they grew tired rehearsing, and wanted to hear their music without actually playing it at the same time. However, they had no means of recording in the spacecraft, so they went out in search of the nearest recording studio, and terrorised the present engineers into doing their bidding! As it so happened, the recording engineer was a guy hooked to Industrial Metal as brought by such bands as Voivod and Fear Factory, and soon enough he was aiding the wacky trio of his own volition. Now the studio guy was really a cunning one, who new when a good chance comes his way, and when the musicians left the studio with the final mix CD (as well as a cd-player and sound system which he graciously offered them as a gift), he simply followed ‘em to their spacecraft, which by then had been given the outer appearance of a normal cabin hut (it can be really helpful to have a technician aound). Now knowing where the trio had their abode, he went back to his studio and made copies of the promo CD from his digital memory banks. Having heard the story of how they had come to Earth (hey, the aliens weren’t too bright, you know…probably had but a low intelligence grade implanted in their adaptability chips), the studio guy decided it was a real good sales pitch, and sent that along with the promo CD to several concert venue owners in the Bavarian province. Soon enough, he had enough invites to do a show, so he went a-knocking at the alien’s cabin with a long-term local touring schedule which the Mammuntants saw as a perfect campaign to start taking over the province. The studio guy had a van, so transport was ensured, and to carry the instruments in and out of the venues, there was the technician, also a handy tool to set up the gear. In between gigs, the warrior Mammutant trio found out that the technician had been tinkering about with a keyboard to produce simple sounds, which they found strangely soothing, but put the shivers up the spine of our studio guy whenever he visited the band. After a while it was decided that a new batch of songs was to be written and recorded, this time with the occasional addition of those eary keyboard sounds…and before the year 2008 was over, the Mammutants had recorded their second promo album, titled Atomizer. With new material on their plate, a new touring schedule was devised, and the band was lucky enough to occasionally get offers to play outside the strict borders of the Bavarian province. But the Mammutants grew weary of the slow progress they were making, and one day confronted the studio guy (whom by now was beginning to suspect a smitgeon of truth in the story the threesome had come about with – you see, there had been some mysterious “disappearances” in the neighborhood) with the choice of finding a better means of propaganda for their music, or face personal annihilation. They’d heard about “record labels”, and he was to put ‘em in contact with ‘em, while also continuing to provide the band with gigging opportunities. Tired with his explanations of record deals and world economy, they eventually ransacked the studio guy’s house, found several albums released by the Massacre label, and organized an assault on the address indicated. When they returned “home”, they had a contract in their pockets. All fiction aside, the Industrial Metal of these Germans is less imaginative than the story above! The singer is somewhat unilateral (an exception for the song “Cyberincarcer-Ation standing out positively from the other 11 tracks – two of which are instrumental shorties). Luckily, there’s those eary keyboards occasionally embellishing what most Metal fans would call rather repetitive guitar/ bass melodies. However, in all fairness it has to be said that in some of the more guitar-geared songs a remeniscence to the aforementioned Voivod is indeed at hand! At the end of the day (and several listening sessions), one would agree that the band’s music is worth while listening to as a change from the daily grit (nice hypnotic rhythms, you know), but hardly worth being included in year-lists! In other words, if our dear Mammutants really intent to invade the world with this kind of music, they’de better incorporate subliminal messages in their music…or improve their playing skills somewhat. Personally, I like enough, but if the guys wanna see more fans coming forth, they’ll need to put some more songs on the music player at myspace.com/mammutant (at present, all you’ll find on that page, besides a video for a song off the first promo album), is the album’s title track! 85/100 Tony. |
