I’m not a big ‘stoner’ metal guy, but I do like me some big fuzzed out riffs and sludgy guitars, and the press sheet for Outlander, the second album from Norway’s  Mammüth dropped both, so I checked it out on a whim.

I’m glad I did- though outside of my usual musical strike zone, Mammüth deliver a pretty entertaining release of riff filled metal. Not pure stoner doom, but a deft mix and match of stoner doom, thrash, southern metal and heavy metal. It comes across as a mix of Mastodon, Crowbar, Baroness, Down and for the obscure reference lovers Floodgate/Penalty, the short lived side project of Kyle and Kevin Thomas from Exhorder.

At 1 hour and 24 minutes, Outlander is a bit long with many of the songs hovering in the 7-9 minute range, that could have been shorter. That said, they jam tons of riffs into each song. Case and point the sing listed below “Dead Man’s Trail” is a pretty good summary of the band’s chops, and should have opened the album instead of rangy 9 minute opener “Circling Vultures”.

The the albums shortest cuts, “Field of Bones”, thrashier “God Eater” and “Fortuneteller” could have been culled from any early Baroness or mid era Mastodon album, so your take on those bands will probably determine a large portion of how you feel about these guys.  It’s beefy, riffy and layered with vocals also similar to the Baroness/Mastodon family tree.

The longer cuts like  the aforementioned opener are a little more stoner-y (i.e: psychedelic )and longer developing as the likes of “Hadrian’s Wall”, “Heirophant”, “Space Ghost” show, though I rather enjoyed the riffs contained on “Hadrian’s Wall”. Middle ground tracks like the title track and “Lightyears” have a more proggy, commercial rock vibe which will sit well with those enjoying newer Mastodon efforts.

In all a solid release that I enjoyed in short bursts and  a welcome change to my usual fare.

[Visit the band's website]

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