Wooly Mammoth

Ten Ton Baby (Underdogma)
by Brian Varney

Truth in advertising. Much like the heavy, lumbering, hairy, tusk-wielding beast in question, Wooly Mammoth are not to be trifled with. Loud, brutally tight and focused (even though these four tracks last 23 minutes or so), this is the kind of band that could gore you on a good night. If the amps are firing on all eight cylinders and the whiskey’s flowing freely, be prepared to duck or be skewered on one of their mighty tusks.

Though the picture on the back of the CD makes one of ’em look like The Edge, don’t let that fool you ’cause this is about as close to U2 as classic Aerosmith is to new Aerosmith. This is epic rock’n’roll in the truest sense of the word; the songs are around six minutes each, though the length is not undeserved. The songs are impeccably arranged and the playing is terrific, the raw-shouted vocals spraying spittle into the precisely-placed spaces in the music. And though the riffs are heavy enough to cause structural damage to whatever building the music happens to be playing in, this is not metal. There is no mistaking this for anything but finest quality American rock. This is what Clutch coulda been with a frontman who sings rather than barks and players with less of a “we can play real good, see?” inferiority complex.
(PO Box 5070 Fredericksburg, VA 22403)