Produced by Mammal
Released: 2006
Mammal is a band that has had people falling over them for the last couple of years, having quickly gone from the rehearsal room to full scale national tours in virtually a heartbeat. This EP certainly shows them to be an energetic and sometimes interesting band but also highlights a few of the lapses that can result when things seem to just come together so quickly. Mammal's vocalist is Ezekiel Ox whose previous band Full Scale was Australia's answer to the Deftones; their guitarist is Pete Williamson, whose previous gig was with Pete Murray's backing band. Such a disparate clash of backgrounds was only really going to go one way, and unsurprisingly Mammal sounds nothing like Pete Murray.
The EP opens with the funkified hard rock of "New Breed Judas". With its catchy grooves and syncopated vocal delivery, this reminds me of a band called Non Intentional Lifeform, a unit that must surely have been an early inspiration for Ox at least if not Williamson also. Indeed the entire CD has the whisperings of an influence from NiL's Uisce, which is obscure enough these days that this band's target audience has likely never even heard of it.
Overall, the band presents an energised mixture of punchy rock and funky groove with something of a progressive bent. When Mammal manages to pull this off they do it extremely well, as in the lead-off track and particularly the excellent closer, "Groove Junkie". The band's more progressive leanings become more apparent on this track, and although they perhaps draw rather a bit heavily from Tool for comfort it's still pretty convincing. "Hell Yeah" and "Think" however are rather less impressive, especially the latter's juvenile know-it-all ranting that detracts from the EP's more sophisticated aspects. This song might go off all right on-stage in front of a pumping crowd, but here it sounds as try-hard as that 50-year old bloke on Big Brother.
Mammal certainly deserve some of the hype they've been getting. Their style won't be to everyone's taste and on this EP they sound too much like their influences, but there's far worse bands you could be listening to.
- New Breed Judas
- Think
- Hell Yeah
- Inciting
- Groove Junkie
Rating: 65%
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