Saturday, February 8, 2014

Mammatus- Heady Mental (Spiritual Pajamas 012)

The San Francisco bay area band, Mammatus are finally back with a new record after a long break. Each side features 2 tracks related to messing up your brain with intense music. The overall sound production is much cleaner on this record than the past ones.  Brain Drain starts things off with a frantic pace and a lot of harmony guitars and is pretty complex at times reminding me of Danava but with more spaced out vocals. Lots of guitar solos with chorus driving this first track. Main Brain brings things down and there are some spacey sounds as the vocals are mixed into the background and quite trippy at times, but they raise the intensity level when it is necessary. A ripping guitar solo is played in the end section and when he kicks in the wah pedal, it brings back the memories of what band we are listening to as the other guitar is making a wall of sound in the background and the drums are pounding. Brainbow is next. I wonder if any of the band are referring to the Brainbow mouse used in neuroscience research? Anyway, this one starts off with a quick pace with the bass line mixed way up front as the driver. The vocals are really trippy as sounds criss cross the soundscape and some synths as well. The guitar takes the lead later with a lot of really cool melodies and fast runs as well. Brain Train is your last trip for this record and starts with a train horn as well before taking off at a fast pace with the bass and guitar lines pushing back and forth in a really cool rhythm. Fans of Danava will dig this record for sure. It gets beautifully spaced out and then goes back to the ripping guitar before coming to a dramatic end. Wow..

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