Beardfish - Mammoth

(CD 2011, 52:32 InsideOut)

The tracks:
  1- The Platform(8:06)
  2- And The Stone Said: If I Could Speak(15:07)
  3- Tightrope(4:33)
  4- Green Waves(8:53)
  5- Outside / Inside(1:43)
  6- Akakabotu(5:41)
  7- Without Saying Anything (feat. Ventriloquist)(8:10)

Beardfish Website        samples        Inside Out Records


And once again our favourite Swedes from Beardfish make us happy with a new album. Mammoth is compared to their predecessor Destined Solitaire (2009) quite a bit shorter in length, and compared to Beardfish's masterpiece Sleeping In Traffic (2007/2008) a lot less smooth. I have listened to this CD several times and I must confess: I still have mixed feelings about the music. On the one hand the Gentle Giant and Yes referring compositions are still there, on the other hand Beardfish's sound becomes more and more heavy, something that doesn't suit them all that well. I was always charmed by the abundant use of the organ and the characteristic voice of singer Rikard Sjöblom, but these are being pushed to the background by the heavy riffs of the guitar, something I still have some qualms about. Listen to the opener The Platform and you'll know what I mean. However, this doesn't mean that Mammoth is an awful album. I don't think Beardfish is capable of producing such a thing, but subtlety is no longer a trademark of this group, although in the epic And The Stone Said If I Could Speak there are still several very nice parts of this. Maybe the CD-title refers to Beardfish letting go of the past. Maybe it points the way for me to get ready for the new musical journey of the group.

*** André de Waal (edited by Peter Willemsen)

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