Slomatics / Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard
"Totems"
Black Bow Records
Release: March 2018

When I heard Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard and Slomatics were coming together for a split it felt like a clash-of-the-titans moment was being announced, with Chris Fielding and Skyhammer Studios the dude and venue to eek the very best out of these two riff giants. Both bands have made landmark albums this decade: MWWB's 2016 epic "Y Proffwydd Dwyll" and the 'matics 2014 masterpiece "Estron". How would each fare with their side of this LP? Would one outshine the other? It made for a very tasty proposition.

With their two tracks - "The Master And His Emissary" and "Eagduru" - Mammoth Weed don't throw out the baby with the bath water, they just become "more" Wizard Bastard. This is a good thing. Drummer Carat swings harder, locking the band into a hypnotic groove which ebbs and flows over each song's ten minute plus duration. Wes and Paul's guitars chug and grind and sustain in their own deeply downtuned style. Perhaps the biggest revelation here is the clearly growing confidence of Jessica Ball, who sounds better than ever vocally - more elegiac, more angelic, and on "The Master...." more forthright. Her keyboard loops and samples at the start of "The Master...." take this aspect of their oeuvre one step further as well, impinging on Pink Floyd territory before the main riff detonates. Despite these two tracks having a joint running time of 22 minutes neither outstays their welcome, and you're just a little bit gutted when they come to a close.

If MWWB are gradually and very successfully honing their craft, Slomatics are masters of theirs already. It takes less than a minute of "Ancient Architects" to know this Irish trio are right at the top of their game at present. This is their time. The panoramic, widescreen sonic melange these lads create is pure intoxication: swelling organs, drop-off-a-cliff guitar swoops, pummelling rhythms and barked vocals. It sounds fucking massive."Silver Ships Into The Future" is a beautiful, haunting piano-led interlude which at stupid volume is going to bring you out in goosebumps. Closing track "Masters Descent" sees cascading rhythms and time changes underpin exploding riffs and full on prog keyboards which are just so sublimely perfect. So very perfect.

"Totems" is an essential purchase. All killer, no filler. Psychedelic doom never sounded so good.