MAMMOTH WEED WIZARD BASTARD

Terrific third album of cosmic doom by Welsh wizards (bastards).

mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard describe themselves as “three ape descendents and an astral seraphim”. But yn Ol I Annwn (Return To The Underworld) is so primordially heavy it also sounds like it could have been produced by a race of super-intelligent musical sauropods on some distant planet. In fact they come from Wrexham. But what differentiates MWWB from the generic doom sound are the extra colours of their synths, and bass guitarist Jessica Ball’s reverby, sweet-toned vocals, which soar above the band’s down-tuned guitars, emerging somewhere between electric Wizard and Acid Mothers Temple. Fata Morgana introduces a folky feel with Ball’s melodies winding around electric and acoustic guitar picking. Just as a glockenspiel tinkles out, a pretty tune is suddenly buried under several tons of toxic riffage. The musicians play with intensity, but also a subtle grasp of dynamics so that after six minutes of iron-booted lope,

Katyusha achieves lift-off and synths spiral into the ether. The epic Five Days In The Abyss closes the album with ambient passages of mournful cello, heavenly chorales, car-crusher riffing and psychedelic wah-wah, fading out under waves of phasing.