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Mammoth Volume

Raised Up By Witches

Review by Gary Hill

This album is not progressive rock in a traditional sense. It definitely belongs under prog, though. There are healthy helpings of stoner rock, indie music, psychedelia and more in the mix. It does include a lot of prog, too, though. This is rough around the edges at times, but it’s also always compelling, exciting and unpredictable. While most of the lyrics are in English, some are not.

This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) form in Music Street Journal: 2025  Volume 2. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2025.
Track by Track Review
The Battle of Lightwedge

There is a real indie, nearly metal vibe at play here. This has some driving, near doom metal sound at play. The arrangement has some twists, turns and surprises built into it. It also gets quite prog oriented at times. The more screamed vocals are the ones that work the best for me. This has definite hard blues oriented rock in the mix, too.

Black Horse Beach

Now this gets into much proggier territory. It’s not a huge change from the opener, but it has a lot of elements of early proto-prog in the mix. There are parts of this later that make me think of King’s X, but this track has a lot of changes built into it.

Scissor Bliss

The rhythm section brings this in and it drives outward from there. That King’s X element is definitely on display here. This is heavy, leaning on metal concepts. It has some definite prog angles at play, though. There are a lot of twists and turns along this road. At times it’s heavier, but at pother points it gets quite mellow.

Diablo III: Faces in the Water

Furious and heavy, this is another that has some definite King’s X vibes. This is less dynamic than some of the rest, but it’s no less effective.

Lisa

Take King’s X and merge it with Prince and some proggier things and you will find yourself in the neighborhood of this cut. It’s more mainstream and melodic than some of the rest here, but it definitely has some prog instrumental work at play.

Serpent in the Deep

This is essentially the title track of the album. Parts of this are very heavy, nearly stoner metal stuff. Other parts are more purely prog. It’s a quirky and dynamic number that works quite well.     

Cult Of Eneera

Heavier and nearly metal, this has enough unusual angles and weird changes to keep it vaguely under the prog heading.

A Tale about a Photon

While not a big change, this track is unique. It’s got plenty of that King’s X thing along with more proggy elements. Yet, it’s also got some garage rock in the mix.

SÃ¥ngen om Ymer

I love the sort of twisting vibes of this song. It has healthy helpings of bluesy hard rock along with a lot of more pure prog. This is an intriguing number that’s one of the most interesting things here. Given the competition, that says a lot. There is a good balance between harder rocking and mellower sections, too.

 
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