Mammatus

It’s been eight years since Mammatus last graced the speakers with a new release, but the increasingly elusive band have come back with a force both brutal and beautiful on their latest album, Expanding Majesty. It’s few and far between the metal band that chooses the overwhelming beauty of existence as the central theme of their album, but Mammatus’ cerebral prog-fog might be just the reminder our dying world needs. The record serves up the California trio at their most expansive, filling four sides of vinyl — four serpentine songs, each pushing past the fifteen minute mark. The album is 76-minutes of tectonic force, tropical storms, sunlit valleys, cool waters, and cosmic clouds funneled through amplifier awe. The band hurtles into view with the title track, a knotted tug-o-war between prog-peppered math angles and fog-machine grandeur. They slow the serrated riffs to a standstill on the second side, letting “By the Sky” float on the kind of cinematic sweep that would make Explosions in the Sky look reserved.

The album’s centerpiece pushes the bounds of length and lick. Rounding out at almost 25-minutes, “Foreverriff” soars through the clouds, swelling until the listener vibrates with overwhelming positivity. It’s a melted sunset shot through the tubes and transmitted into the listener’s lobes. The album continues to plumb the serene as it soars out of view, letting the first half of “Beams of Light” linger in the fog before settling loose one last tempest on the album’s arc to oblivion. The band’s reclusiveness pays off on Expanding Majesty, taking their time to turn quiet contemplation into a loving tribute to the natural world.

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