In 2015, Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard released their first (inter)stellar, stoned doom riffs. After several knockout albums under that mouthful of a moniker, the project announced they’d slim their name down to MWWB. But no new music emerged from the band in 2020, and 2021 began with radio silence. In March of 2021 the band revealed that guitarist “Dave” Davies had suffered a severe stroke after a fight with Covid, and was facing an arduous rehabilitation process. Instead of releasing a new album with their comrade facing uncertain health, the band cryogenically froze an album prepped for release in March 2021. A year later, Decibel Magazine is delighted that Davies continues to recover. His progress has been substantial enough that the band now feels comfortable unveiling the title track of their fourth LP, The Harvest.
Across nine minutes, the song creates a sense of heavy cosmic dread. Vocalist Jessica Ball still hypnotizes listeners with ethereal vocals that shiver atop the song’s distorted heft. MWWB wield synths and trippy effects that summon pathways to cinematic soundtracks by John Carpenter and Goblin (Dawn of the Dead). But despite splashes of Pink Floyd’s cerebral psychedelia, the foundation of doomed fuzz remains. Produced by Chris Fielding of Conan, The Harvest is vibrant and vividly colored while retaining the band’s signature crunch. The album features nine tracks that flow seamlessly as a single composition. “The Harvest” is the second track of the album; the combustible engine that catapults the rest of the record through space.
“The Harvest, both as a song and an album, represents an array of emotions,” Jessica Ball explains. “It wasn’t planned. It is a raw, real-time experience of processing difficulties in both personal and general life. It’s emotionally scatty; much like the spectrum of reactions and feelings we go through in response to being alive. In relation to our other albums, The Harvest feels to us like we are reaping what we’ve sown.”
The Harvest will release on March 25th from New Heavy Sounds. Join MWWB in a distant galaxy and press play below.
Pre-order MWWB’s The Harvest HERE
Bandcamp pre-orders will go live on Thursday, January 20th.
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