Ever put a CD on and think did Black Sabbath never retired - just reunite and continue, under a different name? Probably more than once in your life time.

 

Finnish foursome, Stone Mammoth could be the ones to set the bar highest on record if this rough and rustic debut, having actually been recorded way back in 2014, gets about to sufficient effect. Take nine tracks of driving seventies soaked stoner metal and stick a singer that resembles Ozzy in his mature years but with still an unstrained voice, slide them into the same kiln together... Oof... 'Mammoth Rising', 'Lock n Load', 'Greatest Lover', 'Runaway', 'Blind Eye' and 'Paralyzed Time' will damage your foot out if you slide them back out with anything less than due care.

 

You can feel Timo Vudrela's scarily Iommi-esque guitar lines go through the ground, boards and all along with the gutsy verses ever time these lads lay into another track, with the swish blues solos being the only other lightweight detail. Terrifyingly olde worlde and wonderful with it, Stone Mammoth do scarcely over zero in originality terms but are significantly further upwards as substance goes.

 

And to think this release took seven years to see the light of day....