Mammal - Systematic/ Automatic Vol. 2 (Album)

I really hate the moment I realise I’ve made a mistake. I can accept it happens from time to time, but the last couple of days it’s come as a real kick in the guts to think that I passed on seeing Mammal play a gig in Hobart a couple of months back.

I haven’t remembered yet exactly what it was I did instead of seeing the Melbourne four piece rip through their live set. Hopefully it was nothing too lame. That it was lame compared to the live show I opted out of is inevitable because everything on their new live album, Systematic/Automatic Vol. 2, is ball-tearingly rock.

When I say 'rock', I just about graze the tip of the iceberg, because the Mammal sound is a heaving fusion that takes elements of prog, funk, metal and punk and combines them to produce an intense sound the likes of which has been sending live crowds batty at venues all over Australian and, most recently, the UK.

The two-disc set includes the live CD recorded at the Annandale Hotel in Sydney earlier this year and a bonus live DVD shot during a show at the Ferntree Gully Hotel in Victoria. In total, you get fourteen live tracks for your trouble. And with that, you get a real taste of the Mammal live sound – as well as getting to see them strut their stuff live, which only adds to the experience!

It’s hard to put a finger on just what defines Mammal, but frontman Ezekiel Ox has to be right up there on any list. The DVD shows him in full flight, lording it up for the tightly-packed Mammal faithfuls in a pair of fetching red trousers, looking every bit an edgy Mick Jagger as he struts and stomps about, chin-up, chest out.

On tracks like Mr Devil, probably the funkiest on the album, Ox’s voice comes to the fore and truly distinguishes him from the ranks of countless pub band screamers. Across the live recording, there’s genuine power when he roars and intensity when he talks and this lets up only for some charismatic banter between songs. He plays up for the cameras in the front row, requests calm from the crowd and then gees them up in equal measure. They eat from the palm of his hand and his showmanship is an obvious part of the live draw.

Meanwhile, the remaining trio take a back seat while never disappearing from the scene. There’s punch in the rhythm section with Zane Rosanoski giving his kit a real workout. The throatiness of Nick Adams’ bass also adds menace to the overall sound – the rumbling loop on Religion is an example of this in full force. The track also features a guest violinist, an addition that gives even greater depth to the song and provides guitarist Pete Williamson with a great foil and when he’s unaccompanied by the other, subtler strings, there’s even more occasion for him to produce shitloads of shredding and fistfuls of big riffs.

The album is generally uptempo and in-your-face, but there are a few- relatively- slower songs, too. Burn Out provides some of the more laid-back moments. Clear Enough, The Majority and Nagasaki in Flames don’t… and, as they’re the opening three tracks on the CD, you’re in no doubt what Mammal are all about after the first ten minutes or so!

And true to form, the live disc closes with the intensity of Smash the Pinata. A tune truly loud and proud and seriously capable of delivering the kind of aural arse-kicking I deserve for not getting to the gig in the first place!

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