Mammoth Grinder

Underworlds (20 Buck Spin)

Four years after its Relapse Records debut Extinction of Humanity, Mammoth Grinder sharpens its fangs to razor-sharp edges on third full-length Underworlds. Pulling as many sinews from thrash as from the cooling corpse of death metal, this four-headed Austin hellbeast wastes no time on gentility. For 26 minutes, the quartet blasts away with all the rumbling power chords and raving growls in its arsenal. As unrelenting as that is, Mammoth Grinder doesn’t just randomly slash and tear. These are precision kills. Dragon-clawed bruisers like “Breeding,” “Barricades,” and “Wraparound Eyes” hit violently but on point, like a ball-peen hammer wielded by a mob enforcer who likes his job just a little too much. With the over-amped muscle of a sociopathic wrestler and the horrifying grace of a serial killer, Mammoth Grinder wreaks carefully targeted death and destruction here in the Underworlds.

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This article appears in August 9 • 2013.

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Michael Toland started writing about music in 1988 on the Gulf Coast, moved to Austin in early 1991, and has inflicted bylines upon the corporeal and digital pages of Pop Culture Press, The Big Takeover, Blurt, Amplifier, Austin.citysearch, the Austin American Statesman, Goldmine, Sleazegrinder, Rock & Roll Globe, High Bias, FHT Music Notes, and, since 2011, The Austin Chronicle.