Beardfish
Mammoth
Inside Out

And here’s the second of the ‘beard’ bands I promised, Sweden’s Beardfish, a 10-year prog rock institute with five previous albums under their thumb, each of ‘em wild n’ weird monuments to certain grand masters like King Crimson, Yes, and Gentle Giant. Mammoth doesn’t really offer any wholesale changes to Beardfish’s hippy-jazz blueprint, but what it does offer is a deft heaviness not heard on previous albums. In fact, songs like “The Platform” and “Green Waves” — the former complete with metal vocal growls — certainly deliver on the album’s name by delving into Porcupine Tree territory. Hell, even “Akakabotu” has some balls, despite the fact that it’s six minutes of sax-driven muzak. I know not everyone’s into prog, but if you are, you’ll get all you can handle on “And the Stone Said, ‘If I Could Speak’” and “Without Saying Anything (feat. Ventriloquist),” both of which will put a little extra beard onto your fish. Or fish into your beard. Whatever, man, it’s the end of the year.

Listen to “Green Waves” from Mammoth!