Land Mammal – Survive The Hive EP

by Mark 'Yeti' Richard · February 11, 2025

Land Mammal is a heavy rocking Texas based quartet that formed in 2019. They released their debut Self Titled EP that same year. They also have two full length albums, 2021’s Show Your Mind, and 2024’s Emergence. On January 24th 2025, Land Mammal released their latest four song EP called Survive The Hive. The thirteen minute recording is self released and contains a fuzzed out walloping of riff rocking ecstasy. The band features Will Weise on guitar, Kinsley August on vocals, Phillip Smith on bass, and Bryan David on drums.

Survive The Hive begins with a funky bass line into a heavy and grooving rocker called “The Wasp”. It’s an electrified explosion of mid tempo head banging glory. The song is nice and fuzzy with excellent sound quality. Kinsley August has a decent voice that works great with the hard driving music. The band has a riff ready flow with excellent hooking melodies for good measure. “Animal” has a jolting rhythm that has an intoxicating groove throughout. Land Mammal has some interesting and infectious riffing going on with some eccentric guitar leads too, a bastardized Rage Against The Machine maybe. The catchiness of the chorus is pretty excellent too. The stomp grove assault is very striking in all four tracks. Land Mammal doesn’t waste anytime with subtle musical buildups. It’s “ go time” with every song!

“Bandolier” has a jazz spastic jabbing with accented riffs and excellent running bass lines. The band weaves out propulsive rhythms matched with fuzzy and syncopated tones. Land Mammal crushes a big band type of sound on this song, assembled with a heavy stoner groove. They play with a sense of immediacy and even add in sprinkles of psychedelia halfway through. The drum build up right after is exquisite with the guitars and then the song bursts into a heavy barrage of fuzzy beat down. They intricately blend that into a cool driving rhythm that elapses and fades out. The final track is called “Stare At The Sun”. It has a stomp box groove with almost whiney singing (not meant as a negative). The vocal melodies however works its magic and keeps it all on track.

The song crafting skills that Land Mammal create are amazing throughout all four of these songs. Each track is in the three minute range but unloads a lot of different creative elements. The songs are catchy and hard hitting rockers and each have a high caliber sound that’s fueled with intensity and groove. Survive The Hive is my first exposure to this excellent band and I am very impressed. They definitely kept me engaged and had my full attention for the short but enjoyable, thirteen minute duration. I find myself listening to this over and over again.