Mammoth

Mammoth is a name used by several different acts, including rock, metal and hip-hop projects from the United States, Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Brazil. The most detailed entries describe an American rock project led by Wolfgang Van Halen, a British hard rock band formed after Gillan split, a post-rock and shoegaze group from Pekin, Illinois, and an Adelaide-area hard rock band with a stoner and southern metal sound.

Wolfgang Van Halen’s Mammoth

Mammoth, formerly known as Mammoth WVH, is the project of Wolfgang Van Halen, the former bassist of Van Halen. It begins as a solo project while he is still in Van Halen, then becomes his full-time band after the group ends in 2020 following Eddie Van Halen’s death. The name refers both to Wolfgang’s initials and to his father Eddie Van Halen’s earlier band Mammoth, which later becomes Van Halen. Wolfgang takes the idea to his father and receives his blessing, then later drops the WVH suffix after obtaining legal rights to the name.

The project’s debut single, “Distance,” is released in November 2020 and reaches number one on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart in February 2021. The debut album, Mammoth WVH, follows in June 2021, and the project later releases a second album, Mammoth II, in 2023. The band is described as an American rock act formed and fronted by Wolfgang Van Halen.

British hard rock band

After Gillan splits in 1982, bassist John McCoy recruits session musicians Vinnie Reed on drums, Mac Baker on guitars and Nicky Moore on vocals for a solo project that is first called Dinosaur. After complaints from a California blues band with the same name, the group changes its name to Mammoth. The band tours with Whitesnake and Marillion, develops a reputation for strong live reception, and at one point requests a specially reinforced stage after an incident in Leeds. It later ends after a few years of touring and appears in the 1988 film Just Ask For Diamond as the henchmen of the Fat Man, played by Michael Robbins.

Post-rock and shoegaze band

Another Mammoth forms in late 2006, with the line-up of Louis on vocals and violin, Geoff and Richard on guitars, Benjamin on bass and Warwick on drums coming together in October 2008. The band releases a self-titled debut EP in 2009, follows a sound described as shifting from haunting passages into heavy rhythms, and remains unsigned while working on new material. A separate description places a Mammoth post-rock, ambient and shoegaze band in Pekin, Illinois, with a debut split released in 2009 with Drifts.

Adelaide-area heavy rock band

A different Mammoth forms in early 2006 in the Adelaide area and consists of five musicians. Their music is described as hard rock with heaviness and catchiness, and also as stoner rock and southern metal. Terrorizer magazine comments on the band’s riffs, and the group licenses its first album, The Calling, to Wolfcastle Records for release in Australia and New Zealand, with distribution also through iTunes and MGM via Green Media.

Other acts using the name

Other listed Mammoth acts include an American rapper from Sodus, New York, who raps in the Monroe County area; a Brazilian heavy metal band formed in 1984 that releases the Possessed 7-inch and appears on the São Power compilation in 1986; and the original 1972–1974 incarnation of Van Halen, which performs under the name Mammoth before changing to Van Halen. The list also includes an American post-rock/shoegaze band and a New Zealand progressive metal band.