Reports of Mammoth Grinder’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. Sure, the band hasn’t played a show—or released an album—in six years. And yeah, maybe MG mastermind Chris Ulsh even told a few people that the band was over with. But things change.

“I had kinda put the band down in my mind,” Ulsh says. “But when we started announcing some shows, people were like, ‘What the fuck? Chris told me the band was breaking up when I saw him last year.’ Well, yeah—in my mind, we weren’t a band anymore.”

It’s not the first time the band has fizzled out, only to rise again. “Everyone else in Mammoth Grinder, like me, plays in a million bands,” says Ulsh, who also plays drums in Power Trip and Devil Master. “We were all busy with other stuff, so there weren’t any questions about why we weren’t playing shows. The band kinda operates in waves.”

Why resurrect the sleeping giant? As it turns out, Ulsh received an offer he couldn’t refuse. “The reason things all started coming to fruition was that Nails hit us up for a tour,” he explains. “When the offer came in, I didn’t respond right away. I slept on it. I thought, ‘What if we recorded some new songs? What if we went back to being a four-piece? What if we added a bunch of guitar solos to the old stuff?’ I was building it up in my head. We ultimately agreed to the tour, and I started working on this new music.”

That music is Mammoth Grinder’s new EP, Undying Spectral Resonance—five tracks that pick up where 2018’s Cosmic Crypt left off. “I was trying to draw from the last record because I felt like I found our sound on that one,” Ulsh says. “On all our other records, I was unhappy with the previous one and there was stuff that I wanted to change. This time, I knew what the band should sound like. But mostly, I think I was trying to prove to myself that I could still write something that was nasty, that I thought was sick, punky death metal.”

The title Undying Spectral Resonance references a theory about supernatural energy retention. “I was reading about how places where something awful happened, like the gallows, can be a portal to another world or the other side,” Ulsh explains. “I thought it would make a good death metal song.”

Musically, the title track hits different than Mammoth Grinder’s previous material, with a nod to early ’90s Finnish death dealers Demigod. “We’ve never had a song that’s been slow like that the whole time,” Ulsh points out. “I had the Nails tour in mind when I wrote it. I think people will lose their minds to this one—or they should. It’s unlike anything else we have, and I thought it would be a cool single.”

Leadoff track “Corpse of Divinant” explores morbid tales from the Great White North. “Lyrically, it’s French-Canadian folklore about this woman who plucked out her own eyes so she could see beyond the veil and communicate with the devil,” Ulsh explains. “Musically, I wanted a chorus that was halftime without sounding like hardcore or like a purposeful mosh riff. I didn’t want it to sound fun. The bridge riff was super inspired by the US black metal band Demoncy. It’s kind of jarring, but it's my favorite part.”

The EP also includes a synth interlude by Ulsh’s former Hatred Surge bandmate Mike Sharp entitled “Call from the Frozen Styx.” “He did the interludes on the last record, and I thought all that stuff flowed together nicely,” Ulsh says. “I originally wanted shorter interludes for the EP—and more of them—but he sent me that one and I thought it was so cool that it should be its own song. It also divides the EP nicely, halfway through the record.”

“Decrease the Peace” traces back to the Underworlds era of the band circa 2013, with an unreleased and re-recorded track written by fallen Iron Age guitarist Wade Allison, who previously did time in Mammoth Grinder. There’s also a guest solo from Arthur Rizk, who engineered, mixed and mastered the EP—which closes with a re-recorded version of Mammoth Grinder’s 2010 seven-inch track, “Obsessed with Death.”

Ulsh played all the instruments and did all the vocals on Undying Spectral Resonance, which was recorded at Rizk’s new home studio outside of Philadelphia. After its completion, Ulsh had his first rehearsal with the new Mammoth Grinder lineup, which includes Sebastian Phillips of Noisem/Exhumed on guitar and Andy Horn of Richmond rippers Loud Night on bass. Ryan Parrish of Iron Reagan is still on drums, while Ulsh has switched from bass back to guitar while of course retaining the vocal position.