If you’re into sound that’s undergone psychedelic treatment like the music Tame Impala churns out, this local band should definitely be on your radar. Golden Mammoth is a Putrajaya-based psychedelic rock band that was one of the finalists of The Wknd Sessions Recording Fund. Now, the band has recently released a full-length album called “Metaphoric Quadraphonic“ that’s recorded and written by multi-instrumentalist Syabil Alyahya.

The album consists of 12 songs and you’re bound to come across one or even more that you’d enjoy as you journey along their tracks. The album is steeped in psychedelic rock elements as there are plenty of whirring guitars that resemble a form of hypnosis as the guitar solos goes on, and vocals that are processed to a similar effect, fuzzed out and reverberating on their own tone. - Masses MY

First premiered at the launch of associate band Capt’n Trips and the Kid’s debut album, Golden Mammoth has made their music video for single ‘Malicious Judicious’, off Metaphoric Quadraphonic, available for public consumption.

Golden Mammoth, an alumnus of The Wknd Sessions Recording Fund initiative (of which they won 3rd place), is part of the Tame Impala-informed new wave of local psych rock bands. Led solely by 20-year-old Syabil Alyahya as the band’s equivalent of Kevin Parker, that comparison is the most apropos here in the video where Syabil is his own one-man band. But of course, the focal point of this Irfan Aljuffry-directed video is Asia’s Next Top Model Cycle 5’s Alicia Amin – who spends a majority of the video dancing in a Neon Demon-esque laundry room. Animated swirls whooshes around and with her, a particularly pantone cartoon washing machine lights up, and Alicia’s temperament changes arbitrarily, culminating in the swirls being replaced by floating skulls – all making for an appropriately trippy video to a psychedelic track. - Juice MY online

At Cyberjaya Music Festival 2017 , one of the great bands that would be performing at Centrus Mall is Golden Mammoth! Let’s get deep into the possibly trippy mind of the band members so that you are armed with the knowledge of thwat to expect!


If you’re a fan of psychedelic rock, Golden Mammoth brings a sense of familiarity to their sound. You’ve heard these bass lines, you’ve stared into the abyss to these distortions, Yet on the other hand, they’ve got a lot more under their sleeves especially evident after the release of their first full-length album, Metaphoric Quadraphonic. Golden Mammoth started off as a musical project led by Syabil Alyahya, with the musical intention of creating “prog-rock-psych-blues rock-jazz-fusion”, solidified by the various influences that the band incorporates to convey dreamscapes of varying hues and degrees.

Recently, they’ve released a music video for their single Malicious Judicious. A great song in and of itself (we’re still grooving to that bass line ever since we wrote a review on it), the music video gives a teaser towards the type of aesthetic that Golden Mammoth paints in their world of bending strings to the sound of psychedelic daydreaming. We talked to the band members to find out what makes them tick!

CMF17 Official_Main Poster

(Get your tickets at the door or at kedai.tapau.tv. Door tickets are still available!)

What makes the Mammoth, Golden?
Tell us a little bit about the history of the Golden Mammoth and how you guys came to be? How did the name come about?

Syabil Alyahya (Credit: Bingkai Hitam)
Syabil Alyahya (Credit: Bingkai Hitam)

I started off making music in my bedroom since I was 16. When I listened to bands like Pink Floyd and Beatles, it gave me the inspiration to write music like them, so I decided to produce music on my own. My mom gave me my first audio interface and since then, I’ve been making songs with just the interface, guitars and some instrument plug-ins. I find myself putting in a lot of modulation effects into my mix to partake in the realm of psyche-rock music. At one point, I decided to put some of my tracks together into one EP (which was Golden Mammoth’s debut release “Malavita”). I realized that executing these songs live would be another level of experience, hence, I decided to form a band with live members. I recruited my school friends to help me execute these songs live and one night, I decided to do a meet-up to decide on the band name. The name came from a number of randomly generated ideas and we came up with names like Odd Mammoth / Golden Drips. Knowing that Pink Floyd came up with their name by merging 2 great band names, I decided to merge “Golden” and “Mammoth”.

Syabil, one of the major influences you’ve cited was Todd Rungren, do you remember the first time you listened to Todd Rundgren? Your favourite songs from him?

Yes! Of course. The first time I found out about this man was from the TV series “That 70’s Show” as the characters went to a Todd Rundgren show. So I tried to look him up on Youtube and stumbled upon his album “A Wizard, a True Star”. This album opened my ears, man. The complexity of arrangement, the dreamy concept and mixing, and the fantasy & cosmically written lyrics. Everything was perfect. My favourite track from him is “Zen Archer” which is from this album.

What are your other musical role models?

I often find myself changing my role models from time to time, some of my profound inspirations are John Lennon, Jimmy Page, every member of Pink Floyd, Brian Wilson and a lot more. Some inspirations from the 21st Century that are worth mentioning are, Kevin Parker from Tame Impala (no denying that), Stu Mackenzie from King Gizzard and Matt Bellamy from Muse.

Metaphorical washing machine & evolution from Malavita
What’s the concept behind your latest music video, Malicious Judicious? Why is there a dancing Alicia Amin on a washing machine in a kampung house?



The idea of this video is that we wanted to express how machines can break the barrier between man and reality. The girl is a foreign element in the general setting. She doesn’t oppose to the idea of being general, but there’s an alternative person, an alter ego wanting to get out. Knowing that her other self would not be accepted, she finds solace in the laundry room being alone while waiting for time to pass. Her other self, breaks free in the space, free from the chain of judgment holding her, indulging in her self-pleasure, invigorating herself to face the world outside.

How would you describe your evolution from Malavita to Metaphoric Quadraphonic? How much have you guys changed since your first EP?

When I first planned out for Metaphoric Quadraphonic, I wanted it to be more towards a conceptual direction. Malavita was just a compilation of songs that I made throughout the years and the EP doesn’t really have a conceptual direction. Malavita was more of introducing our sound and influences and Met Quad (Metaphoric Quadraphonic) was about producing tunes from the heart. I would say Met Quad is more complex in terms of musical arrangement and lyrics. Writing Met Quad was more of like narrative/tales of past-personal events and I also tried to step out of my comfort zone to explore with different instruments. - Daily Seni