Doomed Confessionary: Micah Loyed (Aye Mammoth)
Aye Mammoth is a rock band from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Founded in 2011, they were influenced by hard rock sound of the 60’s and 70’s with artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Motörhead, and Thin Lizzy. With each passing year, Aye Mammoth release a new concept album journeying into musical genres and subject matter that they had previously not explored, such as blues, punk rock, thrash metal, doom metal, and sludge rock.
Aye Mammoth are Micah Loyed (guitar, vocals), Phil Stem (drums) and Aaron Belknap (bass).
Can you say a few words about your band?
We are a power trio from Tennessee circa 2011. Our initial sound was rooted in hard rock of the 60’s/70’s and influenced by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Motörhead, Deep Purple, and Thin Lizzy. Our music fluctuates and evolves from year to year and has spanned blues, punk, thrash, doom, and desert rock musical genres. We aim to create music composed of heavy riffs backed by conceptual lyrical content that focuses on storytelling inspired by themes of mythology, science fiction, fantasy, horror, and the spiritual/supernatural.
What was the biggest challenge for the band?
One of the biggest challenges we have faced is a local music scene that is in constant flux with venues opening and closing, promoters coming and going, etc. We’ve struggled to get our footing in terms of booking shows at places outside of our usual stomping grounds.
What can you be most proud of so far?
Our body of music and the courage to take a risk on putting ourselves out there with music that might be different from the music we released prior.
What was your biggest regret?
Not to be too generic, but we haven’t been able to play as many shows in recent years, due to various unfortunate circumstances.
What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
Some of our favorite shows over the last year or two have been playing at these local punk rock shows with these kids that are highly energized about music and the scene and very receptive to us, who are very different than other bands that might be on a punk rock bill.
What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
We’ve played on this for several years, give or take, but the BoroFondo Music Festival that is put on locally each year in our area has been a real delight to get to play at and participate in. It’s really stripped down with no egos, raw energy, and we get to play with so many bands of different genres.
What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
Heavy music I listened to just this week has been Sleep Token, Candlemass, Corrosion Of Conformity, Knocked Loose, Whitechapel, Eye On The Sky, Tennessee Blues Mob, Grizzly Ironside.
What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
Break down the drum set after you are off stage. I don’t know if anyone ever told us that outright, but that’s our advice to any band. Period.
What are your guilty pleasures?
Little Debbie’s Christmas Tree cakes.
Can you say something more about current music scene in Murfreesboro / Tennessee?
It’s been in flux lately, with quite a few venues we were fond of closing down, but there is a vibrant community of younger generations (younger than us at least) that I think are absolutely pivotal to reviving music in our area.
Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
Generally, around the Nashville/Murfreesboro area. We hope to jump on Borostock or BoroFondo again this year if the opportunity presents itself.
What are your plans for the future as a band?
We have a new EP planned for 2026 called »Universe«. After that, we plan to do a re-recording of our 2017 EP, »Beasts Infernal« that was inspired by Universal Monsters, then we have new music written for releases that are planned all the way out to about 2033. Not even joking. They’re going to cover a wide range of conceptual inspiration as well, from the microcosm macrocosm analogy to Native American mythology to The Legend of Zelda. We have a lot to cover during our next decade <laughs maniacally>.
How can people best support your band?
Our Bandcamp is a direct link to our music but you can also find us on Spotify, Apple Music, and most streaming services, as well as our YouTube page. Our Facebook and Bluesky accounts are how to get any upcoming information and communication from us.
Do you have any message for your listeners?
The impetus of our lyrical content across all of our storytelling in our songs and music has always been “light will overcome the darkness.” So, if our message was anything to our listeners, it would be that.
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well