Don't Back Down (Mammoth song)
2021 song by Mammoth
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Don't Back Down" is a song by American rock band Mammoth. It was released on March 26, 2021, as a single from Wolfgang Van Halen's debut studio album, Mammoth WVH. The song topped the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay chart in September 2021.
| "Don't Back Down" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Mammoth | ||||
| from the album Mammoth WVH | ||||
| Released | March 26, 2021 | |||
| Genre | Hard rock | |||
| Length | 3:45 | |||
| Label | EX1 | |||
| Songwriter | Wolfgang Van Halen | |||
| Producer | Michael Baskette | |||
| Mammoth singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "Don't Back Down" on YouTube | ||||
Recording and release
As with all tracks on the album, Wolfgang Van Halen performed all instruments on "Don't Back Down".[1][2] The recording features a Foxx Tone Machine fuzz pedal,[3] a Gibson ES-335, and a Fender Starcaster, which was played through an EVH 5150III head.[4] It also features a phaser pick slide at the end of the track.[3]
"Don't Back Down" was released on March 26, 2021, alongside the song "Think It Over", with both tracks made available for streaming.[5] An official live video was released on June 4, 2021.[6] The song was featured on the Madden NFL 26 soundtrack.[7][8]
Composition and style
Wolfgang described the song as having a shuffle feel and said that an early version was "very Sabbath-y".[3]
Critics described the song as a hard rock track with bluesy riffs and a glam rock-influenced chorus.[5][4][9][10] Loudwire described the song as featuring aggressive, fast-tempo rhythms,[11] while Blabbermouth described it as an "anthemic single" representative of the band's harder sound.[6]
Music video
The music video is set at 5150 Studios and features multiple versions of Wolfgang, with four shown performing the song and two depicted in production roles.[4] The video depicts him recording the song by himself, performing all instrumental and vocal parts,[12][13] and was filmed over two days.[14]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Wolfgang Van Halen.
Chart performance
The song reached number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay chart on September 11, 2021, making the band the first act since 2019 to send its first two entries on the chart to number one.[16] Wolfgang said that the song reaching number one proved that the success of "Distance" was not a "fluke".[17]
Personnel
Credits adapted from Apple Music.[18]
Mammoth
- Wolfgang Van Halen – vocals, guitar, drums, bass, piano, songwriter
Additional credits
- Michael Baskette – producer, mixing engineer
- Jeff Moll – editing engineer
- Josh Saldate – assistant engineer
- Brad Blackwood – mastering engineer
Charts
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
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