Mastodon – Brixton Academy, London
Atlanta's revered metal outfit are a shamanic force to be reckoned with
Words Jessica Crowe
Photography Diana Lee Zadlo
Atlanta’s Mastodon are no strangers to these shores, so it’s fairly befitting that by third song ‘Crystal Skull’, you get the sense that they rowed here, drunk, in a longboat. Their first sell-out London show is exemplary of their reputation as the heaviest and most succinct progressive metal band around. The crushing heaviosity is conjured in large part by guitarist Brent Hinds, who eyes closed, bent backwards, seems almost shamanic.
The thing with Mastodon is, if they really wanted to, they could emerge out of coffins in a fog of dry ice as audience members cower from flapping bats, because their technical ability, held together by whip-tight drummer Bran Dailor, is such that you’d never notice such metal clichés. But they don’t — save from a backdrop and special Mastodon balloons, they leave the theatrics to those less confident in their complexities.
Tracks from critically acclaimed new album The Hunter slot seamlessly in alongside their later work. Although more raw and back-to-basics than previous albums, which conceptualised the four elements, they haven’t lost grasp of their savage technical ability. Contrasting clean and tight thunderous riffs with melodic vocal harmonies gives them a cerebral and poignant mood at times, before quickly returning to brutally meaty. It’s obviously this contrast that the audience responds to well — ‘Crack The Skye’, an epitaph to a loved one’s suicide, fills the venue with a heated sense of unity. And therein lays the secret to the ogre-like feeling of Mastodon: it’s the subtleties and sensitivities that perhaps aren’t immediately obvious to the casual listener.
Audience interaction is minimal, but that’s not to say they’re insular performers. On the contrary, Mastodon know exactly what to give and what to hide — they understand their crowd, and their set list reflects this, ‘Black Tongue’ and ‘Dry Bone Valley’ tucked next to crowd pleasers ‘Blood And Thunder’ and ‘Ghost Of Karelia’. Twenty three songs in total, including closer ‘Creature Lives’ — performed with supports Dillinger Escape Plan and Red Fang — which is so bone crushingly intense we’re glad not to be at a high altitude, unlike the poor souls on the balcony.
Mastodon tonight are as hearty and sizzling as a juicy roast beef — The Burl was most definitely curled.
