Crusher destroyer (Mastodon) (LP 3100 - 3108)

Mastodon  Remission (CD, Relapse Records, 2002) *** 

Mastodon  Leviathan (CD, Relapse Records, 2004) ****  

Mastodon  Blood Mountain (CD, Relapse Records, 2006) ***  

Mastodon  Crack The Skye (CD, Relapse Records, 2009) ****  

Mastodon  Live At The Aragon (CD/DVD, Reprise Records, 2011) ***

Mastodon  The Hunter (CD, Reprise Records, 2011) ****  

Mastodon  Once More 'Round The Sun (CD, Reprise Records, 2014) ****  

Mastodon  Cold Dark Place (CD, Reprise Records, 2017) ****  

Mastodon  Emperor Of Sand (CD, Reprise Records, 2017) ****  

Genre: Heavy metal, Prog metal

Places I remember: Fopp, HMV, JB Hi-Fi 

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Blood And Thunder (Leviathan); The Sparrow (The Hunter)

Gear costume: Quintessence (Crack The Sky)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: So, to remind you all - I have a written rule (check back in the blog if you don't believe me) that I listen to each album as they come up for these posts.

That means I have listened to all nine of these albums one after the other.

I'll just let that sink in for a sec...

Crushed and destroyed? Yup - that pretty much sums up my bleeding ears, pounding heart, and grim countenance. I also have a drained smile on my face.

Mastodon are an American metal band. They come from Atlanta, Georgia, but these guys are not a southern rock band.  The band's lineup (Troy Sanders - bass/vocals, Brent Hinds - lead guitar/vocals, Bill Kelliher - rhythm guitar and Brann Dailor - drums/vocals) has remained unchanged since 2001. That's cool!

Remission (I like the multiple meanings around that word) was their debut album in 2002. It is loud and brash and heavy as all get out. The vocals are raw and almost but not quite that metal growl style. Each track is a blitzkrieg of full noise. Favourite song - Mother Puncher.

Their second album, Leviathan, is the first of their concept style albums - this one obviously centres around Moby Dick.

I am a big fan of this album - the guitar crunch from Remission is more riff-a-rama on Leviathan and the vocals have settled down a bit, in that I can now distinguish words and phrases! I can pick the Black Sabbath reference points on this album. Favourite song - Blood And Thunder.

Blood Mountain is also based around a concept.  According to bassist Troy Sanders, "It's about climbing up a mountain and the different things that can happen to you when you're stranded on a mountain, in the woods, and you're lost. You're starving, hallucinating, running into strange creatures. You're being hunted. It's about that whole struggle."

For me, it's not as consistently brilliant as Leviathan, but these things are relative, are they not. It's still jaw droppingly inventive as they inch inexorably towards more prog metal sounds. Favourite song - Colony Of Birchmen. Josh Homme guests on that one as well.

Sidebar: Several of the lyrics in opening song, The Wolf is Loose, refer to chapter titles and themes in Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces. The hero's journey is something I love as a story vehicle, and I've read a lot of Joseph Campbell's work so the guys get extra kudos for this.

That movement towards prog-metal would be complete on Crack The Sky. This was the first album I bought by the band, having read some glowing reviews in Prog magazine. The vocals are clean and melodic by this album and Blood Mountain.

Crack The Skye's concept centres around Tsarist Russia and astral travelling. Of course. It also doubles as a tribute to Skye Dailor, Brann Dailor's younger sister, who committed suicide when he was a teenager.

The live album (CD and DVD combo) is from a 2009 gig. It's a good package as the DVD includes Crack The Skye: The Movie, as well. Favourite song from this gig - The Czar where the band do their best Ozzy impression, but the live version of The Last Baron is immense as well.

Like Remission, The Hunter was a non-concept album. In a similar move to Crack The Skye, the title The Hunter was chosen to honour Brent Hinds' brother who died tragically, in a hunting accident, while the album was being made. 

Music critic Mike Diver, writing for BBC Music, summed it up well: The Hunter, with its monstrous choruses, powerful percussion and jaw-on-the-floor fret-work, is sure to connect with anyone who's previously rocked out to the band's wares just as easily as it will absolute beginners. Don't like metal? You might just love Mastodon. 

Favourite songs - Black Tongue, The Sparrow. Those two songs top and tail this set of songs - easily the most accessible of the band's career to this point. No power is relinquished at all, but it's refined and packaged differently.  

Once More 'Round The Sun is a continuation of the sound chiseled out for The Hunter - i.e. a lot more polished and rockier songs than previously. Even though the bludgeoning riffs are still there, the sludgy growls of Mastodon's early years are a thing of the past. Favourite song - High Road.

If I was ever going to use a Mastodon album for my music club nominations I would go for the EP Cold Dark Place. It's only got four songs on it so it's 20 plus minutes are a good sampler for how the band stands in 2017. 

Three of the songs were left over from Once More 'Round The Sun and Toe To Toes was from the Emperor Of Sand sessions. The four songs give a nicely rounded summary of the band's sounds and strengths.

The final album on my list is 2017's Emperor Of Sound. A bit of a weird one with a mixture of styles. Another great cover incidentally. Their art work accompanying each album is superb (aside from The Hunter - not too keen on that one). In a welcome return to a concept album mode, the story follows a desert wanderer who has been handed a death sentence.

Not their best in my humble opinion. Leviathan, Crack The Skye would be my go-to Mastodon albums.

Where do they all belong? Clearly, I still need to grab a copy of their most recent album - Hushed And Grim from 2021.