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November 13, 2004
Mastodon - Leviathan
I first heard of Mastodon about a year ago, bought their impressive Remission album, but was rarely pissed off enough to really want to listen to it. Remission is the kind of incredibly angry album that makes it very easy to imagine megalithic monsters crushing everything in their path with extreme prejudice. Their earlier EP, Lifesblood, is sadly not in my posession so I can’t tell you what they evolved from, but BNR informs us that their earlier incarnation was the highly notable Lethargy.
Mastodon are:
Bill Kelliher: voice and axe
Brent Hines: axe
Troy Sanders: bass
Brann Dailor: drums
Before I proceed, I want to take a moment to talk about their presentation. Mastodon’s albums (the two I own, anyway) come with impressively thematic and powerful artwork. They are clearly interested in massive beasties, which is cool in-and-of itself, but to present the massive beasties along with ornately stylized and decorated text, always in an “old gold” color above the image, is just awesome. Nobody else is doing this kind of stupid shit—with Mastodon, the name is a signature, not a logo.
You’ll find no photos of the band within inner pages, either; just more artwork and the lyrics to the songs rendered within. You feel like you have purchased a work of art, something which might be worth $8 or $10 of whatever you actually spent, as opposed to $3.
The CD opens with “Blood and Thunder,” which starts out mid-tempo and less heavy than you would expect from the last album. After only a couple measures, the metal joins in and we hear the first lyrics, much clearer than in the last album: “I think that someone is trying to kill me/Infecting my blood and destroying my mind.” The chorus re-introduces the plod/stomp sound we know from Remission. Soon, the double-axe soloing is with us also, and leads us down a more melodic, structured path than we would expect from the old release. The melody changes again, midway between the stomp and the initial up-tempo driving sound. In terms of complexity, they have quite smashed their old record, but the listenability has actually gone up several notches. The song fades out with some excellent melodic yet heavy chords, a real headbanger finish.
“I am Ahab” moves in with a grabbing theme. The music is heavy and fast. The drummer begins to take the stage showing some of his flair. You will picture boats. Far greater usage of acoustic/melodic guitar techniques are present, but almost always layered above a heavy, driven rhythm.
“Seabeast” opens with a slower, almost introspective melody. The crooning vocals are digitized in a slight, barely noticable way. Part of Mastodon’s genius is the way they mix the vocals and guitar together so that what would normally be an oppressively dense guitar layer is actually quite soothing. The hardcore-esque vocals compliment the ascending guitar work. There is a strange harmony in everything on this album; strange chords, strange vocals, strange sounds—all a bit off, but not discordant, indeed very familiar. The music moves like the ocean.
The most openly aggressive song, and the only one which will remind of the raw ferocity of the previous album is “Island.” All guns blazing, it rushes past at high speed as a work of technical thrash, with discordant notes rhythmically propelling the song forward. Suddenly, the song changes rhythm, becoming slower and yet more urgent. Then, it is gone, dropping into the next song.
“Iron Tusk” shows the drummer adding in flourishes quite a bit to the overall mood. While the guitarists slam forward together, he rolls across the snare and bass at high speed. Mid-song, the guitarists fold together a solo that can only be described as a melody unlike any you have heard. The wonder of the sea is beholden to the artists. The solo is interrupted and becomes discordant for a short time, then returns to the original version.
“Megalodon” is definitely my favorite song on the album. With a subdued opening, a discordant theme is quickly created in solo, and then the tempo hikes up for riffing and screaming, with guitar flourishes. This is repeated for several times. Then, the ending flourish of the segment drags out and slows ever-so-slightly for several seconds while every other instrument cuts out, leaving the guitar alone in the spotlight. What was an inventive, “From Beyond” flourish resolves itself into a highly unexpected Southern rock moment, just before all the instruments return and the fastest thrash of the album ensues. Glory! The rock doesn’t stop there. This song is excellent, you will smile when you hear it.
The next song, “Naked Burn” opens with guitar reminiscent of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” but quickly gets going. Another song which makes one think of sailing. The song alternates between a sort of penitent, clinging staccato melody and the overbearing Mastodon signature, synthesizing at times into the incredibly pleasing watery sound. In the middle we get a bit of acoustic guitar above the same melody on electric guitar, and then a return to the back-and-forth.
“Aqua Dementia” opens with an acidic guitar lick above a solid riff. The vocals here are decidedly in the death category (scratchy screechy screaming), unlike most of the album which is in the hardcore category (thugy shouting). The song has an insistence about it. From nowhere, it acquires a slow stomping sound, which goes away after only a few short measures, but quickly returns, leading to a strangely sea-sick sound, before the two opposing forces synthesize, and finally a truly slow plodding sound. This alternates and grows in complexity like all the other songs on the album, fading out.
Maybe the best short description of the album is, back-and-forth between opposing elements. Whatever the two forces are, they always wind up combining and exacerbating each other before accentuating each other. You feel like you are listening to a natural system.
The true epic of the album is “Hearts Alive,” the 14 minute progressive devastator. It opens with a beautiful, strange acoustic/metallic melody that sort of ebbs and flows. If you don’t get it yet, this album is the sound of the ocean, and this song is the crucial masterpiece tying the whole thing together. Suddently, the acoustic is gone and the metal is in gear, but we’re hearing the same melody at the same pace. The melody grows into an ascending/falling pattern and we get the shouting, and the complexity comes in, but we fade back to the sound of the opening, only with vocals, and some extra acoustic flourishes. The metal grows in insistance, and the acoustic grows in beauty, to an interlude establishing the countertheme of the piece. It seems like there isn’t much going on, but each round adds something to each force in the duality, yet in a hypnotic way that makes it difficult for me to concentrate on to describe here. The vocals go from a mellower sort of narrative to a deathish screech, but not screechy enough to shatter the hypnotic air. A bit of feedback reminds us just for a second we are listening to the creation of a human band and not nature. The insistence builds and finally breaks, and the melody changes: the beginning of the fusion of the themes. The drummer creates many inventive structures, hoisting up the mood. The synthesis begins to seem to break, but the guitar work brings it back together. A new, upbeat theme seems to emerge from the chaos, unifying the themes. After being assaulted several times, another, less up-beat theme arises twice. Suddenly, the prior unifying theme re-emerges, at half speed, a very noble, grandiose sound which makes one think of bands like British Sea Power comes forward. Soloing atop the new theme commences; Dan gets the shivers, declares Mastodon greatest band of 2004. Fadeout begins with new theme, replacing the melody with each note repeated twice, at double speed (duh-duh dah-dah duh-duh …), until they finally just slam the melody and fade out.
I wipe my face.
“Joseph Merrick” is sort of the calm down before going back to work number after the money shot. It’s all accoustic, slow, introspective, mild, yet still a bit strange. There is a strange keyboard sound in the background which gives the song a sort of Pink Floydian mood that simply has to be heard to be believed.
I have just done the worst job describing an album ever.
It’s imperative that if you like music and can stand metal, you hear this album immediately. It would be wise if you didn’t like metal, to include this in a survey if you were to survey metal, to give you an idea what it can sound like. I can’t think of any other band that sounds like this.
Other people have criticized the band’s production quality. However, I think that’s bullshit because this isn’t a band trying to make a buck, they’re trying to convey an iconic image to you and they want that image to hit you in the skull. They can of course afford perfect production, but they said “fuck it: we want style.” They couldn’t have crystal production or transparently catch hooks and make you think of the sea, not the way they wanted you to think of it: primordial, raw, essential, ancient. They are trying to bring the majesty of Moby Dick to you, from out the ages, with full force. The production is not sparkling, because it would diminish the agedness.
Get this album. Get it ASAP. Ignore any further commentary from anyone about it.
Posted by FusionGyro at November 13, 2004 03:53 AM
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Comments
Very good review, very impressed, if a little late.
Although I’ll point out that Brent does vocals, as opposed to Bill, who sometimes joins in with the choruses, like in Blood and Thunder.
Posted by: Snufkin at June 1, 2005 06:27 AM