### Mastodon: Remission

#### 19/02/09 || The Duff

I wouldn’t say that Mastodon is a “love-hate” band, but you generally seem to get people who dig their stuff and rate them as one of the greatest metal bands of recent times, and then you get people who don’t get the fascination and consequently don’t give a shit what they do. I would also state that they aren’t original per se, but appear to have a unique sound that is imitated in small amounts by admiring bands. I would consider these Atlanta-based leviathan-riffers (trying to stay fresher than an eighty year-old two dollar hooker’s vagina, here, and failing pretty hard) to have released two classic albums – “Leviathan” is, from a personal perspective, the most complete metal album I’ve heard save for those written by the legendary forefathers of all that comes from the genre, but the band’s debut full-length is close to on par with such perfection and is heavier to boot (I might add also something that so far to me is comparable to nothing), so stick that in your ass-crack and smoke it.

For a debut album, “Remission” hits all the right notes save for one, a complaint that will be tackled later to keep you all in suspense. The material ranges from thrash to death to grind (something that has disappeared from the Mastodon formula these days) to hardcore to stoner to doom to sludge to Neurosis (stoner/doom/sludge, hehe), complemented by a dry, full-bodied and crispy production – quite a colourful beastie, this be, apparently one to evoke the qualities of fire (concept albums revolving around the four elements, in case you haven’t caught on yet, is what Mastodon have been striving towards).

Half the band consists of old-Today is the Day, including drum stalwart Brann Dailor; even those who don’t care for the music will speak very highly of the guy, as he plays with a dexterity, playfulness and accuracy that transcends most death metal drummers who have the technique but lack the ability to truly fill out the music with a mixture of gratifying styles; sometimes I might fault him for adding too many fills, but on “Remission” he gets it down one hundred percent correctly aside for the end of “Burning Man” which mirrors too closely the end of “Where Strides the Behemoth” but without the punch to the knackers, the band’s one faux-pas in three full-lengths, if you ask me (suspense, motherfucker; glad I kept you in the dark?)

The rest of the musicianship is all aces, surprisingly the weakest link in the chain being bass-player Troy Sanders, a very talented musician but someone who doesn’t add much of the unexpected, probably because he covers the majority of the vocals. These days Mastodon are criticized for the clash between their music and the only-just adequate vocals, but on “Remission”, everything fits as the music can get very abrasive and as such does not suffer from someone gargling the lyrics when somebody more pronounced (like Scott Kelly of Neurosis, who for a first does not appear on a Mastodon album here) would be better – don’t know why people are complaining about proper enunciation on a metal album when death metal has been getting by for years with nary a raised eyebrow, but there you go.

All in all, this album is the tits; the riffs boast a pendulous nature that would be lacking on future endeavours, spacey sections that are darker than anything that would come from the band later, and on top of it, one of the band’s best solos; I’ve always thought since the release of “Blood Mountain” that the band writes its best leads when limiting itself to the one per album, as on their latest most of the soloing seems unnecessary and just a reason to mark a place amongst their 80’s idols – on album closer, you get a smooth fade out mixing Metallica’s “Call of Ktulu” with Neurosis and other, lighter post-metal bands (OR WHATEVER THE FUCK, SHITFACE!) along with some of the sexiest blues licks/Pantera runs (check the end for some serious Dimebag worship) this side of the musical spectrum. To top it all off, “Mother Puncher” is one of the greatest metal songs of all time, and so to state this as perfection (save the one unfortunate glitch on “Burning Man”) is about as close to the truth as saying “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” and “blowjobs isn’t cheating”.

10 elephants with dynamite bollocks out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2002
- Label: Relapse Records
- Website: www.mastodonrocks.com
- Band
- Bill Kelliher: guitars, vocals?
- Brent Hinds: guitars, probably vocals
- Troy Sanders: bass, vocals
- Brann Dailor: drums, probably vocals too

- Tracklist
- 01. Crusher destroyer
- 02. March of the fire ants
- 03. Where strides the behemoth
- 04. Workhorse
- 05. Ol’e Nessie
- 06. Burning Man
- 07. Trainwreck
- 08. Trampled under hoof
- 09. Trilobite
- 10. Mother Puncher
- 11. Elephant man