Mastodon sucks live.
Okay, okay, that’s not how I actually feel – I’ve never even seen them live – but ever since Mastodon released Remission in 2002, metal fans have been drooling over everything the band has put on the table. Four albums and nearly a decade has gone by since then, and I still haven’t stopped hearing about this band. They’ve had their positive and negative criticisms – leaning much more on the former – but the rumor that I've been hearing for years from my close friends and all over the inter-webs is that Mastodon is a genuinely poor live band. Could it be true? Could this huge anomaly of a band that keeps dishing up plate after plate of epic progressive metal really be that terrible on stage?
Live At The Aragon could very well be the answer to all of my questions. Mastodon has finally put out a live album that could silence the rumors. Although I doubt that the band gives one shit about what people say about them, after being bold enough to put out three strikingly different concept albums in a row, Mastodon shows here that their live set can be as great as their studio recordings.
Live At The Aragon is not your classic live album. It's not chock full of the bands’ greatest hits in seemingly random order. In fact, the bulk of this album is taken up playing through Crack The Skye (their most recent studio album) in its entirety. For fans of Mastodon who prefer the group's earlier albums to their latter offerings, this can be a pretty long haul before you get to anything you want to hear but, if you are just here for the hits, I think you’re missing the point.
The album opens with “Oblivion,” our intro to Crack The Skye. The recording quality of this record is great. Nothing feels empty. The guitars’ highs cut through and their lows are loud and grumbly as they should be. The drums don’t sound muddy. The bass is audible – which is fantastic for a live metal album – and the vocals really shine through for me. I've always wondered how the vocals would sound from a band with four singers who are all playing intricate parts on their own instruments while singing at the same time. Brann Dailor especially blows me away. While he’s playing utterly complex drum rhythms, he belts out his vocal parts with no sign of wavering.
While most of the vocals are my favorite part of this album, Brett Hinds’ voice is, well, just really weird here. Although I do harbor a small fear that this ex-crack-smoking, Shavo Odadjian-assaulting madman will read this, hunt me down and beat me to death with one of his beautiful Silverburst Flying V guitars, I’ve still gotta say it: Hinds’ vocals sound like he’s trying to be the King Of The Bumble Bees or something. They’re harsh and nasally, sounding completely different than they do on the studio version of the album. Although strange, his voice is forgivable considering he’s shredding his guitar to death during every second that he’s singing.
“Crack The Skye,” the title track, is the climax of the album, with its epic chorus soaring above the clouds before smashing back down into reality with a filthy chugging guitar riff. This track is one that actually sounds better than the studio recording. The contrasts between the soaring highs and brutal lows of this somewhat bi-polar song really come through in this live performance. Mastodon finishes off their set with some fan service, playing hits off their first three albums and finishing with a Melvins cover.
Live At The Aragon has dispelled any thoughts for me that Mastodon doesn’t know what they are doing in a live setting. I mean, sure – it’s possible that they just got their shit together to record this album live, but the level of intricacy and professionalism that the band displays during this performance speaks to the level of their playing ability. Now it looks like I’ll have to wait until they get back from Europe so I can give a real, in-person live review, but I can’t wait to see them for myself.
Artist:
www.mastodonrocks.com/
www.myspace.com/mastodon
www.facebook.com/Mastodon
www.twitter.com/#!/CRACKTHESKYE
Album:
Live At The Aragon is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
