Review: Mastodon, O2 Academy

Comprising various former and current members of the likes of Gallows and SikTh, plus Daniel P. Carter of the Radio One Rock Show, Krokodil give it plenty of shouting, riffs and beardage. For all that expenditure of energy, however, the result sounds rather generic.

Next up are Seattle’s Big Business – a duo in the currently fashionable bass and drums configuration (as opposed to drum’n’bass, obviously), although they pre-date Royal Blood by several years. Coady Willis is an excellent drummer, while Jared Warren extracts a level of distortion out of his bass guitar that would have Lemmy nodding approvingly. But with little memorable material, the limitations of the format quickly become apparent and attention stars to wander.

The mysterious, shadowy committee that decides these things, seemingly randomly, on behalf of those who are dumb enough to give a shit has decreed that Mastodon are the metal band it is currently permissible to like. This despite their well-documented love of progressive rock and the fact that they once released a concept album based on Moby Dick, which was mixed in surround sound. Still, ours not to reason why, as their massive commercial success is thoroughly well deserved. Current album Once More ‘Round the Sun was a top ten hit on both sides of the Atlantic, so it’s hardly surprising that Bill Bailey’s favourite band (no, really) serve up all but three songs from it to the packed, deliriously excited Academy audience. It’s tough enough for any act to forge a truly distinctive sound these days, but the Atlanta quartet have managed to do so using the building blocks of multiple sub-genres of metal, plus a dash of psychedelia and lashings of prog, with plenty of old-skool twin guitar and multi-part harmony vocals. It’s also quite an achievement to create such intricate, complex, polyrhythmic and melodic music that audiences can mosh to, and there’s much fun to be had watching punters being wrong-footed by all those time changes. As if phenomenal drummer Brann Dailor wasn’t already busy enough, he also takes over lead vocals for the likes of The Motherload. Move over Don Henley, Dave Grohl and Phil Collins – there’s a new singing drummer in town. Beardy bassist Troy Sanders remains the focal point, while impressively tattooed guitarist Brent Hinds rips out plenty of searing lead solos from his none-more-metal Flying V. By the time they reach audience favourites Crystal Skull and Blood and Thunder, the entire ground floor of the Academy has been transformed into a huge, sweaty moshpit. There’s no encore, which is a little disappointing for those of us who had hoped to hear the Grammy-nominated Curl of the Burl, and very little in the way of audience interaction. But these guys seem content for the music to speak for itself, and it does so very loudly indeed.