Venerdì 29 Gen 2010, 2:30

Thu 28 Jan – Mastodon, The Day Everything Became Nothing
This has been my first chance to see Mastodon since being blown away by the Progressive Metal masterpiece that is Crack the Skye.

My expectations were high, but were they met? Just.

Firstly, the support band, The Day Everything Became Nothing were definitely not my thing. I can’t enjoy Grindcore for the life of me.

Mastodon’s setup was pretty cool, with a pretty rad lighting rig that was nerdy enough to suit the progressiveness of their latest album, yet badass enough to suit their overall heavyness.

They opened with Oblivion, which was a good sign as I’d heard rumours they’d play their entire album from start to finish, and considering it’s a concept album in story-form, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

I got shivers all over during the intro drum fills, and then for generally the entire second half of the song. One thing was apparently early is that the sound was suffering. There was a lot of feedback and the vocals were drowned out in a wall of sound.

That said, the entire Crack the Skye set was fantastic. The crowd seemed to love it, and personally I loved watching Brann Dailor successfully tackling his insane drum sections while singing at the same time, and also Brent Hinds dominating every one of his insanely 70’s inspired guitar solos. The Czar and The Last Baron were utter perfection.

I enjoyed the second half of the set, but nowhere near as much as the CTS section. Their earlier stuff doesn’t excite me as much.

Special mention has to go to the girl who Brent called back up onstage for some “dancing”. Thanks for ruining the whole awesome vibe!

Unfortunately because of my work commitments I had to stand back and take it all in, rather than get into the mosh and really be a part of it, which somewhat dampened it for me.

So all in all, it was a very heavy, but intricate and tight gig. I will give it 7/10, only because the sound was just so appalling.