Mastodon - Remission

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• MASTODON REMISSION

Free Music Notes for Remission

Free Music Review: Mastodon will CRUSH you
Hit: 5 Stars

The first thing that you are likely to notice when you listen to this album is the drumming. To be perfectly blunt, I believe that this album has the greatest metal drumming performance that I've ever heard. Forget Christy and Hoglan and Portnoy and Mournier and Longstreh, Brann Dailor crushes them all.(And don't tell me that so and so is more technical; I don't care. I'm speaking from a purely subjective, artistic standpoint) He's an utterly maniacal metal-fusion drummer who unleashes some truly spectacular and wildly shifting rhythms along with the most frenetic and powerful fills around. And it goes without saying that he can still groove with the best of them. He plays with such unbelievable intensity and energy that even after dozens of listens he's still truly exhilirating to listen to every time. Some might say he's too busy and overbearing, but he's just to damn fun to listen to, and most of the energy in the album comes from his performance. The rest of the band are no slouches, to be sure. The guitars are extremely distorted, hissing and rasping wildly while they throw out some nicely varied riffs, ranging from crushing stoner or doom groove-riffs to bizarre, lightning-quick licks. They manage to be crushingly heavy one second and surprisingly melodic and lucid the next. They also are clearly technical without being overly flashy, and thus never sacrifice groove or memorability for self-indulgent excesses. The vox are first rate as well. They are a somewhat monotonous and distorted roar (for the most part) which frequently provides a sort of base for the instrumental madness around them. They even manage to write some rather catchy vocal lines every now and then, rather surprising considering the anti-melodic nature of their basic style.

There are no throwaway tracks here, so I'll just cover a few highlights. Crusher Destroyer(the songs have great names, by the way) is a massive opener. Dailor drums with unbelievable ferocity while the others throw out some unusual and highly abrasive riffs, which leads nicely to the more melodic section in the middle. Great Song. Workhorse is the absolute best track here. A nice little intro cuts to an utterly fierce and stomping groove with an instantly memorable vocal line. The breakdown in the middle is fabulous as well. Trainwreck is calmer, more epic. It's got some distinctive, softer and raspier vocals and some eerie melodic guitar which alternate with the most powerful groove riffs on the album. The faster, more intense section later in the song brings it all together nicely. Probably the second best song. Elephant Man is a very solid, generally fairly mellow instrumental. Lots of melody and some beautiful leads combine with a good amount of atmosphere and an understated but very real undercurrent of intensity which threatens to explode all throughout the track. The bonus track Emerald is very cool as well. A nice Thin Lizzy cover which both provides a good contrast to the rest of the album, yet still fits in very well.

But enough specifics. Mastodon are one of the best new metal bands out there, and the best metalcore band around. Get it.

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