Mastodon: Ranking The Albums
Even from just their exquisite album art alone, you can tell how meticuluous Mastodon are in their craft. From their ultra-hairy, noise-making days of ‘Remission’ to the prog influnces permeating ‘Crack The Skye’ and pop melodies galore in ‘The Hunter’, Mastodon are truly special. In Brann Dailor, they have one of the most unique and virtuoso drummers of all time. In Bill Kelliher, Mastodon have one of the finest riff-makers in metal. And the vocal interplay between Troy Sanders and Brent Hinds (with Brann getting increasingly involved in singing over the years too) helps create a huge, monstrous and intricate sound. We have attempted the tricky mission of ranking all their albums, including 2 live records and 2 compilations. What you do you think? Check out the Spotify playlist and have your say in the comments below!
Spoiler alert: ‘Crack The Skye’ is, in our opinion, Mastodon’s best album. ‘Live at the Aragon’ should, theoretically, be higher on this list given that it features the whole of ‘Crack The Skye’ performed live. However, it simply isn’t a very enjoyable listen.
The mix is muddy and bottom-heavy. There are also very few embellishments added to ‘Crack The Skye’, rendering this live recording largely redundant - especially as it highlights the limitations that Mastodon had with singing live at this point in their career. Mastodon’s weakness in the mid-period days was always their clean singing (it has certainly improved over more recent years), and ‘Live at the Aragon’ does nothing to say otherwise - especially for Brent who struggles and slurs through ‘The Last Baron’, rendering it almost unlistenable.
The songs from ‘Crack The Skye’ themselves are, of course, excellent - though the live performances pale in comparison to the originals. The best parts of the record are actually the bonus cuts ‘Circle of Cysquatch’, ‘Aqua Dementia’, ‘Where Strides The Behemoth’, ‘Mother Puncher’ and a cover of Melvins’ ‘The Bit’. These latter 5 songs show that the 2011 Mastodon were more proficient (and possibly more comfortable) performing their earlier, more bruising material live, rather than the multi-layered vocal melodies of songs like ‘Oblivion’ and ‘Ghost of Karelia’.
Standout Tracks: ‘The Bit’, ‘Mother Puncher’
‘Medium Rarities’ is a random collection of b-sides, instrumentals and live tracks, mostly gathered from the period across ‘The Hunter’, ‘One More Round The Sun’ and ‘Emperor of Sand’.
There are some absolute gems, including opening track ‘Fallen Torches’ which contains everything we love about Mastodon - frantic, fill-heavy drums, alternating vocals (with a cameo from long-term buddy Scott Kelly from Neurosis), bruising riffs and a catchy chorus. Track 2, an inventive cover of Feist’s ‘A Commotion’, is well worth your time, with sumptuous harmonies and a great sense of dynamics. And for Game of Thrones fans, ‘White Walker’ is a real treat, complete with a brooding soundscape beneath its ominous acoustic strums.
‘Medium Rarities’ pools a mixture of tracks together, including a cover of Metallica’s ‘Orion’ which was recorded originally for a Kerrang! tribute to the ‘Master of Puppets’ album. It doesn’t flow particularly well as a complete record, and the live tracks sound a little thin, but as a compilation it is a fun, frivolous collection.
Standout Tracks: ‘Fallen Torches’, ‘White Walker’
The best live albums are the ones you can immerse yourself in from start to finish and imagine you are there. ‘Live at Brixton’ accomplishes this brilliantly, sounding clear and polished but also 100% live, with just the right amount of noise and chaos.
If you compare ‘Ghost of Karelia’ and ‘Circle of Cysquatch’ on this record to the versions on ‘Live at the Aragon’, they are worlds apart. Not only is the production infinitely clearer and more listenable, but the performances themselves feel more loose and vital than Mastodon’s previous live record.
There are several standouts across the mammoth, career-spanning 24-track setlist. Of the older songs, ‘Where Strides the Behemoth’ sounds particularly huge; and the crowd reaction to ‘March of the Fire Ants’ is truly exciting. Better still are the newer tracks from the recently-released ‘The Hunter’, which translate brilliantly to the live setting, minus their studio sheen and played with passion and pride.
Standout Tracks: ‘Creature Lives’, ‘I Am Ahab’, ‘Bedazzled Fingernails’
For fans who discovered Mastodon during their ‘Leviathan’ breakthrough back in 2004, there were some earlier delights to then discover in the thunderous ‘Remission’, and even further back in the limited EP ‘Lifesblood’. ‘Call of the Mastodon’ was released after ‘Blood Mountain’, combining the ‘Lifesblood’ songs (with a clearer mix) with some other tracks from Mastodon’s formative years.
What is immediately striking is that Mastodon were a force to be reckoned with right from the very start. From the pummelling 5/4 riff of opener ‘Shadows That Move’ to the almost black metal mid-section of the 99-second ‘Thank You For This’, to the Dillinger Escape Plan-esque ‘We Built This Come Death’, they weren’t messing around. Vocally, Mastodon hadn’t yet found their feet, but instrumentally they sounded every bit as monstrous as their band name suggested.
It is certainly a far cry from more recent hits such as ‘Show Yourself’, ‘The Motherload’, ‘Curl of the Burl’ and ‘High Road’, but for grunting, hulking, bottom-heavy riffs and lightning fast drum fills, ‘Call of the Mastodon’ is a superb introduction, with ‘Battle at Sea’ hinting at Leviathan’s acoustic-augmented progressive instrumentation.
Standout Tracks: ‘Shadows That Move’, ‘We Built This Come Death’, ‘Battle at Sea’
Paul Romano is the artist who designed the covers for every Mastodon album except ‘The Hunter’ and ‘Once More Round The Sun’. His paintings are not only visually stunning, but they capture the tone of each album perfectly. It says a lot, therefore, that his design for ‘Hushed and Grim’ is primarily grey.
The album title and artwork are a perfect match for the music which, while proficient and technically impressive, honestly lacks the vivid multicolour of the other records.
‘Hushed and Grim’ is a struggle. It certainly comes with its rewards, but it is hard to shake the thought that this record is as hard to listen to as it was to make. Front and centre in the album cover is the face of Nick John, Mastodon’s long-time manager, who sadly passed away in 2018 following a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer.
There is such a weight to songs like ‘Pain With An Anchor’, ‘More Than I Can Chew’ and ‘Sickle and Peace’ - a weight that is both sonic and emotional.
It is a shame that Brent contributes fewer vocal appearances compared to Brann and Troy, because his singing in ‘The Beast’ is incredible, sounding more soulful and rich than ever before. Brann and Troy, on the other hand, have certainly expanded their vocal range but don't seem to evoke as much feeling as Brent this time around.
Double albums can be a bold, exciting format for artists to show their range of skills. Unfortunately, ‘Hushed and Grim’ lacks the variety, colour and fun to make it digestible in one sitting. It is unlikely that tracks such as ‘Skeleton of Splendor’, ‘Had It All’ and ‘Eyes of Serpents’ will make many people's lists of favourite Mastodon songs. There are some highlights, such as the gorgeous ‘Teardrinker’ and the triumphant ‘Gigantium’, but ultimately this is a frustrating record.
Standout Tracks: ‘The Beast’, ‘Pushing The Tides’, ‘Gigantium’
It may be short, but ‘Cold Dark Place’ leaves a significant impression. 3 of the 4 tracks on this 2017 EP ("North Side Star," "Blue Walsh," and the brooding, acoustic- and pedal steel guitar-heavy title track) were originally recorded for ‘Once More Round The Sun’, while the excellent ‘Toe to Toes’ came from the ‘Emperor of Sand’ sessions.
2017's ambitious full-length ‘Emperor of Sand’ saw the progressive / sludge metal veterans producing a heavy-hearted concept album about grief. While the title ‘Cold Dark Place' would suggest an extension of that narrative, this EP is more of a loosely knit addendum with a sombre tone and accessible hard rock songcraft.
The one outlier is the thunderous and playful ‘Toe to Toes’ which contrasts its nostalgia-driven tale of coming to terms with losing someone you love with meaty, Torche-esque major key riffage and copious earworm melodies. We would go so far as to say that ‘Toe to Toes’ is in the Top 10 best Mastodon songs, and it is worth the price of admission alone.
Standout tracks: ‘Toe to Toes’, ‘North Side Star’
‘Remission’ is Mastodon at their hairiest. The riffs. The screams. The discordant guitar harmonies. The seemingly impossible drum fills. Hell, even the song titles. Mastodon sound just as hairy and monstrous as the enormous, mammoth-esque creature they named themselves after.
There is a reason why the opening riffs of ‘March Of The Fire Ants’ and ‘Where Strides The Behemoth’ get such a rapturous reception when they are played live. They have become bona fide classics, laying the foundations for a career of massive riffs and unique melodies.
Elsewhere, ‘Mother Puncher’ is a short, blunt rocker; while ‘Crusher Destroyer’ and ‘Burning Man’ are relentless riff-fests in the vein of the ‘Lifesblood’ EP / ‘Call of the Mastodon’.
‘Remission’ is a great record. It isn't Mastodon’s best, because some of the ideas have been improved and refined on later albums (‘Elephant Man’, for example, seems more like a demo for the acoustic / progressive moments on ‘Leviathan’ and ‘Blood Mountain’) - but it is a thunderous, energising listen, especially if you prefer the ‘big riff’ Mastodon over the ‘melodic hard rock’ Mastodon.
Standout tracks: ‘March Of The Fire Ants’, ‘Where Strides The Behemoth’, ‘Mother Puncher’
It is understandable that ‘Emperor of Sand’ is many people’s favourite Mastodon record. By this point in their career, they had found the perfect balance of all the elements that make them great - huge riffs, labyrinthian song structures, vocals shared out equally amongst all 3 singers, some catchier songs and some proggier ones. There isn’t really a bad moment on the album.
The problem with ‘Emperor of Sand’ as a whole is that the formula becomes a little tired by its mid section. Every song is decent in its own right, but the whole thing is consistently ‘very good’ as opposed to ‘spectacular’ (it is testament to Mastodon’s incredible quality as a band that the main criticism of one of their albums is that it is consistently very good!).
The overall theme of this record is emotionally heavy, based around cancer and loss, with lyrics that were inspired by real-life events and a strong sense of mortality. The concept and story of ‘Emperor of Sand’ follows a desert wanderer who has been handed a death sentence - and, at the end of the story, “the person simultaneously dies and is saved” (using Brann Dailor’s words). It makes for a profoundly moving listen, bolstered by bruising riffs (especially the powerful ‘Andromeda’), emotive choruses (‘Ancient Kingdom’) and heart-on-sleeve lyrics (“I’m afraid of myself” - ‘Steambreather’).
Standout tracks: ‘Show Yourself’, ‘Precious Stones’, ‘Andromeda’
‘The Hunter’ is arguably the most diverse Mastodon album, and in our opinion the most fun.
For many, ‘The Hunter’ was the point where Mastodon tipped too far over into the ‘pop’ realm, straying from their metal roots into catchy hard rock territory. This is a fair challenge, especially with the prominance of songs such as ‘Curl of the Burl’, ‘Dry Bone Valley’ and ‘Creature Lives’, all of which could have been produced by Foo Fighters and no-one would have batted an eyelid.
This only tells part of the story, though. Dig deeper within ‘The Hunter’ and you will find some of Mastodon’s boldest ever songwriting, with adventurous themes (‘Stargasm’), syncopated multi-part rhythms (‘Thickening’, ‘Octopus Has No Friends’), scream-along sections (‘Blasteroid’, ‘Spectrelight’) and beautiful acoustic moments (especially delicate album closer ‘The Sparrow’).
Perhaps one of the reasons that ‘The Hunter’ doesn’t get so much love from faithful Mastodon fans is due to its lack of concept. Each of the preceding records (‘Crack The Skye’, ‘Blood Mountain’ and ‘Leviathan’) came with intricate stories and themes that placed them very much within the ‘prog’ world. ‘The Hunter’, on the other hand, is a collection of well-written songs, plain and simple. It may therefore lack the overall emotional heft and journey-like quality of the earlier records, but if you want to discover some of Mastodon’s very best songs - bolstered by their increasing confidence in their singing abilities - then you will find them here.
Standout tracks: ‘Curl of the Burl’, ‘All The Heavy Lifting’, ‘Black Tongue’
‘Once More Round The Sun’ is often overlooked when ranking Mastodon’s albums, which is a shame because it is a belter. For many, it would be criminal to rank this record above ‘Emperor of Sand’, but ‘Once More Round The Sun’ has aged extremely well and it rewards multiple listens.
Opener ‘Tread Lightly’ may lack the immediacy of previous openers such as ‘Black Tongue’, ‘The Wolf is Loose’ and ‘Blood and Thunder’, but it sets the tone well for a rollercoaster of uptempo bangers (‘The Motherload’, ‘Halloween’, ‘Feast Your Eyes’), impassioned choruses (‘Ember City’, ‘Asleep in the Deep’), apocalyptic prog (‘Diamond in the Witch House’) and pop metal (‘High Road’).
‘Once More Round The Sun’ is loosely based around the concept of Mastodon spending long periods of time away from their families on world tours. It may not contain the depth and lyrical weight of ‘Bood Mountain’ and ‘Leviathan’, but it is an enthralling listen that transcends the somewhat lazy perception this record as one where Mastodon lost their edge.
Standout tracks: ‘The Motherload’, ‘Once More Round The Sun’, ‘Aunt Lisa’
They had made some waves in the underground with ‘Remission’, but with the release of ‘Leviathan’ Mastodon suddently become THE hot new metal band that everyone was talking about. For many, Mastodon appeared out of nowhere, with a level of quality that made them stand out a mile from their peers.
Even within the emergence of a newer, flashier form of metal (Trivium, Killswitch Engage, Bullet For My Valentine, Shadows Fall etc) that was gaining prominence while nu-metal became a parody of itself, Mastodon stood out. Musically, they were inventive, with virtuoso performances from all 4 members. They played unexpected, unpredictable melodies, and sang / bellowed lyrics that conveyed the weight of epic voyages and battles at sea.
Everyone knows ‘Blood and Thunder’ from its opening 2 seconds. That riff! The palm-muted power chords have an almost punk rock quality - and then, when the drums come in with a lengthy fill, all hell breaks loose. Throw in a yell-along chorus (“White whale, holy grail!”) and you have a bona-fide classic.
'Leviathan’-era Mastodon had a melodic sensibility (as shown particularly in ‘Seabeast’ and ‘Naked Burn’), but tended to prefer roaring over singing, letting their intricate 2-guitar interplay lead the melodies. ‘Island’ and ‘Megalodon’ harked back to ‘Lifesblood’ and ‘Remission’; and the final one-two of ‘Hearts Alive’ and ‘Joseph Merrick’ took ‘Elephant Man’ a step further and showcased Mastodon’s ability to build huge epics.
There is a reason why Mastodon chose ‘Leviathan’ as the album to resurrect for its 20-year anniversary on a huge scale, embarking on a massive global tour with Lamb of God who were celebrating the anniversary of ‘Ashes of the Wake’. Quite simply, it is an amazing record.
Standout Tracks: ‘Blood and Thunder’, ‘Iron Tusk’, ‘Naked Burn’
‘Blood Mountain’ above ‘Leviathan’..? Admittedly it is a bit like trying to pick a favourite child - but ‘Blood Mountain’ has the edge. It takes everything that was good about ‘Leviathan’ and takes it to the next level, with bigger and better production and even more fearlessness.
In the words of Troy Sanders, ‘Blood Mountain’ tells a story about “the different things that can happen to you when you're stranded on a mountain, in the woods, and you're lost. You're starving, hallucinating, running into strange creatures. You're being hunted. It's about that whole struggle”. Even if you don’t pay attention to the lyrics, the sonics of this album alone convey this ‘struggle’ perfectly.
‘Blood Mountain’ is Mastodon at their most wild, feral and adventurous. Kicking off with the breakneck ‘The Wolf is Loose’, which is almost hardcore punk in its delivery, the record has countless twists, turns and surprises, pushing beyond the boundaries of its predecessor ‘Leviathan’ and embracing a new sense of melody, particularly in Troy and Brent’s vocals.
Standout tracks: ‘Capillarian Crest’, ‘Sleeping Giant’, ‘Circle of Cysquatch’
‘Crack The Skye’ is the one. The record where all the elements we love about Mastodon come together. ‘Leviathan’ and ‘Blood Mountain’ are both legendary in their own right, but ‘Crack The Skye’ adds two important extra elements:
1) Emotional depth
2) The Prog dial turned up to 11.
It is hard to read the story of ‘Crack The Skye’ and not immediately feel drawn in. Skye was Brann Dailor’s sister, who tragically died by suicide aged 14. This record was a heartfelt tribute to her, wrapped up in an other-wordly concept:
“There is a paraplegic and the only way that he can go anywhere is if he astral travels. He goes out of his body, into outer space and a bit like Icarus, he goes too close to the sun, burning off the golden umbilical cord that is attached to his solar plexus. So he is in outer space and he is lost, he gets sucked into a wormhole, he ends up in the spirit realm and he talks to spirits telling them that he is not really dead. So they send him to the Russian cult, they use him in a divination and they find out his problem. They decide they are going to help him. They put his soul inside Rasputin's body. Rasputin goes to usurp the czar and he is murdered. The two souls fly out of Rasputin's body through the crack in the sky(e) and Rasputin is the wise man that is trying to lead the child home to his body because his parents have discovered him by now and think that he is dead. Rasputin needs to get him back into his body before it's too late. But they end up running into the Devil along the way and the Devil tries to steal their souls and bring them down ... there are some obstacles along the way.” (Brann Dailor, in an interview with Billboard, Feb 2009).
Brann certainly steps up on this record, sharing the vocal duties with Troy and Brent and becoming Mastodon’s 3rd singer (how he does this while drumming is one of the mysteries of the modern world).
Elsewhere, we have surf rock guitar (‘Divinations’), Scott Kelly’s best Mastodon guest appearance (‘Crack The Skye’), incredible progressive musicianship (especially the mid section of ‘The Last Baron’), and twisting, turning song structures (‘Ghost of Karelia’, ‘Quintessence’). This record demands repeated listens and has no skippable moments whatsoever.
Standout tracks: ‘Divinations’, ‘The Czar’, ‘The Last Baron’
