CALL OF THE MASTODON

"Call of the Mastodon" is a compilation album release by US metal act Mastodon. The album was released through Relapse Records in February 2006. It bridges the gap between Mastodon´s second- and third full-length studio albums "Leviathan" (2004) and "Blood Mountain" (2006). "Call of the Mastodon" features all nine tracks from Mastodon´s "9 Song Demo" from 2000. After only a few shows original Mastodon lead vocalist Eric Saner left, and guitarist Brent Hinds and bassist Troy Sanders subsequently re-recorded the vocal tracks on the "9 Song Demo". The demo tracks featuring the re-recorded vocal tracks first apppeared on the three separate releases. "Demo 2001" and the two 2001 EPs "Slick Leg" and "Lifesblood". One track on the former, three tracks on "Slick Leg" and five tracks on "Lifesblood". So this compilation is the first time all nine demo tracks featuring the re-recorded vocal tracks have been released in its entirety.

Stylistically Mastodon play a hard to describe type of metal, influenced by sludge, thrash, hardcore, and even death metal. The vocals are angry, shouting, and are often doubled by the two vocalists. The soundscape is raw, brutal, and busy, and Mastodon already this early on proved that they were a technically well playing unit. Drummer Brann Dailor is on fire throughout the release, driving the music forward in a both powerful and creative fashion, while guitarists Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher produce one heavy, occasionall even brutal, yet sophisticated and intriguing riff after another. The songwriting is creative but generally lacks memorable and hook laden moments, and it´s in that department that Mastodon still needed to hone their skills. Considering that Mastodon formed the same year as recording the material featured on "Call of the Mastodon", and the fact that this was originally released as a demo, it´s still quite the impressive early release from Mastodon and a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

The sheer destruction and immanent brutality of 'Call of the Mastodon' is a marker for the quality of those early 2000s Relapse Records releases and this very first impression of the soon-to-be progressive metal flagbearers Mastodon is immensely impressive for its raw and energetic sounds, moody twists and experimental shifts. As the story goes, the songs on here were initially making up the '9-song demo' of the band, released in the year 2000 and featuring original vocalist Eric Saner. Following his departure, Troy Sanders and Brent Hinds re-recorded the vocals and updated the songs, which were released on the early EPs 'Lifesblood' and 'Slick Leg'. Some years later all of the songs were remixed and remastered, ultimately to be released in 2006 as the compilation album 'Call of the Mastodon', a collection of songs some band members refer to as the proper debut studio album, and while officially not one, we might as well see this work as the zero album and surely the precursor to 2002's 'Remission'.

Stylistically these songs are pertinent to the extreme metal genre and some of its sub-genres like metalcore and mathcore, since the music is incredibly dynamic, technical, unhinged and overly aggressive. At the same time, we also have the sludge metal riffs and gorging, grizzly vocals that add another interesting dimension to the music, which is emphasized by the inherently progressive writing with all of the unpredictable, often chaotic and labyrinthian movements within the songs themselves. It becomes obvious that this is the right recipe for a benign work of creative destruction, with exhilarating entries like 'Shadows That Move', 'Hail to Fire', 'Battle at Sea', 'Deep Sea Creature', 'Slickleg', or the title track. This entire album runs for a little less than half an hour but it is packed with dense and manic songs that form an essential part of Mastodon's history, and for this reason is one of the essential early releases.