There’s nothing pretty about heavy metal but don’t tell that to Mastodon because the Georgia rockers delivered a brutally beautiful 90-minutes of head-banging bliss at Showbox Sodo.
The last few times the band has visited the Evergreen State they opened for Alice in Chains and Soundgarden respectively which meant Mastodon wasn’t able to play a full set. At Sodo the band was able to unleash a full performance on a hyped-up crowd and they blazed through a technically amazing set of choice cuts from its 12-year career with an emphasis on the recently released album The Hunter. Most of the band’s previously released records carry loose themes centered around the elements and are typically categorized as conceptual prog metal albums. The Hunter successfully ditches that pattern and not only is it one of Mastodon’s best albums of its career, it’s also one of the best rock records of the year.
Vocalist Brent Hinds was all business and kept the between song banter to a minimum as the band plowed through more than 20 songs. It was evident that Mastodon has been on the road for a while and has mastered performing its new material as each Hunter track fit perfectly alongside songs about water, fire, air and earth to create a mammoth show. The band was dialed in with the riffs, solos and screams sounding more fierce and visceral than Mastodon does on record. And while it was clearly a team effort with no one member outshining another, drummer Brann Dailor deserves recognition because his prowess on the skins is Mastodon’s backbone. He is easily one of the most underrated modern metal drummers.
Portland metal band Red Fang opened the show with a quick and powerful 30-minute set. There were some sound issues at the beginning of the set which caused the low end from the kick drum and bass to feel especially guttural, but things got worked out by the time Red Fang made it to “Prehistoric Dog.” The palpable energy and massive sound coming from the stage from that one song alone made it pretty clear that it won’t be long before Red Fang is headlining its own tour that’s making stops at bigger clubs like Showbox Sodo.
