ALBUM REVIEW: Medium Rarities – Mastodon
Over the course of a now-twenty-year career, Atlanta prog-meets-sludge-metal outfit MASTODON have built up a reputation as one of metal’s premier bands thanks to a near-faultless run of albums, often melding fantastical concepts with songwriting both complex and heavy, most recently culminating on 2017’s stunning reflection on mortality Emperor of Sand, where the quartet netted themselves a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance with opening track Sultan’s Curse the year after the record’s release, and also being nominated for Best Rock Album. Now though, the band are throwing open their archives for a new release encompassing everything from standalone singles, to live tracks and instrumental versions from across their back catalogue on their latest release, Medium Rarities.
For many, the main draw of Medium Rarities will come immediately with its opening track. Fallen Torches, the record’s sole brand new content, sees the members of MASTODON hook up once again with regular collaborator Scott Kelly of NEUROSIS, on a track recorded last year and supposedly intended to promote a European tour that never happened, whilst also serving as the first new MASTODON music released since Sep 2017’s Cold Dark Place EP. Whether or not this serves as a taster of things to come for the group, or simply stands alone, is yet to be seen, however it’s yet another winner for the Atlanta collective either way – packing killer riffs aplenty, along with one hell of a melodic chorus from drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor.
The remainder of Medium Rarities serves as a veritable bag of assorted delights for MASTODON fans to sink their teeth into. Three cover songs spread across the record showcase the band’s remarkable collective ability as players. A Commotion comes first, transforming the Canadian indie singer-songwriter FEIST‘s original almost unrecognisably; trading the previously mostly string-based arrangement and floaty ethereal dynamic of original for sludgy riffing with anthemic chanted vocals. The remaining two are significantly less divergent from a stylistic point of view; fairly faithful to the originals covers of A Spoonful Weighs a Ton by THE FLAMING LIPS and METALLICA’s sprawling Orion don’t exactly reinvent the wheel in either case, however the former’s markedly lighter, almost ballad-like tone is certainly a fun listen from a band most know for their heaviness.
Those more inclined to appreciating the sheer musicianship found within the MASTODON catalogue as opposed to bone-crushing heaviness are well catered-to as well, with several instrumental versions of the band’s more recent original material spread across the album, acting almost as breathing room in amongst some of the more chaotic other moments. Stripping away the vocals from these tracks leads to making moments like the slick tapped opening of Toe to Toes from Cold Dark Place even easier to appreciate, whilst the almost-eight-minute epic Jaguar God assumes new levels of grandeur in counterpart to its’ Emperor of Sand original in this form.
A quintet of live tracks culled from the band’s early-career material make up a large proportion of Medium Rarities, with Leviathan favourites Iron Tusk and Blood & Thunder, along with Blood Mountain’s Capillarian Crest, Circle of Cysquatch and Crystal Skull all individually serving as excellent reminders of the raw sonic power that MASTODON possess as a live entity. Circle of Cysquatch in particular should prove of interest to longtime listeners; the version here seeing the now almost 15-year-old track introduced as a “..brand new song…”, whilst thunderous renditions of longtime live set staples like Blood & Thunder and Iron Tusk showcase exactly why the prog-leaning titans have become so renowned.
Finally, several of the band’s standalone singles for various projects are compiled, ranging from their recent Game of Thrones collaboration, the fittingly medieval-styled White Walker; to their 2014 Adult Swim Singles Collection contribution, the utterly madcap Atlanta, guest featuring Gibby Haynes of BUTTHOLE SURFERS, which opens with a hilariously tongue-in-cheek film trailer type voiceover, before exploding off into a fuzzed-up rager of a song, eventually calling to mind the latter’s hookup with MINISTRY on Jesus Built My Hotrod decades prior as it hits the two-thirds mark and Haynes’ trademark vocal stylings filter in. Cut You Up with a Linoleum Knife meanwhile, the opening song from the soundtrack to 2007 animated film Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, manages to mix guttural lead vocals with some wonderfully cheesy almost Rob Halford-esque theatrical falsetto backing. It’s daft, yes, but just the right side of it, and a welcome reminder that MASTODON are more than capable of not only joking around, but still managing to craft genuinely excellent music when doing so.
Compilation releases such as this will arguably always be records targeted more towards the die-hard fanbase of a specific band, rather than more casual listeners, and Medium Rarities is certainly no exception to the rule. With the exception of Fallen Torches, much of what’s on offer here will likely only be of much interest to the most dedicated MASTODON fans, but that takes nothing away from the overwhelmingly strong levels of musical creativity and dexterity on display across its’ runtime. Packed to the brim with interesting cuts, Medium Rarities is yet another strong release from the MASTODON camp, and one that’ll serve those most dedicated of fans well until the time comes for their eighth studio opus proper.
Rating: 7/10
Medium Rarities is out now via Reprise Records.
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