Well folks, here it is: My interview with Mastodon (drummer Brann Dailor), 22 years in the waiting since I first saw them perform at the Knitting Factory on February 20, 2024, many months before the release of their second album, Leviathan. Not only is this feature probably my biggest story of the year, it’s kind of the ultimate Bad Penny read, as Dailor shares anecdotes involving many of my all-time favorite musicians: Dave Grohl, Randy Blythe and Lamb of God, System of a Down and more.
(I don’t typically break the third wall on The Bad Penny, because my grandmother taught me it was rude to use the word “I,” it creates distance with the reader, and the goal of this website is to focus on bands and not a hack journalist like me. But in this instance, as Mastodon are responsible for deeply enriching my love of heavy music – and because I don’t want to suggest the opinion I’m about to set forth is held by anyone other than myself – I’m breaking my rule.)
Mastodon are the most important heavy band of the 21st century. (Queens of the Stone Age ceded the throne with their softer, but no less righteous, “Matador trilogy.”) When I first saw them in concert – at Knitting Factory Hollywood in February 2004, in support of their Remission debut – the 300-person venue seemed on the verge of spontaneous combustion during their entire set. There was no need – or ability – to cut a rug; the floor was shaking with such force that those of us who didn’t intend to jump up and down in place didn’t have the option to do so.
Billed as “a futuristic synth-rock odyssey set five billion years in the future, in a world where gravity no longer holds us down — literally or metaphorically — but pulsing with the urgency of now,” Arcadea set the bar a little too high with The Exodus of Gravity. It would seem that the band put more thought into the conceptual sci-fi story they concocted, which alone isn’t enough to buoy the record. Read my Treblereview.
Mastodon are kings of the mountain right now. If their clip for “Divinations” were a trailer for some “Thing”-like gritty Arctic-meets-outer-space sci-fi flick, I’d have already bought my ticket. That the bandmembers stepped into their acting shoes for the video is fitting, as everybody in the group has a “voice” – all the guys are contributing vocals. …
While that video might be reason alone to pray for “Headbangers Ball” to survive, the reality is late March’s two-hour episode had at best a half-dozen worthy videos (including Mastodon’s “Divinations,” Lamb of God‘s “Set to Fail,” Cannibal Corpse‘s “Evisceration Plague,” Exodus‘ “Riot Act” and Cattle Decapitation‘s “Regret & the Grave”).
So let’s do the math: That adds up to about 20 minutes of good viewing time over the course of two hours. The rest of the time is devoted to giving life support to bad informercials and bands like Hed P.E. (vanity spellings deliberately omitted ’cause they suck) and Dope and Lizzy Borden and …
Earlier this month, Richmond, Virginia’s Pyramid Mass dipped a ladle into their cauldron of blackened sludge, progressive metal, thrash, black metal, hardcore, avant-garde—Jesus, need we go on?—and poured a heaping helping of their lethal stew into a bowl beautifully named Gargling Rot. The wretched EP, issued by Ossien Records, contains five songs that would make for great house music in Guantánamo Bay. In other words, it’s killer.
Mastered by the legendary James Plotkin of Khanate, Gargling Rot is the chaser to 2023’s Monolith, the debut by the band consisting of Matt Wild (drums/vocals), Nick Crider (guitar/vocals) and Joey Anderson (bass/vocals/synth). The EP commands strict attention from start to finish, even though no matter how hard you concentrate on what Pyramid Mass are doing, you won’t be able to make sense of it. What better way to guarantee repeat spins of a record.
Band patches, stickers and pins are so yesteryear. Check out artist merchandise running the gamut from the hilarious to the bizarre in my latest FLOOD feature.
Metallica, the biggest metal band ever; and Mastodon, one of the best metal bands of this century, share a lot in common.
For starters, Mastodon started publicly crediting Metallica as major influence shortly after the Atlanta crew became a band in 2000. Six years later, Mastodon covered Metallica’s instrumental classic “Orion” for a tribute album tied to the 20th anniversary celebration of Metallica’s Master of Puppets.
James, Lars and the gang returned the favor a couple of years after that. The thrash gods gave the Atlanta sludge-rockers a huge break by crowning them as the openers for two of Metallica’s European tours. For good measure, 2009’s Guitar Hero: Metallica featured Mastodon’s “Blood and Thunder” as one of its playable tracks.
But the common bonds don’t stop there. There’s a truly uncanny coincidence in two songs by the metal bands, both of which deserve to sit on the Iron Throne. The numbers will be familiar to fans: “Welcome Home (Sanitarium),” from Metallica’s best (or second-best) record, 1986’s Master of Puppets; and “Megalodon,” a gem of a track from Mastodon’s breakthrough record, 2004’s Leviathan.
If you’re a) Going to Psycho Las Vegas 2022; b) Wanna witness a guaranteed, badass rock and roll set; and c) Need to bathe yourself in melodious singing after too many hours of screaming vocals … well, make it a point to see ASG on Sunday (August 21).
Hailing from Wilmington, North Carolina, the lovable-but-lethal Psycho vets deliver about as reliably righteous a show as they come. Thanks to tautly written songs that drill into the brain like the Bugs in Starship Troopers, the Relapse Records band never disappoints.
That’s not to say ASG haven’t faced their fair share of hardships, however. The Bad Penny caught up with frontman Jason Shi on Thursday, and he opened up about some of them. Oh, and his love of Blind Melon, too.
The Bad Penny (beta) 