it's been a busy week and i didn't find any time to write something. but the weekend came to my rescue and now i'm finally able to spend some time with my obsession, music and records. speaking of... i'm in a metal state of mind lately. i don't know how it happened but i stumbled upon a band, that is far from unkown - mastodon. yeah, again a party which i'm fairly late to. of course i've seen their album covers everywhere, of course i've seen them on plenty alternative magazine covers and of course i knew they were the big deal. but somehow i managed to ignore them and never listen to any song. i think it happened as i looked through the relapse internet shop and came across a nice looking version of mastodon's sophomore record "leviathan".
i listened to some songs and thought, man, what the fucking hell?! how it has been possible to overlook this revelation. i immediately fell in love with this unbelievable drumming. those relentless snare rolls, fantastic. i ordered it directly from the states and momentarily i wait for it to arrive. "what has this to do with the record the picture shows?", you might ask. good question. "everything!", is the answer. without this incident i wouldn't have checked the mastodon section at my favourite physical store, burnout store in hamburg, and picked up this little gem. "call of the mastodon" is a compilation 12" that consists of their "slick leg" 7" and "lifesblood" 7", both from 2001.
relapse put this together in 2006, obviously to make some money with a last release before the band moved to warner/reprise records. the songs on display here are pretty amazing. an early and more raw and heavy version of their style. i love how they mix their kind of doom/stoner metal with hardcore and how this sounds absolutely cracking. check out "deep sea creature" and the superb "call of the mastodon", which was previously unreleased. i picked up a recent repress on lovely ultra clear w/ blue and gold splatter vinyl out of 1000 copies. for a more detailed pressing information of all the pressings, check out discogs. recently relapse re-pressed "remission" in a lovely box-set. check that! a bit pricey but looks awesome. already put my pre-order in. relapse records. 2006/2014.
