i really came to love mastodon lately. at least their early stuff. their latest record 'once more 'round the sun' isn't really my cup of tea musically. but what they did at the beginning of their career is simply jaw-dropping. i loved their first two 7"es in the from of one handy 12" called 'call of the mastodon' and 'leviathan' is a damn scorcher of a record. so timely to the release of mastodon's new record, relapse comes around with another re-press of 'remission'.
'remission' is a great album. it is still very raw sound-wise, yet the songs are structual more sophisticated and, i have only one word to describe that, intense. brann dailor's drumming on this recording is absolutely stunning. these crazy snare rolls and relentless fills seem random, but are nothing but sheer accuracy and proof of most delicate musicianship. yeah, i go into raptures here... great album. still cannot believe i ignored them for such a long time.
on a very interesting side note, i read that the original cover artwork, which is shown on the dust sleeve of record one within this box set, goes back to the mentioned drummer brann dailor. it depicts a burning horse (before then i didn't even recognise that the animal was burning), which was involved in a dream about his sister. she commited suicide in the age of fourteen (dailor was fifteen at the time). with mastodon and his move to atlanta came personal healing. therefore the name of the album, remission (forgiveness).
on another interesting side note, the first four records of mastodon are loosely based on the cosmogenic theroy of the four elements - fire, water, earth and air. 'remission' stands for fire, 'leviathan' for water, 'blood mountain' for earth and finally 'crack the skye' for air. the box set consists of two oxblood coloured vinyl discs with an etching on the d-side, two individually designed dust sleeves, a huge booklet with all lyrics and artwork for every song and a lovely black box with gold ink. fantastic presentation! relapse records. 2002/2014.
