REMISSION

Remission is the debut album from one of the most highly praised metal bands in recent years Mastodon. Like other bands in the genre that lies between hardcore, metal and mathcore it´s taken me a long time to appreciate the music of Mastodon. I have borrowed both Remission, Leviathan and Blood Mountain more than once to see if I could enjoy the music but still didn´t get the idea behind the music. I couldn´t understand that Mastodon was held in such high regard but I guess the time I spend trying to figure out the charm of this band has paid of in the end, as I finally understand why Mastodon is as famous as they are.

The music on Remission is technical metal with lots of hardcore influences which is mostly heard in the vocals though. This is not tech metal like Atheist or Cynic but a more modern anarchistic version. What instantly struck me even when I didn´t like Mastodon´s music much is how great their drummer Brann Dailor is. What a fantastic musician. His drumming style is very busy and insanely fast. His playing is what truly makes Mastodon´s music excellent. Well besides Brann Dailor´s unique and brilliant playing style the music is also very good.

The album consists of two different kinds of songs. Songs like the opener Crusher Destroyer, Where Strides the Behemoth, Burning Man and Mother Puncher are fast and furious technical metal songs while songs like Ole' Nessie, Trainwreck and the beautiful Elephant Man are more heavy songs with acoustic parts. These songs are generally a bit more melodic too.

The musicians are very good and besides the outstanding Brann Dailor there are some great things being played here. Heavy and sharp guitar riffs, distorted hardcore like shouting vocals ( which is actually one of the few weak spots on the album) and a general angry atmosphere. The music is a bit more intricate than your usual metal album.

The production is kind of muddy and dirty but the drums are produced in a way that makes everything stand out anyway. This sound is very powerful.

Remission is an excellent album and even though there are weak spots on the album like the vocals I´ll rate Remission 4 stars. The fourth star is solely for Brann Dailor´s unique drum playing which I just can´t forget is so great.