Remission (2002)

Artist: Mastodon
Release Year: 2002

Rating: 8/10

Track Listing: 1) Crusher Destroyer; 2) March of the Fire Ants; 3) Where Strides the Behemoth; 4) Workhorse; 5) Ol'e Nessie; 6) Burning Man; 7) Trainwreck; 8) Trampled Under Hoof; 9) Trilobite; 10) Mother Puncher; 11) Elephant Man.

Here it is, the CD that was my official gateway into everything heavier than Metallica.  Right from the opening T. rex roar, we're thrown into a current of murderous rage, and I'd have it no other way.  

Listen to that guitar solo in "Crusher Destroyer" and tell me there's no animalistic madness behind it.  Yes, there's the appropriately primal fury throughout this album, as if we're awakened something even more ancient and lethal than the band's namesake.  Just listen to that electrifying riff that opens up "Mother Puncher" for a perfect example.  Not every band can manage this sort of aesthetic without being tongue-in-cheek, or without it coming off as laughably phony, but Mastodon do so handily.

Naturally, there are brutal, pulverizing sludge-metal torrents in "Where Strides the Behemoth", "Burning Man", and "Trampled Under Hoof", and while there's little variety between those, I say that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.  "Behemoth" is my favorite, though it's hard to decide whether that's because of the bludgeoning rage of each vocal line, or the scrabbling, drilling riff, or the suffocating drum breakdown, or just because it was the first Mastodon song I ever heard.  

And it's clear that Mastodon had prog inclinations right out of the gate-- just listen to the relentless time changes in "March of the Fire Ants", which you may not even notice if you're too busy being beaten over the head with filthy, growling riffs and images of terrestrial decay.  "Workhorse" does sort of the same thing, but this is where you hear the closest representation of the flayed, screaming horse on the album cover.  

There are quieter moments too, and while none of them annoy me, some stretches feel like they were inserted as contrast against the heavier bulk, rather than to serve a distinct purpose on their own.  It's fine when "Ol'e Nessie" gives us a meandering breather before launching into the heavier half, but when  "Trainwreck" and "Trilobite" do the same thing over, the trick loses its impact when the dizzying, paranoid chaos returns again.  Maybe this is the one area where the album loses just a bit of praise, because the couplets of tracks 5-6, 7-8, and 9-10 all feel pretty similar in that regard.

Then the album closes with a desolate, brooding instrumental in "Elephant Man", which contains an extended guitar solo that seems equal parts angry, painful, and just exhausted by existence.  Again, the prog comes in, but only as a side effect of what's already being presented-- just like the way the heaviness seems to arise.

That's right: very little of this sounds like it was deliberately written to be edgy or heavy or anything like that-- it just is.  While I have no trouble envisioning people moshing or headbanging to this, it seems like the heaviness was an incidental characteristic of the music rather than a predetermined template for it, and that's important.  This album proves that Mastodon had the impeccable sense of groove down right from the beginning.  That's what first drew me in, and that's what keeps me around even today.