MASTODON
Medium Rarities WARNER BROS
Heavy-prog masters celebrate 20 years with a rare rock morsels set.
Listening back to Mastodon’s 2002 debut album, Remission, it would be highly feasible for the then-shouty, frantic, sludgy four-piece to have collapsed under the weight of their own manic heaviosity early on in their career. Could they keep up the bug-eyed inventiveness and skull-crushing bludgeon of March Of The Fire Ants, or evolve it? Well, yes, they did. And 20 years on from their formation in Atlanta, Georgia, and after seven albums, one Grammy and zero line-up changes, here we are with a celebratory rarities, B-sides and live tracks compilation replacing a standard best-of (and stop-gapping a new album, proffered for 2021).