Mastodon - Cold dark Place

Following from they’re latest album 'Emperor of Sand' which was released earlier this year Mastodon have released this four track EP. Billed just as four previously unreleased tracks. I’m not sure if this is tracks left over from the sessions of the last album, or just accumulated left overs but the four songs have a common theme. All four songs are mellow, trippy and dreamy. The sounds complements the artwork perfectly, the atmosphere. This album is perfect for a late night chill out, and the soundtrack for the upcoming winter season. Much like the 'Crack the Skye' album where the band went full on Prog, this album continues where they left off.

This time the band have focused on the mellow melodic side, of the Prog feel. It’s always interesting when a band takes one element of their overall sound, and focuses fully on it for on a particular release. The wacky weirdness still comes out in sections but predominantly we get soaring melodies and hooks, that give you that floating feeling that you get while listening to the mellow side of Black Sabbath. Whatever Stoner band you care to think of, mixed with Deftones in their 'White Pony' era. 'Toes to Toes' has a chorus that brings to mind Rush or even The Police, it has that catchy 80’s feel to it.

I hope they do a full album like this one day, but I think a more realistic hope would be they continue this experiment on a follow up EP. In the future I think Mastodon will do a similar thing, like Alice in Chains did with their acoustic EP’sm which they release between albums. This is a great release and Mastodon just continue to evolve with every thing they do. They are one of the most important bands in Metal, in recent times... regardless of genre that most people might put them in.

Review by Joe Denby