Live & Dangerous: Mastodon, Dillinger Escape Plan, Red Fang

Mastodon, Dillinger Escape Plan, Red Fang: 02 Academy Bristol

Red Fang

Start time 7:30 and four bearded men hit the stage you could be forgiven for thinking that this is the headliners but no this is Red Fang who do a great job of warming up the crowd with their sludge laden, groove filled stoner metal. They are much like Mastodon in both sound and appearance and this succeeds in winning over the partisan crowd; expect big things from these heavyweight groovers. 8/10

Dillinger Escape Plan

I consider myself a man of wide taste however I had to admit that a lot of Dillinger's set was 'just noise' yes the band can play in fact they are tight as several virgin's naughty bits but the combination of unintelligible lyrics and a distinct lack of songs meant that they weren't enjoyable for me at all. They seem to be a band unable to decide who or what they want to be which renders them much like their namesake's escape plan totally futile. 3/10

Mastodon

With the disappointment out of the way it was time for the so-called 'main event' with the Atlanta four piece taking the stage to the new and crushing Dry Bone Valley before hitting another new song with Black Tongue to many other bands this would be suicide playing two new tracks in a row however it's a testament to how good The Hunter is. More familiar territory was next with Crystal Skull followed by I Am Ahab. These tracks built up the atmosphere getting heavier and faster until the early explosion of Colony Of Birchmen and Megaladon brought the pace up. The night ebbed and flowed all night with heavy doom laden dirge followed by pacey slabs of riffage that all worked excellently together, other highlights were Spectrelight, the sing along Curl Of The Burl the proggy Crack The Skye and the main set ending triple threat of Iron Tusk, March Of The Fire Ants and Blood And Thunder. The band was all on top form with the dual leads of Brent and Bill chugging brilliantly and the engine room of Troy and Brann keeping everything heavily ticking over. The vocals of all the men were excellent and even the sound in the venue was pretty good. The one downside would be the management of the venue, this was vastly oversold which while good for the band and the business in general it was quite dangerous in places with far too many people and not enough room in an already badly designed venue. Not that the people cared when the band returned for their one song encore of the stadium sized The Creature Lives (sung with a little help from Red Fang and the crowd) there was a massive ovation for the band who had been on top form all night. A band that would never get old to see excellent. 9/10