Mastodon, O2 Academy, Birmingham - review with pictures

They played a sold out Wolverhampton Civic Hall (when that fine old place was still a functioning venue) back in December 2017, and despite a family tragedy forcing them to postpone an autumn trek around North America, they are never off the road for long.

Or as one cynic tells me tonight, their return for 'part two' of the Emperor of Sand tour could just be an attempt to cash in on merch sales before the serious business of preparing album number eight.

Hoodies are £70, t-shirts £30... don't like, don't buy.

While they are indeed still touring off the back of that aforementioned monster of a record, tonight's Birmingham show brings something entirely different – and incredibly significant – to the table.

It comes in the form of Neurosis' Scott Kelly, who first guested on a Mastodon song on 2004's Leviathan album and has repeated the trick on every record since.

Neurosis have been a major influence on Mastodon, as well as practically every other heavy band that has formed in the last two decades, including the likes of Isis, Yob and Pelican.

At times the collective adoration for Neurosis among Mastodon's ranks is so high that they almost seem starstruck when talking about them during interviews.

While Kelly has played live with them in the past, this tour sees him take the stage at the back end of the set for the rare treat of all six Mastodon/Kelly collabs.

Mastodon appeared after the trademark Singin' In The Rain intro, and launched straight into a tripe salvo of Iron Tusk, March of the Fire Ants and Motherpuncher, a trio of hard-hitters from the first two albums that cemented Mastodon's reputation as 'the thinking man's metal band'.

The beauty of Mastodon's swift return to the touring circuit is that we get to hear tracks like these that had dropped off the setlist last time around.

Ditto for Sleeping Giant from Blood Mountain and the prog-tastic Ghost of Karelia from Crack The Skye. The stadium rock ready Toe To Toes from last year's Cold Dark Place EP is another welcome addition to the set.

On tracks like this Bill Kelliher, Troy Sanders, Brent Hines, and Brann Dailor sound crystal clear, but this is a technical band of musos that never forgot about the importance of writing catchy songs.

The light show has long been an important part of Mastodon's set, and as the size of the venues they play has increased, so has the quality of the all round production.

During Capillarian Crest we get lime green strobes jetting out from the stage against a backdrop of a skull caving in on itself. It's almost overwhelming.

After the last anthemic strains of Ancient Kingdom have left Sanders' throat, Kelly is introduced to wild cheers from the sizeable O2 crowd and the now-quintet blast through the slab of concrete that is Scorpion Breath.

Kelly's contributions to Mastodon albums tend to provide some of those records most emotional – and most beautiful – parts. Ergo, this was probably the heaviest Mastodon have been since they toured Leviathan 14 years ago.

Aqua Dementia, the track Sanders' once described as "the springboard" to the Mastodon/Kelly connection, is suffocatingly intense, the Neurosis man straining every sinew as he screams: "Releasing souls..."

It leads straight into the title track from Crack The Skye, a song Dailor penned as a homage to his sister, which Kelly has called his heaviest musical moment outside of Neurosis.

It's pure beauty in volume, leaving the majority of the crowd completely in awe.

By the time final offering Blood and Thunder has been laid to rest – and Dailor has delivered his always bizarre closing speech – few of them can be in any doubt that we have just witnessed something very special.

As Mastodon depart the stage, I'm sure I'm not the only one left pondering the greatness of a full album of Mastodon/Kelly collaborations.

They can't return soon enough.