MASTODON, Dillinger Escape Plan, Red Fang @Brixton Acdemy 11/12/12

You know it’s been a good gig when Salt N Pepper’s 1980s pop nonsense “Push It” starts up as exit music and four thousand heavy metal fans join in. But such was the sheer unbridled enjoyment of the evening, which is exactly what happens as Mastodon finish their UK Tour in fine style tonight.

Rewind about three and a half hours and it falls to Oregon stoner mob Red Fang to kick things off – a job they do very, very well. Veterans of opening for Mastodon, you can see why they were chosen for the task. A heavy, riff led, groove based metal band with two vocalists, they plough the same furrow as the headliners and the sheer number of people who have made it to the Academy to see them shows they have made an impression.

Twin guitarists David Sullivan and Aaron Beam carry their half hour on the back of gargantuan riffs, amply showcased on the outstanding “Throw Up” and they are a very enticing proposition.

Dillinger Escape Plan – like Red Fang, friends of the headliners – are next up and they aren’t messing about. They don’t arrive on stage as much as charge at the crowd ready to attack before launching into “Panasonic Youth”. This rather sets the tone, as the five men race about, jumping off speakers, kicking things over and sliding around.

Which is all very well – and the crowd loves them – but for my money there is a little too much energy and too little focus on the songs. Singer Greg Puciato has an impressive range, soaring high notes and death metal grunts abound, but by the time they have dismantled what remained of their equipment during “43% Burnt” it was a rather unfocused 45 minutes.

Which brings us to Mastodon. RTM has a confession. I’ve seen Mastodon before – supporting Slayer and Metallica, but I never quite got the appeal. Even when my best mate (metaldonnie.blogspot.com) kept on and on about the “Crack The Skye” album being the best since Maiden stuck out  “A Matter Of Life And Death” I just sort of shrugged. Then last year the four piece from Atlanta released “The Hunter” and all of a sudden I understood what the fuss was about.

A slice of proggy-stoner brilliance, it won album of the year in the three metal magazines I buy and is the reason I am making my first trip to the Brixton Academy to see them (the Dream Theater gig clashed with their Birmingham show and I was at a sporting event in the capital earlier that day).

Starting off with “Dry Bone Valley” – one of nine “…Hunter” tracks aired during in a 90-minute set – they add enormous album opener “Black Tongue” to the mix next up before mining their back catalogue for “Crystal Skull” and “I Am Ahab.”

Not the most effusive of men, it is the songs that shine tonight. The vocal interplay between guitarists Bill Kelliher and Brant Hinds and Bassist Troy Sanders makes for an intriguing prospect, and if the chat is kept to a minimum, the same is not true of the light show, which would put many an arena rock band to shame. The sound too, is magnificent, which allows the guitar intricacies to really come to the forefront.

A career- spanning set ends with a raucous “March of the Fire Ants” before all three bands are back on stage, balloons are let off and “creature Lives” becomes one part jam and two parts celebration.

And with good reason, tonight’s show – which was being filmed – was, as drummer Brann Dailor explains at the end, Mastodon’s biggest ever headlining show – and they more than delivered. In my case, tonight, the band was preaching to the (newly) converted.

Cue Salt and Pepper…. after three….“Push it Real good.”