Mastodon, Brixton Academy, London

©Redferns

Mastodon's Brent Hinds in full flow

It’s onwards and upwards for Mastodon. The Atlanta heavy metal band cracked the US top 10 with their latest album and were nominated for this year’s Grammy for Best Metal/Hard Rock Performance, for a song that opens with the words: “I killed a man because he killed my goat” – a line that surely deserves a Grammy award of its own. Best Use of the Theme of Vengeance in a Metal/Hard Rock Song, perhaps.

Their show at the 5,000-capacity Brixton Academy was their largest headline appearance to date. The quartet celebrated with an intense display of heavy music. Guitar riffs glowered, songs ground out dark grooves and the drums rat-tat-tatted with machine-gun ferocity. The band didn’t speak a word between songs.

Their name comes from a prehistoric elephant-style creature that lived off wetland vegetation. The foursome on stage looked as if they lived off raw steaks and that their natural habitat was the tattoo parlour. Songs ended with guitars being held above heads like primitive trophies. There was much head-banging. Yet they also showed impressive technique. Three sets of hands marched up and down the necks of guitars in sync as songs executed tricky tempo changes. Brann Dailor’s drumming was breathtakingly powerful. Led Zeppelin’s sprawling ambitiousness was successfully allied to Metallica’s focused brutality.

They opened with “Dry Bone Valley” from their new album The Hunter. Guitarist Brent Hinds sang it, his voice an awed stoner-rock drawl. Bass player Troy Sanders took over the vocals on other songs, such as “I Am Ahab” from their Moby-Dick-inspired album Leviathan. His style was a gruff death-metal roar.

Like the contrasting vocalists, the music also varied in tone, albeit within a murky range of shades. “Ghost of Karelia” was twisty and psychedelic, while “Blood and Thunder” was heads-down thrash with crushing choruses. They encored with The Hunter’s “Creature Lives”, played with members of the two support acts. Unusually mellow guitars and the expansion of personnel acted like a feeling of release, as if some cathartic event were over. Finally Mastodon addressed themselves to the audience, the drummer revealing himself to be not the unhinged maniac his drumming style suggested but an affable American thanking us for our support.

www.mastodonrocks.com