Mastodon – Medium Rarities (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

When Mastodon invite you to go deep, you best bring an extra supply of oxygen. Given the place the Atlanta behemoth came from, a primeval, subterranean metal underworld, the prospect of plummeting even further within is almost enough to bring on a dose of the bends.

Since their emergence at the start of the century, Mastodon have shown that brain-twisting heaviness doesn’t have to be dull-edged, and that it can even be a thing of spinning delight. This oddball compilation brings together rarities, covers and live tracks from throughout their career. And rather than adhering to anything so obvious as chronology it becomes a seemingly random, yet highly effective, stampede – but that’s Mastodon to the core.

Most fans will have heard Fallen Torches, the album’s sole new recording and a heroic attempt to salvage 2020 via monolithic riffs and an outro thunderous enough to crack planets. It features guest vocals from Neurosis’ Scott Kelly plus a rocket of a chorus sung by multi-talented drummer Brann Dailor, still the only member of Mastodon you could introduce to your mum. Then the hirsute quartet chuck us into A Commotion, one half of an unlikely split single they shared with Canadian indie singer Feist in 2012 (she covered Black Tongue, equally inconceivably). Mastodon inject the relatively spindly original with a sinister punk metal edge that’s off kilter and immediate at the same time.

Tracklist:
1. Mastodon – Fallen Torches (04:22)
2. Mastodon – A Commotion (04:14)
3. Mastodon – Asleep in the Deep (Instrumental) (06:12)
4. Mastodon – Capillarian Crest (Live) (04:20)
5. Mastodon – A Spoonful Weighs a Ton (03:27)
6. Mastodon – Toe to Toes (Instrumental) (04:28)
7. Mastodon – Circle of Cysquatch (Live) (03:15)
8. Mastodon – Atlanta (feat. Gibby Haynes) (03:25)
9. Mastodon – Jaguar God (Instrumental) (07:55)
10. Mastodon – Cut You Up with a Linoleum Knife (from the “Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters Colon the Soundtrack”) (01:50)
11. Mastodon – Blood & Thunder (Live) (03:52)
12. Mastodon – White Walker (04:20)
13. Mastodon – Halloween (Instrumental) (04:38)
14. Mastodon – Crystal Skull (Live) (03:25)
15. Mastodon – Orion (08:15)
16. Mastodon – Iron Tusk (Live) (02:48)