Live at the Aragon (CD/DVD) [Live, CD+DVD]

For fans of Mastodon this DVD will surely be a delight. Finally, a pro shot DVD of an entire concert is available, with full quality sound and editing. This is something fans have been eagerly awaiting for a long time now.

Mastodon's Previous DVD The Workhorse Chronicles featured a wealth of live content from various periods in their career but none on the scale and of the quality available here, its great to see the band on a large stage absolutely in control, fully confident and completely delivering on every promise their music made from as far back as the Lifesblood EP, this DVD is a perfect culmination of the hard work and dedication documented on their previous DVD and shows a band deservedly fulfilling their potential.

On the subject of track listing, the band opens with the entire Crack The Skye album and follows up with a selection of heavier numbers gathered from all their studio albums to date. The tracks in question are "Circle Of Cysquatch," "Aqua Dementia," "Where Strides The Behemoth," and "Mother Puncher," before closing with the Melvins cover "The Bit."

The track listing may not be to your particular tastes as many key songs such as `Blood and Thunder,' `March of the Fire Ants' and `Sleeping Giant,' are absent but do not let this hamper your enjoyment of the set.

In terms of performance the band are on fire, delivering the complex and proggier music form Crack The Skye, supplemented by keyboard player Derek Mitchka with the same power and authority they put into the heavier and more furious material from Remission and Leviathan, Troy even does a formidable Scott Kelly impression on the tracks `Crack The Skye,' and `Aqua Dementia.'

The band's playing is of superb quality and importantly, the vocals are very good live. If you saw the Mastodon segment of the Unholy Alliance DVD and thought that the vocals were poor live then know that no such issue exists on this recording, everyone is on top form and with drummer Brann Dailor joining in for much more than just his allotted section on `Oblivion.'.

A concert performed well musically, even in situations of excellent staging and lighting is nothing if the camerawork, editing, picture and sound are poor quality. Rest assured that Live At The Aragon is of very high quality in all four departments and that no issues on any account can be fairly levelled against it.

As is the custom nowadays, you also get the concert on CD to enjoy in the car or rip to you mp3 player so you aren't tethered to a television if you want to hear it.

In addition, the DVD features a strong and interesting feature called Crack The Skye the movie, which is not a documentary as you may expect, but in fact an extended music video of very high quality that the band performed in front of while on stage. Not a reason in itself to get the set but a welcome extra.

Finally to the smallest details; The box, DVD menus and booklet artwork are all in fitting with the ever present Mastodon style, although without the trademark gold coloured spine, this time the spine is black with gold text, although that will help separate the fact that it is primarily a DVD I suppose.

Overall I highly recommend this DVD. Put simply, if you like Mastodon, you'll like this.

Mastodon are, to be honest, a band that has only won me over recently. Unfortunately, it took me years to seperate them from the many craptastic bands which are loosely grouped together under the banner of "New Wave of American Heavy Metal." When I picked up last year's "Crack The Skye"-- an album about wormholes, imperialist Russia and the suicide of drummer Brann Dailor's 14 year old sister Skye (to name a few things)-- I realized I'd cheated them. Mastodon have got something going on here. Really, Mastodon are what metal-- no, music-- is all about, warts and all.

Let me explain that to you, my now-oh-so-skeptical reader. Mastodon is not just as metal as we get, but Mastodon is the "tradition of metal." Or at least their last album, "Crack the Skye," was. Take the doomy, occult-laden atmosphere of Black Sabbath, combine it with Iron Maiden's penchant for the 'fine-arts' of literature and drama, Motorhead's realness and grit, Dream Theater's willingness to turn what the genre of 'metal' can actually mean on its head and, finally, a contemporary sound that only a modern band can offer and you have Mastodon. If you love metal, I don't understand why you wouldn't like this band, unless you're one of those purist guys who care more about clinging to stylistic carrion than you do about appreciating music.

Anyway, "Live at Aragon" is a necessity for Mastodon devoutees and a good point of departure for new fans. It includes a full live version of what I consider to be their latest and greatest, as well as a handful of older classics from their sludgier roots.

A quick word about the vocals, which have been a frequent subject of complaint about this live-set. As I said above, this is metal, "warts and all." Before singers like Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson were mythologized and every metal band had to have an awesome, allegedly "classically trained" vocalist, things were a lot rougher around the edges. With Mastodon, you get three less-than-stellar voices:

There's the bassist, who's got a really cool yelp but consistently fails to hit the high-notes. Then you have the drummer, who's got a great machine-like Maynard Keenan impression going. He's the most on-key, but he sings relatively few parts and his voice doesn't really have much character. Finally, there's the guitarist. His voice has the most character, but is the hardest to swallow, but getting used to it is worth the endeavor. His high-pitched quivering slurs genuinely sound like the voice of someone who's just woken up from of one-too-many mescaline-inspired "vision-quests"-- it's got an ancient, shamanistic quality to it. These three, when singing alone, do sound a bit weak. But when they harmonize together, it creates this awesome semi-discordant chorus that is just way too cool and has way too much character to resist.

And that, my friends, is Mastodon. The whole is indeed greater than the sum of its parts. For $15, this DVD/CD live set is a steal. Check it out, especially if you don't know anything about Mastodon already.

HUGE Mastodon fan here. This live recording is appalling. The sound quality is very poor, the vocals are weak & often off-key, and perhaps for that reason mixed incredibly low. Musical performances are respectable but very low energy. Be forewarned: not worth the investment.