EP Review

Mastodon - Cold Dark Place

What a year its been for Mastodon fans. First, a new album, not just any album but a frankly offensively good album in 'Emperor of Sand', secondly, spying them in walk on roles in Game of Thrones, somehow their presence making the epic show even better, and now, a new EP to take us into the cold months ahead. Winter is coming after all.

The EP features four songs, three of which ('North Side Star', 'Blue Walsh' and 'Cold Dark Place') were recorded during the sessions for the 2014 album 'Once More Round the Sun', and the other ('Toe to Toes') was recorded during the aforementioned album 'Emperor of Sand'. This EP being the fifth the band has released, all of which being welcome bonus' for all fans.

The EP opens with the Led Zepplin sounding 'North Side Star', all acoustic guitar and familiar vocals building up to a classic sounding Mastodon riff and guitar solos after four minutes, taking the song up into a different stratospheric plane altogether, the sheer musicianship of this band never ceases to amaze, and before you know it, the 6 minutes are up, and you're straight into 'Blue Walsh'. The second track on here is a floaty, wavey collection of harmonies and guitars pulling you around the stratosphere the first track took you to, before smashing you back down to the planet below with a driving, forceful ending, still holding you in its melodic arms, a frighteningly controlled expression of power and subtlety.

'Toe to Toes' features the first truly heavy moments of the album, an opening riff which Robert Johnson which have sold more than his sole for at the crossroads, this is four minutes of Mastodon flexing their muscles and showing that they really are one of the most riveting bands around. The final song is the title track 'Cold Dark Place' and is six minutes of introspection and consideration of the journey the band have taken you on, building up to the final minute of the EP, exploding into a cataclysmic guitar solo, before its over. Just as suddenly as it started. 21 minutes of perfection, Mastodon manage to create more ideas and emotion into a four track EP that some bands do in a career. 

This EP is a prime example of exactly where this band are right now, everything they touch turns to prog-tastic gold, and all we can ask from them is to come back soon, because every new release makes them more vital to the alternative music scene.

KC

9/10

Top Tracks - All of them

New Shit

Cannibal Corpse - Code of the Slashers

Well smack my ass and call me Ace Ventura, if it isn't time for band spanking new material from everyone's favourite gore obsessed Death Metal band.

Cannibal Corpse have unleashed this new little ditty on us which is from the upcoming album 'Red Before Black' out November 3rd on Metal Blade.

The song is exactly what you want and expect from the titans of Death Metal, and if it sounded anything different to what we were expecting, there would be uproar, a perfect Cannibal Corpse song to get us all wet for the upcoming tour to support the album. Bring on the album, the tour and the gore!

Listen and watch the fantastic video here

Prophets of Rage - Prophets of Rage

The biggest travesty from the demise of Rage Against the Machine wasn't the loss of one of the most incendiary rock bands in the world, it wasn't that a great band had stopped just as they were getting into their stride, denying the world the great music they were going to create and it wasn't that we weren't going to get more Tim Commerford antics on MTV, only being broadcast live over Twitter rather than a week later in the latest episode of Kerrang! It's that ever since RATM left stage right, the world has become an increasingly bizarre political fuck up. Just imagine what we would be getting from them in this post-Brexit Donald Trump led caricature of thoughtful political ideas hell hole which is currently dissolving the walls of humanity around us. They stood naked in protest or the PMRC at Lollapalooza, they would be doing unspeakable things with carrots to effigies of the carrot faced POTUS today if they were still around.

So the news that we are getting three members of RATM back writing was exciting (bassist Tom Commerfold, guitarist Tom Morello, and drummer Brad Wilk), adding in two members of Public Enemy (DJ Lord and rapper Chuck D), and a member of Cypress Hill (rapper B-Real) meant that this is a debut with a touch more interest surrounding it than you usually see reserved for rap-rock groups these days. Even the omission of RATM rapper Zack De La Rock doesn't dampen the spirits too much, as great as he is, Chuck D is one of the greatest rappers to ever live, and they surely have plenty of material to fire up the embers of insurrection in all of us in the current political landscape.

'Prophets of Rage' is certainly an album with a lot to say, and the opening salvo of 'Radical Eyes' and 'Unfuck the World' gives you a large part of that message immediately. An irreverent approach to the subject matter featured in most of modern society, and a focus on discussing poverty, fascism and the fallout of war rather than the war itself, the opening tracks give you exactly what this band are about. Riffs which immediately bring home memories of teenage days first discovering RATM, the usual aberrant guitar tones which could only come from Mr Morello, outstanding bass lines and riffs from the standout performer on the album Mr Commerford and impressive dual rapping which works as well as anything Zack De La Rock could provide to these tracks. 'Legalize Me' is an ode to exactly what you imagine, a funky little catchy rocker, but it does feel like a swift change from what the previous tracks were exploring and seems to distract the listener from the flow of the album.

We move onto a song which was released prior to the album coming out in 'Living on the 110', which takes us back to a socially conscious mindset with the lyrics "There's no end to the poverty, stopping me. You pretend there's democracy, hypocrisy" with more of the same riffs and unusual guitar tones, its like 'Legalize Me' never happened and were back into the same protest march as the opening tracks. 'The Counteroffensive' is a 30 second intermission which leads us into 'Hail to the Chief'', the best track on the album, the catchiest riffs, a shout-along chorus, and ample amounts of groove take us into the Spanish guitar beginning 'Take Me Higher', a fuck rock song which sounds like its been taken right from an early Red Hot Chilli Peppers album.

B-Real puts in his best performance on the album on the next track 'Strength in Numbers', another song following the sounds-like-a-rage-song plan, 'Fired a Shot' sounds exactly like it was lifted from 'The Battle of LA', which certainly isn't a bad thing and 'Who Owns Who' is another one showing a deep concern for social consciousness, much more of a rocker than some of the other songs on the album providing some much needed depth and diversity to the album.

The last songs on the album end like the album starter, giving all RATM fans a healthy dose of what they came to this album for, classic guitar and bass melodies which you would expect from the musicians involved, a little bit of almost gang vocals on 'Hands Up' followed by 'Smashit', one of the highlights of the album, opening with an outstanding riff which makes you want to pick up an instrument to try and play it and a fist in the air chorus, a great ending to the album.

Overall, this is a good album, a very good one for a debut for a band, however this isn't just a band, this is much more and the sum of the parts on this album sometimes feels like it isn't quite reaching the height we all hoped. That could be because expectations from many people are too high for a bands first album, but this does end up feeling like a band who know what they want to do, but haven't quite found the magic which made Rage Against the Machine such a wonderful band.

If you come to this because you miss RATM and have been desperate for them to get back together, its a wonderful nicotine patch to ease your craving, but afterwards, you may just ed up wanting RATM to get back together even more.

7/10

KC

Top Tracks - 'Unfuck the World', 'Hail to the Chief', 'Smashit'