Live Review: Mastodon/Kvelertak/Mutoid Man at the O2 Guildhall, Southampton

Photo by Jimmy Hubbard

The first show of the year is always a big one. In 2018, it was The Menzingers and PUP in Bristol, and the year before that was the last Dillinger Escape Plan show I ever saw, so I’ve had a pretty good run of year-opening gigs for the last couple at least. This year (spoiler alert) carried on that winning streak.

I’ve wanted to see Mastodon live since I was fourteen, so when I heard that they were coming to Southampton and playing a show with two more fantastic bands, it was essentially a no-brainer. 

The opening support for this tour were Mutoid Man (8/10), and honestly it’s rare to find such a perfectly booked opener. Bringing 1000BPM non-stop crossover thrash with just a dash of prog rock, Mutoid Man were all round just solidly entertaining, and certainly did their job in getting the crowd warmed up for the other two acts. Though it’s a shame that Ben Koller was forced to skip out this tour due to an injury, his replacement in the form of Chris Maggio (of Wear Your Wounds and Trap Them) filled his massive shoes pretty impressively.  

Whilst each member’s individual performances were undeniably impressive, the thing I found most enjoyable about the trio’s set was the almost Spinal-Tap-esque levels of unadulterated METAL that they brought to the table. Between flipping each other off in the middle of various songs, sending drumsticks flying with a solo, and frontman Stephen Brodsky’s banter with the audience (“This is a slow one, so grab your partner… BY THE NECK”), their set had me laughing just as much as headbanging.

Next up were Norwegian  legends Kvelertak (6.5/10), who overall I thought were pretty solid. Their brand of classic-rock influenced metal is unique, and their stage presence is undeniable even without the owl mask of years past. There were only two issues for me during their set on Thursday, and they were:

1. One of the guitar tones was like a cross between the sound of a shell being held to your ear on a beach and the sound you get when you shake an empty Pringles can. 
2. A couple of their songs managed to make five minutes feel like two hours. The outro to 1985 is just endless, endless “chug-chug-chug-chug-chug-chug-chug”.

But of course, both points are pretty minor; I couldn’t even hear that particular guitar tone with my ear protection in, and the other songs in their set made up for the weaker ones. I will stand by the fact that every song ever could sound like Blodtørst and I’d be a happy man.

Finally, we’re onto the main event, and I’d like to start off by saying that opening with Iron Tusk and March of the Fire Ants should be illegal with the amount of hype it caused. Mastodon (9/10) were on absolute top form on Thursday night, so much so that I was almost glad I hadn’t seen them before - it was a perfect experience to start with. The 20-song setlist spanned every album and took deep cuts from them all (I wasn’t familiar with a good number of songs they played), a choice which served to prove that the band haven’t really ever released a bad LP. For me, the undeniable highlights were from Leviathan, and in particular I wasn’t quite ready for how much I Am Ahab was gonna blow me away. What made the songs even more powerful were the striking visuals projected onto long vertical screens behind the band, ranging throughout the show from trippy wormhole-like spirals to images of starry constellations.

Each member of Mastodon brings something different to the experience, and in their own way makes the band better as a whole, but Brann Dailor in particular was something to behold in a live environment. The band seemed to have chosen a set consisting of the most taxing songs a drummer could perform and Dailor rattled through them all like nobodies’ business, making tracks like Capillarian Crest and Ghost of Karelia (which were played back to back, by the way) look easy. Scott Kelly’s role, too, in the latter portion of the set, was an impressive performance by one of metal’s most powerful voices.

So, in conclusion, go and see Mastodon on this tour. Especially if you’re a hardcore fan, and want to see some of the songs they wouldn’t typically play – you cannot physically leave the building disappointed after a show like this.