The Slick Call Of Lifesblood

The first two discs I'm reviewing is the Slick Leg 7" EP and the Lifesblood EP.

Together both these EP's have been re-released and remastered as a collection known as Call Of The Mastodon. Which is now seen as the first album by the band.

A lot of the songs on both Lifesblood EP and the Slick Leg EP consist of intros taken from various underground movies. On neither of these releases will you find the song Call Of The Mastodon, which can only be found on their 9-track Demo and the release with the same title, Call Of The Mastodon.

Small differences appear on the album covers like the spelling of the song title 'Slickleg', which is spelt differently to that of the actual Slick Leg 7" EP's. Plus to the naked ear all of the mentioned releases will sound exactly the same, but the latter (Call Of The Mastodon) has more crisp and clear remastered sound and all the intros got stripped from the songs.

The Call Of The Mastodon collection of songs got remixed and remastered by Matt Washburn whom originally produced and recorded the songs for their individual EP releases. So I see it as only fitting that he should be the man behind the mixing desk when it comes to cleaning up these tracks.

The sound on all these songs is a much more aggressive approach to that of Mastodon's later releases. Here you can find Brent and Troy (even Brann at times) doing more screaming, shouting and growling than any other album. It is a great lead into their first full-length album, Remission.

Slick Leg 7" EP

The third pressing of the Slick Leg 7" EP on picture disc (limited to 2000)

1. Slick Leg
2. Thank You For This (contains intro sample)
3. Deep Sea Creature (contains intro sample)
   

Lifesblood EP

The second pressing of the Lifesblood EP on blue vinyl (limited to 500)


The vinyl- and CD version of the Lifesblood EP with different covers

1. Shadows That Move (contains intro sample)
2. Welcoming War
3. We Built This Come Death (contains intro sample)
4. Hail To Fire (contains intro sample)
5. Battle At Sea (contains intro sample)
   

Call Of The Mastodon

The first pressing of Call Of The Mastodon on black vinyl (limited to 900)

1. Shadows That Move
2. Welcoming War
3. Thank You For This
4. We Built This Come Death
5. Hail To Fire
6. Battle At Sea
7. Deep Sea Creature
8. Slickleg
9. Call Of The Mastodon

All these albums have a more aggressive and almost math metal approach on the Mastodon sound. Mixing in melodic acoustic metal parts that worked very well for the band on later releases. Seeing as these songs first got recorded as demos and then recorded for the EP releases it almost feels like these are the baby steps that Mastodon had to take to get to the sound they wanted.

I think they definitely found the right band mix and perfected it on Remission. That is why Call Of The Mastodon captures the bands history within songs that get in your face and won't let you go until they have beaten your ears to bits and made you walk the plank so that you could dive into an ocean of soaring screams, heavy riffs, low bass and thundering drums.

All you can do is give in to the sounds washing over you and enjoy the brutality. Enjoy...