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Rating: Bought three days ago, I'm already here writing about it. As if it were a duty to a friend: maybe it is, since I hold the Mastodon dear, really dear: they make me laugh, entertain me, lift me up, they're fun and witty. Not like the Necrophagist, with their smelly breath or the Necrodeath with their greasy hair or the Dark Funeral with their endless carefreeness. Mastodon are different, and I'm not necessarily saying better, but they are different. Just look at Brann with the Yes t-shirt or Brent dancing drunk humming "Egg" by Mr. Bungle to realize how different they are, can you imagine the singer of Cannibal Corpse singing Mr. Bungle, or even just smiling??
Mastodon not only smile but make me smile too, with their boozy antics (Brann falling asleep on piles of garbage), their constant jests, their absurd tattoos (you must be a bit crazy to tattoo Tony Manero on a calf), they're wonderfully funny goofballs, they end up reminding you of that middle school friend who did poorly in school but won all the burping and spitting contests. And between one prank and another, there are more than two hours of concerts, from the early days with Eric Saner on vocals (who left due to personal issues and now has eaten his arms down to the elbow), to the post-Leviathan highlights of fantastic concerts at Hellfest or With Full Force Festival. The acoustics are often not the best, in fact, they're terrible throughout the first part of the dvd, but the footage tells of a group of angry and passionate post-adolescents who almost a decade ago were already smashing live, always and anyway, even in front of an audience of two people: the promoter and the bouncer (with the bouncer leaving during the second song). Over the years, the audience visibly grows, and fortunately, the acoustics improve, leading to extraordinary performances of "Mother Puncher" or the devastating "Workhorse" or the nine-minute amateur fixed-camera shot of "Hearts Alive".
The whole is accompanied by interviews and clips with Troy expressing all his love for Neurosis, Bill doing the same with the Star Wars saga, and Brent doing nothing but getting drunk and destroying everything (like a few weeks ago, when, completely drunk, he threw a shirt at Odadijan from System of a Down during an Mtv festival, to which Odadijan responded by calling a friend and beating him up, resulting in Brent having two black eyes and a broken nose...and okay, you're right to be mad at rowdy drunks, but two against one drunk is not fair, Shavo, and especially you are part of System of a Down, he's with Mastodon, you should bow and ask for forgiveness from his independent butt with your sold lips).
This dvd, in my opinion, represents Mastodon's desire to remain closely tied to that underground scene that saw them emerge and now felt almost betrayed by the new major label contract, which is why Mastodon gifted us "The Workhorse Chronicles": to give everyone these blurred, grainy images, this awful and muffled acoustics that nevertheless manages to convey what Mastodon are: sweat, passion, cerebral music but with guts.
Tracklist and Lyrics
05 Call Of The Mastodon (00:00)
Strong structures guide
Building high and wide
Minds that create make us feel more alive
Standing on top of the skyline
Unlock unleash the beast below
06 Shadows That Move (00:00)
The us rhythm blows a diseased river flow
Yeah it's going to blow a change within you
The us rhythm blows
With change we'll explode
And live
08 Hail To Fire (00:00)
All see light in oceans black
Go seek find the red seas fire
Blow ship by those sail blind
Choosing one loosing blood
You try exchanging
No i dont think so
Cannot escape me
No sound reason
09 We Built This Come Death (00:00)
Now you see all this time
Work nine to five
Monday thru friday i'm singing
I sing the blues for you
Now i'm standing in the pouring rain
My feet are cold but i cant complain
And i wonder how you have been
I need you love i miss you so
I know it's right but it's always strange
How i scream
All this life's worth all the while
Heartache and slave driving pain
I sing the blues for you
Now im standing in the pouring rain
My feet are cold but i can't complain
And i wonder how you have been
I need you love i miss you so
I know it's right but it's always strange
10 Welcoming War (00:00)
Lost in a world
A guided eye to strengthen weakness
Throat in noose pain
Feel it constricting a lost love
Welcome to war
And it grows
Ocean lure
Fire of mankind
Universe
Throw it away
Destroyer of worlds found pain
Welcome to war
And it grows
11 Burning Man (00:00)
Coals under foot burst into flames
Become the earth's ashes
Remain
Awaiting sand
A burning man
Approach the door where i place blame
Take the first step
Cleansing my shame
Awaiting sand
A burning man
12 Crusher Destroyer (00:00)
Lesson
The honoring instinct of animal
Pressure
No blame on the red bull
Throw fury at him
Aim gorge and win
Less contenders on the way today
Let them pay
Nothing lost
Nothing gained
Listen
Here lies the warning for matador
Blackout
Blood running the dirt floor
Won't bleed by accident
Burn your game plan
14 Mother Puncher (00:00)
Change stand grow
These things you'll never be
Taste your fate
All that you'll ever be
A life love unconditional
A life love
Love unconditional
Chase
Chase 'em down string 'em up
Hate
Hate the ones who bring you down
17 Trainwreck (00:00)
life's changed
yet remain the same
basking in an afterglow
i did not know
i am here
in shadows island
lying
hopeless wondering
all questions exhaust me
running screaming chanting
for all this land i've seen its worth
helping all for times sake
it brings me work
pinned to this world
18 Trampled Under Hoof (00:00)
Birth
Original plan
Who will issue days and strike them
Hurry to mystic plains
Go
Lifesblood
Hurdle in the path
Struck down
All is clear for play
20 Where Strides The Behemoth (00:00)
Condition tomorrow
With visions inlaid
The priest stands to our right
A princess is mine
The regress of some minds
Further chase the prize
Pretentious you follow
Religion is mine
Anger precedes my footsteps
Haunting past comes into head
Horizon seems so far away
This life close to end of days
Kill and i will be damned
Forgive and i will be free
Unified eyesight
Grow
21 Workhorse (00:00)
Slaved into brittle and worked for days
Only thing that paves your stay
Look behind you see what you've made
Like a workhorse stands for miles
Work for you and never get tired
Roll 'em up it's time to go
We'll be back before it's too long
Shaved into rhythm
Work for days
Consequences we have paid
To be free in a world we've made
Like a workhorse stands for miles
Work for you and never get tired
Roll 'em up it's time to go
We can bet on all that's lost
Before it's too long
Burning hell
22 Megalodon (00:00)
Myth or legend
Nymph tale washed ashore
Near the kraken sleepeth stirs coral and bone
Infinite city
No sexy sneer
Hideous creation
Human and animal
Banter songs of rudeness to be adhered
Not on rocks that glisten
Harps to listen
Comb hair
Tear right to pieces
Left to recess a watery grave
Sensing the blood of prey
Swimming in fear for life
Rolling over
Falling into jaws
Teeth that chatter
It distracts them all
The Fiji mermaid
She will let it know
Time is coming to feed and knaw
25 Hearts Alive (00:00)
Taken down with hearts alive
Our hearts alive
Lurking dark underground
Descend to the bottom
Swim below eternally
Into the deep blue sea
Time and space
All alone
It can be a lonely place
There it goes
Opening up
I can't stand
I can't breathe
Rolled fin out
Oil stripped
Hold is filled
Ocean coil
Water boils
He swims to the surface
Flame from mouth
Smoke he breathes
Enter the caverns of the deep
Time and space
All alone
It can be a lonely place
There it goes
Opening up
I can't stand
I can't breathe
Terrified
Ghastly cry
Spiraled lives
Taken down
Taken down
The iron side
Bucket of lead
Battle is she
Not for defeat
The iron side
Bucket of lead
Battle is she
27 I Am Ahab (00:00)
There's magic in the water that attracts all men
Across hills and down streams
The turning of the tide
Outlook
Future bright
Selfish
Beauty shines
Light cloud rain drive on
13 years to this day red planet aligned
Into sight 60,000 years of light
Fascination with a mountain put to sea
Built to slay and conquer
All with teeth of beasts
28 Iron Tusk (00:00)
Straight line
Feel it burst liver and lung
Long and strong
'Til she spills her black blood
Center down
Vast the head body and tail
Shatter life
Physeter catodon
Culture vulture
Elephant graveyard
Culture vulture
Engage monster
Wreaking vengeance
Assault with all martial rage
Sail on
29 Ísland (00:00)
Given decision to live
Not taken
The flight towards the light
I'll stay in the lava for life
Erupting when gods take us all
Changing the peaks makes us pour
From the mountain and burn
The path of our time
Hail people of Iceland
Journey of a land anew
Ram as our liaison
Vision inspire and move
Awe holy island
Breed the lagoon to run free
Raw beauty is ruthless within the golden ring
Precision of Grungir
Spear of the Norse God Odin
Praise our Pagan Father
Founder of the Althing
Given decision to live
Not taken
The flight towards the light
I'll stay in the lava for life
Erupting when gods take us all
Changing the peaks makes us pour
From the mountain and burn
The path of our time
Ruler of sky's thunder
The honourable warrior
All divination
Beward the Hammer of Thor
Lava goddess
Ice and fire
Settling down
Ocean Geysir
Gullfoss
Heimaey '73
31 Seabeast (00:00)
If I stand around
And watch them drown in a pool of gray
When we dive in, I can surely say there's feud with force
Am I in your way?
Please knock me down, can I help you in?
When I'm not around let us all be found in certain ways
Dear Mr. Queequeg, you have been informed your life's been saved
You are not a black-hearted vicious mess so it has been claimed
If this is the beast
Pulling us towards the east with mighty waves
Let us look inside
And pull out all your pride, you know it's up to us
Holding pasts in ash black earth
Bound by roots
Roots into sand
Grow towards the giver
There's an open wound
Placed upon my heart, in anger's ragp
If we open up a spirit, a spirit that can bleed
Ahab the leading lad we can trust his obsession carries them
Meet us at the temple
Healing all the crippled, don't forget the maimed
Lower soul
Sent with gifts offering
Teeth of hope travel with
Child laid next to mother
39 Deep Sea Creature (00:00)
Knowing right
Learning wrong
What you're feeling is pressure
Pulsate new blood
I've seen things you've heard never before
Bones aged in dust
Buy your bite take the body
Calm
Shutting down
You built me
I knew it
I'll never lie liar
You fed me
I chewed it
I'll never lie liar
I follow you covering me
Spirits in pieces
Crumbled and burnt
41 Thank You For This (00:00)
Let's throw down the love
I catch eyes open far and wide
Ability
It's intense
Golden
Lace it fills the magic flies
I wonder where is this list
Give in next time
This will be a blast
Ability
It's intense
Golden
Lace it fills the magic flies
I wonder where is this list
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