It's hard to believe it's been seven years since Mastodon first caught my ear, turning up on some compilation or other with Remission highlight Crusher Destroyer. I'd be lying if they immediately caught my ear, but they've certainly been a favorite ever since I picked up Leviathan a year or so ago, and they very much feel like a band I've grown up with. So it seems strange that this was only the second time I'd seen the band, and the first time in a headlining slot (the first time saw the band supporting Tool). And it's impressive just how refined the band have become in the past three years since I saw them. Despite backing the assault on the metal mainstream that was Blood Mountain, the band I saw three years ago still had a great deal of the rickety sound of their early years. And although the band's performance couldn't be faulted, the venue seemed to swallow them up, their club-size gear not being suited to large, the intricacies of the music being lost in the gaping void of the half-empty arena.

So it's refreshing to see that three years down the line, the band have boosted their live show to match the grandiose nature of most recent release Crack The Skye. The sound has lost its' rattling, over-bassed feel, replaced by a perfectly mixed wall of sound that throws the music into high definition. Most notably, the band have increased their visual element tenfold. No longer simply content with a mere backdrop, Mastodon's performance is backed by a video screen playing a film (directed by Neurosis man Josh Graham, I believe) which attempts to clarify the bizarre plotline of Crack The Skye. It's every bit as trippy and colourful as the album is, moving from the astral imagery of opener Oblivion to the hellish scenes of the title track. Not that the film ever detracts from the stage presence of the band themselves, both Troy Sanders and Brent Hinds storming around the stage like men possessed, pausing briefly to throw the horns to an audience member.

The set-up for the Crack The Skye tour should be well-known to anyone following the Mastodon camp recently, the band playing the album in its entirety, then moving on to a second set of older material. The new material, while never really deviating from the album (bar an extended solo to close out The Last Baron) is expertly performed, and finding another band who could replicate such a complex album so accurately on stage would be a rare find indeed. Surprisingly, even the less immediate double-hitter of the title track and Ghost Of Karelia goes down a storm live due to the sheer power of the band's performance. But it's the second set in which the band come into their own, letting loose with a salvo of deep cuts from the band's catalogue. Blood Mountain only gets one song, with Leviathan and Remission getting the lion's share of the set, the likes of Mother Puncher and Where Strides The Behemoth being genuine surprises tonight. Going back to their spastic, sludgy roots only serves to make the band even more of a force of nature on stage. And after a rendition of Iron Tusk that could decapitate those in the front row, the band wrap up tonight's show with perhaps their first real “hit”, March Of The Fire Ants. Eight years down the line, the song has lost none of its power, perhaps one of 00s metal's defining moments. And then it's over after an all too short 70 minutes, the band departing to rapturous applause, their status as on of metal's best-loved bands assured.