It took a little over six months for the quartet from Atlanta, Georgia to return to our shores – except this time, they played the slightly bigger setting of The Olympia Theatre. However, a Mastodon show is not something anyone was going to complain about.

Mastodon brought a band called Bad Breeding with them to kick off the night and there’s no easy way to say that they were awful. They appeared to clapping and kicked into what could only be described as a strange punk/metal hybrid that lacked any sort of structure or rhythm. The front man staggered around the stage for much of the set in a drunken stupor and also alternated this with bouts of lying on the stage flailing. The audience awkwardly clapped after they finished, but may had sighed and dispersed to the bar far before the end. There was no introduction; there was no anything. A bizarre opening band that only served to make Mastodon sound even better.

The four piece emerged to cheers as they kicked into Tread Lightly, the opening track from their sixth album, ‘Once More ‘Round The Sun’. Admittedly, the set was very similar to the one we were treated to last November. This time however, the night was closed off with a cover of Thin Lizzy’s Emerald City which understandably went down a treat.

Favourites like the iconic Oblivion and the ever thunderous Black Tongue took on a form of their own live, while newer tracks like The High Road and Chimes At Midnight gelled well with older songs in the set, showing that Mastodon can still write and deliver seriously appealing music.

Bassist Troy Sanders was in flying form all night, and he spent much of it dancing from the microphone to the back of the stage. The guitar wielding pairing of Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher succeeded in providing a shredding master class, the kind that’s expected from a band of Mastodon’s caliber.

Many bands within the metal genre use vocals that are generally incoherent, but Mastodon are a definite exception. Vocal duties are split between all four members, with each voice contrasting in different ways to each other. Having a drummer with the talent that Brann Dailor possesses is one thing, but the fact that he provides vocals in between drum fills is something that will always make Mastodon an enticing live band. The sheer versatility that was exhibited is something that few other bands can generate on a consistent basis.

Realistically, Mastodon didn’t really need to come back and play here so soon but not one person in attendance was complaining. Mastodon are energetic and always deliver a high calibre live show. If they played here every month, they’d still pack out venues around the country. Hopefully next time they play here, they’ll have some new music to showcase to add to the mayhem.