Sunday, June 23, 2013

Mastodon, "Island"

If you were planning on seeing Monsters University to find out how Mastodon's "Island" plays on the soundtrack, don't bother. It's reduced to a couple of barely audible, almost unrecognizeable seconds, not enough to catch the song unless you already expected it. As my companion noted, "That was probably about as much Mastodon as Disney could get away with playing."



Pixar could probably get away with playing a little more of Mastodon's more recent, prog and classic rock-influenced albums, Crack the Skye and The Hunter. But on Leviathan, the best-ever Moby Dick adaptation, Mastodon were too terrifying to be considered for major film soundtracks. "Island" is the least melodic song on a furiously uncompromising album, sounding more like The Dillinger Escape Plan covering "Honey Bucket" than the actual recording of that. Mastodon were never this brutal again, but not many bands ever have been.

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