Mastodon reignites their signature sound with Marrow Deep in Boston
By NICK TAVARES
STATIC and FEEDBACK Editor
I might be short on my typical descriptors here, but throughout Mastodon’s show at the House of Blues in Boston, I was standing in a kind of perpetual awe. Through the past year and a half, this band had been through hell and back.
Now here they were, stalking their way through the myriad changes to “More Than I Could Chew,” an epic tale of grief and redemption that has somehow taken on more meaning than when it was first released. And they somehow sounded stronger, more determined, just goddamn heavier than ever.
To say it was inspiring was underselling it. I was enthralled, and I just wanted more.
The tumult they’ve been through in the past year is almost incomprehensible. The band parted ways with guitarist, vocalist and founding member Brent Hinds in 2025, after apparently years of internal discord, only to have Hinds die in an accident months later. They’d already recruited guitar ace Nick Johnston into the band, but with no hope of reunion or reconciliation possible, they marched ahead.
The results so far has yielded Marrow Deep, their latest record that is an absolute stunner, taking the heavy themes (musically and thematically) of 2021’s Hushed and Grim and pushing them further, crafting an ode to their fallen mate as well as a mission statement for the band going forward.
So, here we find the band on stage at the House of Blues on their Poisonous Weapons tour, redefining what Mastodon will be in the future. What shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone still reading is that they are still an absolute wrecking ball on stage, cranking out these impossibly heavy and complicated riffs with all the righteous fury the music deserves.
And they were on fire from the beginning, stomping through their entire catalog: growling through “March of the Fire Ants” while the crowd rightly lost their mind in the pit, running their complex take on “More than I Could Chew” and “Your Ghost Again,” and reaching into their uniquely southern spin on metal on “Megalodon.” I hadn’t seen Mastodon since 2009 on their Crack the Skye tour, and as mind-melting as they were on that night, they were just as much tonight. The only trade-off was that that manic fury of youth was swapped out for a more measured — but still heavy as hell — take on the night.
John Baizley of Baroness came out and joined the band halfway through “Snakes for Dinner,” taking Josh Homme’s guest vocal spot from the Marrow Deep album, and remained through the rest of the set, filling in a bit of vocal edge that the band has lacked a bit since Hinds’ departure. This came through strongest on the Crack the Skye material, with “Oblivion” and “The Czar” standing out amidst an already stellar set.
Standing towards the back of the venue (I am well aware of my abilities in an active mosh pit in my 40s), I was taking all of this beautiful chaos, losing myself in the riffs and drums and depths of emotion. It just felt good.
To be perfectly honest, I’ve always felt slightly uncomfortable at metal shows, or specifically, at anything considered metal before the band actually starts playing. This probably all stems from insecurity in high school, where it’s okay to like, say, Metallica along with any other bands you want, but to dip fully into that world of Slayer and Anthrax and everything else, I would’ve had to leave behind the Beatles and Pearl Jam and Tom Petty. There was a type of guy, and he wore denim vests with patches and studs and bracelets and I never could understand where these kids were finding these things in the pre-internet 1990s but, all the same, it felt like another world.
But I loved listening to heavy stuff all along the way, the truly rough and dirty riffs, all layered over and incomprehensibly complex. And for more than 20 years, Mastodon has, for me, represented the pillar of where this kind of music can go.
Seeing this band after such a tumultuous stretch, to say the least, emerge with this incredible record and still able to conjure these incredible sounds, still as frantic and crazed as ever, is nothing but inspiring. From the opening swing of “Barbarian’s Blood” through the closing chaos of “Blood and Thunder,” they were locked in, committed and determined to remind everyone of their power as a band.
They’re doing this on stages across the continent every night on this tour, mind you. There’s no reason not to catch these guys in the flesh if possible. Certainly, don’t let any impostor-syndrome-type hangups keep you away from the action.
E-mail Nick Tavares at nick@staticandfeedback.com