Quiet Earth

Thinking about it it's not very surprising really; after all Mastodon are a pretty big band these days and it's about time they had a clone band or two. Not to say Bison B.C sound exactly the same, of course... Nonetheless, you can't help but feel that if they had a drummer with more chops then they would sound exactly the same.

That's pretty much all you need to know here, really; if you enjoyed Leviathan you'll get a few spins out of it, if you didn't you won't. Riffs are competent, the guitar tone is heavy and nasty, and the vocalist is particularly unoriginal. There's also a fair slab of early Pelican in the slower bits; things do get pretty damn crushing, particularly in "Medication". Overall it's passable- if again, somewhat unremarkable.

Yeah, unremarkable is the word that I keep on coming back to. It's well executed but when you get down to it, the riffs just never really catch you. It's not really that they're too weird or anything- this is fairly conventional upbeat stoner type stuff- just that, I dunno, they don't stick. Beyond a few parts in Wendigo Pt.1, Medication and the title track, upon completion of this record there won't be that many riffs you'll remember. Not to say that this is genuinely bad- at the time it's a decent enough listening experience. On the whole, though? Don't bother, unless you're a major fag for early Mastodon. Put on Leviathan instead, as it does a very similar thing, but with a lot more drum fills and with some much better riffs.