Review: Mastodon at the Anthem on Sept. 25

Sludge metal band Mastodon created a masterpiece of visual and musical storytelling at the Anthem last Friday.

Standing on a video-wall stage, the band was quite literally engulfed in vivid imagery throughout their set. The hallucinogenic, primordial, and occasionally grotesque visuals accentuated, rather than diluted, the music they accompanied. The Anthem’s lofty ceilings and sophisticated lighting system lent themselves to creating the perfect venue for this performance.

The opening acts built this atmosphere of sheer, enveloping musical experience preceding Mastodon’s entrance. Deafheaven provided pure, shrieking aural power, backed by a double-bass drum that shook the bones and with frontman George Clarke enthusiastically waking up the crowd before the clock struck nine. The real gem of the show, however, was the first act: Alcest, a post-black metal band from France, was simply jaw-dropping in opening the show, with hauntingly beautiful instrumentals that filled the room like smoke around a soul-wrenching vocal performance. Their set perfectly established the theme that would become evident throughout the night: behind the intimidating exterior of heavy metal lies a true, poetic beauty that can only be discovered when one succumbs to the catharsis of the music.

By the time Mastodon came on, the room was practically vibrating with anticipation. The drums of “Barbarians Blood,” a track from the band’s latest album, Marrow Deep (2026), cut first through the darkness before the stage came alive with a series of evocative two-dimensional animations synced with the song’s dynamics, ranging from a warlord engulfed in fire to a skeletal horse straining to run from its own decay. With the audience’s eyes and ears already secured, the musicians’ obvious enthusiasm sealed the performance and confirmed bassist and vocalist Troy Sanders’s comment that we were watching “five guys having the time of their lives.” By far the exemplary piece was the penultimate performance of “The Czar,” a ten-minute ballad based on the assassination of Rasputin, which ranges from fast-paced, punkish beats to a heavy thrash-style instrumental break, all tied together by a refrain made shiver-inducing in the concert hall. And, of course, getting out the last energy of the night by collectively bellowing the chorus of “Blood and Thunder” at the show’s conclusion was thrilling, as well.

This concert reinforced my conviction that metal music is not just noise, nor does it foster the unilaterally violent, stoic, beer-bellied community of popular imagination. To be fair, many of the stereotypes are accurate on the surface: the majority of the crowd was white, middle-aged, and male. Far from fitting the solitary alpha-male image outsiders might expect, however, these men openly embraced, drank, and moshed with one another, whether they came to the concert as strangers or childhood friends. Throughout the whole night, I felt an overwhelming sense of brotherly solidarity and positivity.

Sanders described it best on Friday when he was describing “In the Ruins,” another new track: “Ultimately, this is a song about gratitude.” Sanders went on to express that this gratitude was for his own life, for his bandmates, and for everyone in the audience, who, for these four hours, were united over the simple love of music and the desire for emotional release.