In last year's epic review of 2009, the mighty Mastodon were duly cited for the rather great concept LP Crack the Skye (a central character in a coma - astral projection - Hawking wormhole - Tsarist Russia - Rasputin etc) and following a promise/threat to play the album in full, I felt compelled to pick up a ticket.

The 'don in the past almost made their Blood Mountain as an epic one-track album, and were possibly talked out of this by the record company. I wondered therefore if their intention to play Crack the Skye in full might not happen. Or that they might have got bored of playing their latest in order as Husker Du famously did with Warehouse (Songs & Stories). I'm happy to report they kept their word.

Proceedings started, as they had to, with a forceful take on 'Oblivion' - the band kicking into suitably lethal gear to the backdrop of projections themed around the album (stars, wormholes, dream imagery, old Russian films, Monks, Occult Rites etc), though sadly the vocals were slightly muddy for the opener. By the time 'Divinations' and 'Quintessence' had been delivered everything was in order - setting the tone for the 10-minute epic 'The Czar'.

This is where some may have been lost, as Brent Hinds donned the twin-guitar common to Genesis and Led Zep...and Spinal Tap - I'm not too sure of what the metal purists thought of the keyboard player or the electronic drones recalling something on Warp between each song. I do think that 'The Czar' would go down very well in Italy where prog is suitably revered. This song was especially huge when bassist Troy Sanders came in on the "By the light of the moon"- hook - it was around this time that some wise soul sparked up a 'J' and a sense of psychedelic prog-metal was underlined.

'Ghost of Karelia' and the title track continued the trippy feel between King Crimson and Screaming Trees - though the highlight probably had to be the 13-minute epic 'The Last Baron', where Mastodon drifted between a hook worthy of Ten-Pearl Jam and just about every generic style in their career.

Boldly they left the stage after playing the LP without having said that much to the audience - returning after a brief interlude to play a short set of older material - the projections shifting to tie in with whatever album they were playing from.

The sole Blood Mountain-track 'Circle of Cysquatch' kicked off the second set in truly intense form, a reminder of the influence of early Metallica and Slayer. The conclusion found them ripping through tracks from debut Remission and the celebrated Moby Dick concept LP Leviathan - the concluding trio of 'Mother Puncher', 'Iron Tusk', and 'March of the Fire Ants' was a suitably fuck-off way to conclude proceedings. It was only when the silence kicked in that I realised how fucking loud the 'don were!

Sadly this was the conclusion of the gig which was a suitably efficient hour-and-a-half representing most points in the bands career. Part of me felt this was enough, then again a 10:30 finish is a bit lightweight, and they could have offered an encore since there were many songs they could have played that they hadn't - e.g. 'Seabeast', 'Colony of Birchmen', 'Blood and Thunder', 'Battle at Sea', 'Crystal Skull' etc. Or maybe they should have played some covers as an encore such as their sterling interpretations of 'The Bit' by The Melvins and 'Orion' by Metallica?

Still, despite the minor criticisms tonight has thrown down a gauntlet to the rest of the year gigwise - will anyone else top them in 2010 and should I have added that extra star? More importantly, shouldn't I have gone to Bristol the next night? Questions, questions…