Mastodon @ Glasgow ABC, 7 Mar

As Mastodon take to the stage tonight, there is a sense that they will have to do something special to pull this night back from the brink. After all, their support band, The Saviours, have just tried to kill metal. So consumed are they by wankery and cliche that their monotonous, headache-inducing squall almost succeeds in dissipating any sense of anticipation that has built up for the headliners - it is emphatically NOT OK to write a song that is just one long solo. Never ones to recoil from a challenge, Mastodon - led by the physically expressive Troy Sanders, tonight looking for all the world like a heavy metal David Duchovny - succeed in turning the moshpit into a battleground. Drummer Brann Dailor is very much the heart of this outfit, infusing punk-influenced tracks like Circle of Cysquatch with a vicious, driving precision that renders them irresistible to the thrashing masses. Blood and Thunder is the crushing highlight of a set that never wavers in intensity, and the band leave the stage safe in the knowledge that our faith in metal has been restored. [Jay Shukla]