Medium Rarities presents a bevy of classic covers, soundtrack contributions, instrumentals, B-sides, and live recordings on one complete package for the very first time.

Call of the Mastodon collects the influential Atlanta metal band's earliest recordings. Remixed and remastered by longtime engineer Matt Washburn, five of the nine cuts, "Shadows That Move," "Welcoming War," "We Built This Come Death," "Hail to Fire," and "Battle at Sea," appeared on the group's 2001 debut EP, Lifesblood. The other four sound like they were from the same sessions, and rely heavily on the group's trademark bone-crushing rhythmic assault. Even in their formative stage, Mastodon - few groups manage to do such justice to their moniker - sound like seasoned vets, and while there may be nothing as seamless as 2004's "Blood & Thunder" or "Megalodon," Call of the Mastodon is a brutal blueprint for the group's signature Metallica-meets-grindcore mayhem.

Appearing near the dawn of the 21st century, Atlanta's Mastodon established themselves as one of the most original and influential American metal bands. Their wide-angle progressive approach encompasses stoner and sludge metal, punishing hardcore and metalcore, neo-psych, death metal, and more - sometimes in the span of a single song. The group's playing style incorporates heavy, technically complex guitar riffs, lyric hooks, long, melodic instrumental passages, and intricate, jazz-influenced drumming with syncopated time signatures. Their second album, 2004's Leviathan, was a concept offering based on Moby Dick, Herman Melville's iconic novel of whaling and obsession, and proved the band's commercial and critical breakthrough. Since its release, the record has attained status as one of the most important albums in heavy metal's history…

Mastodon's constant state of musical evolution dictated that the weirder, often complexly brutal progressive excursions on earlier albums took a back seat to pile-driving riffs and more approachable melodies on 2014's Once More ’Round the Sun and 2017's Emperor of Sand. The David Bottril-produced Hushed and Grim embodies their history of musical experimentation in 15 songs that crisscross prog, stoner, doom, and psych metal through vanguard and earworm melodies amid sometimes exotic modal, dynamic, and textural excursions…

Mastodon present their anxiously awaited ninth full-length album, Hushed and Grim, via Reprise Records. Over the past year, the group recorded the album in their hometown, collaborating with producer David Bottrill [Tool, Rush, Muse, Peter Gabriel] behind the board. As their most ambitious body of work to date, it consists of 15 tracks, surveying sonic landscapes of rock, psychedelia, punk, metal, alternative, and prog threaded together by the innately expressive musical interplay of these four musicians. At the same time, an atmosphere of loss, loneliness, and longing permeates through the trio of cathartic vocals as they musically say goodbye to old friend, confidant, and longtime manager the late Nick John by architecting a magnum opus that bears the influence of his eternal memory.