Mastodon C/D ?

Maybe Mastodon will help crusty rock critic types to give other 'creative' metal bands a chance - Lamb of God, people!!!!

That's true that movie portrayals of computers are almost always ludicrously inaccurate (at least they always used to be before almost everyone had internet access). I was watching Weird Science on Comedy Central today and thinking the same thing.

I have been informed that a copy of the new Mastodon is on its way to me. Can't wait.

They blew it. No sludge, no doom, no Crusher/Destroyer, no incredible listen-to-the-drummer-play-fills-during-the-entire-fucking-album. Just a lot of cheap Maiden and Slayer imitations.

This is like Cave In following up Jupiter with Antenna.

I'm so bummed right now.

I really wanna hear this.

Mastadon LIVE trumps Mastadon recorded, FWIW.

wait, how could they stop this? :(

(most of this could change by the time the record comes out - who knows if this is the final mix?)

Wait does that sound too pissy?

I think it's interesting how up-front the vox are compared to the other two records - dude seems to be cultivating a Phil-Anselmo-in-Superjoint-guise thing, which is welcome as far as I'm concerned

I wanna see 'em live

Idolator linked to this story about Brent Hinds being assaulted and hospitalized -- what the fuck?

Sounds as though he has a really bad injury. Hope it's not as serious as it sounds.

:(

WTF? Horrible news.

That's fucked up.

Saw them this summer. March Of The Fire Ants works even better when they play the main riff with their guitars behind their heads.

Too bad about Brent.. Hope everything works out.

Interesting article in the new RS titled "Head Injury Inspires New Melodic Mastodon Album: With Brendan O'Brien on board, the headbangers craft "classic rock" sound"

Brent Hinds was attacked and cracked his head open during a drunken altercation following the MTV VMAs. He suffered brain hemorrhaging, then was plagued by vertigo for eight months. He said he wrote the music for the next album during that time with his acoustic guitar and some marijuana. "I wanted a more melodic, easy-listening situation, and definitely came from having head trauma."

If that isn't a Spinal Tap worthy quote, I don't know what is!

Brann Dailor confirms they want to make a broader, "classic-rock-sounding record." They met their producer backstage at a Bruce Springsteen concert of all places.

The article mentions three of the album's seven songs -- "Quintessence" with spacey synthesizers and vocal harmonies, "Divinations" that comes on like Master Of Puppets era Metallica but with soaring vocals and a bright chorus, and "Oblivion," a sinister, multitempo prog-metal epic with a bluesy guitar solo.

It will continue the elements theme, exploring air, ghosts and the ethereal world. The group has talked about eventually combining the releases into a box set called The Elements, heh.

So, lots of openings there to talk about shark-jumping and whatnot. However, I'm just glad they won't be repeating themselves. Hopefully it'll be great.

He got a kicking the other week there too.

tales from topographic...

He exhibits many hallmarks of being an absolute prick. I'll still look forward to this - even if it's bad I don't think it'll qualify as shark jumping as Blood Mountain was so great it wouldn't really represent a downward curve, if you get me

I thought Blood Mountain was great, So I am looking forward to this. Remission is my favourite but there's no point in trying to remake it when simply it couldn't be as good.

I thought Blood Mountain was terrible, so I expect listening to this will be like actually receiving head trauma.

Did you like Leviathan? I couldn't get my head round people who loved one and hated the other

Yeah I did like Leviathan. It's definitely a difference by degrees but the Blood Mountain riffs are just a little bit worse, the vocals are a lot worse, and the lyrics swing away from awesome shit like chasing a whale to kinda lame shit like made up D&D creatures.

Basically I feel like they've been simplifying the formula a bit with each release, and the LAST thing we need is another '00s band getting its classic rock on.

awesome shit like chasing a whale to kinda lame shit like made up D&D creatures

Haha this is some pretty definitive narcissism of small diffs to be fair. Of your other points I guess it's an 'eye of the beholder' deal but I've not listened to either for a good 18 months so hey

I'm curious to hear what a more "prog" Mastodon sounds like, so I'm going to remain hopefully optimistic for this one. Prick tendencies aside, Mastodon is one of my favorite metal bands going right now.

Not much sympathy for Hinds on this thread. The guy gets his head cracked open, and everyone seems to think he had it coming. Does anyone know who did it and why?

terrible news, he was my favorite part of Mastodon

RIP Brent Hinds

hadn't he recently announced that he was joining or forming another band?

Sad news

Man, I’d seen multiple headlines throughout the day and not investigated as I wasn’t ever a huge fan of Mastodon but I didn’t realize until now it was THE guy

that's terrible news. i didn't stick with them through the years, but remission and leviathan are tremendous records. in my early days of trying to understand metal as a complete outsider to it those records were really important to me.

yeah -- I checked out around the time of Crack the Skye but Leviathan esp. was a real moment, I saw them on that tour (they did an encore, which they said was rare, and played Thin Lizzy's "Emerald") and the feeling that they were heading someplace big was palpable

There's an argument to be made that Leviathan is the best metal-qua-metal album of the 21st Century.

xxxpost - earlier this year the band announced they were parting ways with Hinds by mutual decision, but later he started posting these screeds on social media about them firing him. he was, by a lot of reports not in a good headspace, which makes this all the more sad. aiui he was about to tour Europe with one of his side project bands.

those of y’all that checked out early should really play Hushed and Grim, the latest, it’s not on the level of Remission or Leviathan (nor is it meant to be really), but tons of great songs. Brent sings lead on “The Beast”, which hit hard on another spin tonight

Yeah, H&G is really good. I saw them on the Crack the Skye tour with High On Fire and Converge. It was the only “band plays the whole album” show I’ve ever seen and it ruled.

It is a rather shocking end and one that the wounds will never heal. It is tough when a long running group comes apart in strife and ill feelings that sadly will never have any other resolution.

Say one thing, they were a band that went from the basement/garage to playing some of the biggest stages in the world doing their own thing. Whether you dig their music or not, that is somewhat notable.

Mastodon were a big ILM band, I learned about them here and they were discussed quite a bit.

RIP Brent.

that my ATL-based parents were aware of it and texted me because they knew i saw mastodon over a decade ago [during their "our son only listens to bands with animal names in them" phase] - he clearly hit when it was meant and mattered.

Not that they need it now, and basically never did, but here's my 2007 Collegtown alt-weekly defense and celebration of them, when some metal purists were like, oh they're bringing the trendies in, they're not really metal anymore and never were: https://mycolone.blogspot.com/2025/07/mastodon-polymathic-rawkissers-of.html They were coming to town, Columbus OH, so I took the opp.

Remission - Leviathan - Blood Mountain - Crack the Skye was an incredible, incredible run.

This might sound weird, but every time I saw Mastodon after 2010, their live mix was abysmal. Trebly, not heavy, kind of quiet. Even as recently as the Hushed & Grim tour.

truly amazing first 4 albums. I saw them play the pitchfork fest in Chicago right around Blood Mountain and it was easily one of the biggest highlights of the whole thing.

The only album they put out since then that seemed weak was The Hunter, I'd say the rest are all very solid.

That said, they all lean way more toward hard rock than straight up metal, if that is a dealbreaker for you.

so bummed about this. crack the skye is such a brilliant record.

and i feel what made mastodon great was the balance between the four of them

That's true, though I also thought that Brent was more equal than the rest of them, and was bummed that his voice in the band seemed to shrink in the post Crack The Skye years

A Facebook post from Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth:

"Brent Hinds is gone. An incredible musician. A force of nature. Our friend. My friend. I got the news today from the Mastodon boys as I was having coffee with my mother and her partner. They’re talking about their plans for the upcoming weekend, but I couldn’t really hear what they were saying, to be honest. I was (and still am) overwhelmed by shock. I reached out to the boys in my band delivering the tragic news and my phone has been buzzing every 10 seconds since. There’s so much to be said about Brent. We’ve spend so much time together with him on the road. I like to think we got to know each other quite well. Brent demanded attention (and got it) every time he stepped into our dressing room or bus, which was quite often, I'd might add. Fred and him would jam backstage. I’d keep an eye on him/them and their usual tour-shenanigans to the point where Brent started calling me ”Dad”, and I was calling him ”Son”.

I have so many memories of him, most of which I can sum up as ”good times”. We often talked about stage nerves. How nervousness can be good, but also, if bad, how it can hinder your performance. The latter sensation manifested itself as a fictional person: ”Peter”. Brent would go: ”Peter was on stage tonight, and that fucker sucks ass” when he had a bad show.

It’s too soon to grieve I suppose, this hasn’t sunk in at all. I only just heard about this tragedy 5 hours ago. It’s beyond devastating, and judging from what’s being said on our private Opeth group-chat I know I can speak for the whole band.

The ”Dad-Son” thing stuck over the years. I last saw Brent when he came to our show in Atlanta (October 22, 2024). He walks in and goes ”What’s up Pops?”. It’s a very, very bright memory but it makes me numb with sadness right now, thinking about it.

We’d like to offer our warmest and most loving condolences to his family and friends, colleagues, fans, and of course to the whole Mastodon inner circle. The incredible band that was instrumental for making us and the world aware of the phenomenon that is Brent Hinds. Note that I can’t write about him in past tense just yet. He still ”is”.

I’ve included a photo of myself and Brent from our last tour together. I fail to remember where it was taken, but I remember we're singing along to Van Halen’s ”5150”. Right there, is exactly how I will remember him. Always.

Brent Hinds, rest in peace.

Love from your friends in Opeth

Mikael Åkerfeldt, August 21, 2025"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ65pizgD9I

incredible new song, mastodon goin' hard again

cute little mahavishnu orchestra bit launching into their heaviest riff in some time... that's the stuff :)))))

kurt ballou on production!!! aaaaa

surprisingly good, they haven't had this energy in a while

So fucking good, very pleasantly surprised.

Whooa, that's awesome. Always meant to get into these guys but never did; looks like now's the time. Is this prognumetal a throwback to an old album's sound, or something new?

Feels like a throwback to Blood Mountain or Leviathan.