Mastodon C/D ?

That's where I'll be seeing them. I think you'd like Kylesa and maybe Intronaut, the opening bands. Should be a great show.

right now kylesa is the major reason i'm considering going to the boston show. they should be seriously amazing with the two drummers in a brand new club that i assume will have excellent sound.

yeah i've been listening to the kylesa album recently, it's pretty good ... only reason i wasn't sure about going is super-crowded shows have been making me angry and claustrophobic lately, but i should probably just deal

Yeah, doesn't help that the show is at the Metro and starts roughly the same time as a Cubs game, so it'll be really crowded.

Meaning the whole area, obvs, the Cubs game won't affect the attendance at the show.

ugh, at least i can walk to the metro from my house. metro has pretty good sightlines too. i should go.

i think they're more AiC than STP, but yes this album is all hellz of catchy.

digging this so far

my favorite moment is when "the czar" finally busts into the galloping chugachuga part about four minutes in

that's interesting, congratulations, that's the exact arena metal trope that was rubbing me the wrong way initially; I have to say it (and the album as a whole) is growing more palatable with each listen though. But then every Mastodon album has seemed a bit impenetrable to me at first and then grown and grown on me, usually with Brann's drumming as the entry point.

I will say it's too bad there seems to be less of his manic snare-cracking on this album than ever. Ah well, every song can't be "Mother Puncher".

tunnel book cd/dvd with lithograph arrived today.

ha--i just got the plain old cd today. is good enough for me.

I'm interviewing Bill Kelliher in about 90 minutes. Any questions?

all of my question ideas are leading back to "why aren't you as awesome as you used to be?" lol jaded mastodon fan.

I'd like to know a few things actually.

A)Will they ever make a return to the sludgier sounds of some of the Remission tracks (not remaking older stuff as I don't want bands to regress, but I'd like to hear some slower heavier riffs)

B)Will they play Crusher/Destroyer and Motherpuncher when touring the new album?

C)Will it be always clean vocals from now on?

you could also ask about what Chuck said about the band crack the sky and if they were an influence on the album.

how do they view their place in modern rock/metal? are they satisfied with it? do they even consider themselves a metal band (in the tru purist sense)? blah blah blah...

Will it be always clean vocals from now on?

Also, what led to the decision to use clean vocals, and how did it affect the process of writing and recording?

i.e. "did the record label put on any pressure? Or did you choose for a more mainstream sound yourself?" , brad?

what is this pressure you speak of, Kerr?

...

I'm thinking more about the songwriting and how they came to decide clean vocals were necessary for the effects they wanted. But you raise a good point about commercial motivations.

Is this album really more commercial than the previous ones? I don't understand the market well enough to judge. It's hard for me to imagine the new Mastodon getting much radio play.

well it's certainly more commercial than Lifesblood and Remission. And even Leviathan.
It's not really as "metal" as those that came before it in many fans eyes, so it might cost them those fans, if the posts on last.fm are to go by.

while other's think it's their best http://www.last.fm/music/Mastodon

I think this thing is great. There is a part of the last song that sounds directly lifted from "Relayer". And in my book that's a good thing.

Yeah, I hear a Yes influence too.

I like the new one, it sounds like I wanted "Blood Mountain" to sound.

is it just me or do some of the vocals sound ozzy-esque?

do they even consider themselves a metal band (in the tru purist sense)?

i interviewed em a month or so ago, and i don't think they really do anymore - both bill and brent were very much on a "we are classic rock, and this is what we always wanted to be" type tip. i love their older stuff, but i love this new album too; it's different to what came before, but there's enough of what came before that i think they were ready for a change.

yeah, it seems like a natural development in their evolution as a band. so when can we expect the inevitable CCR covers?

is it just me or do some of the vocals sound ozzy-esque?

― meat of beef (Jordan), Tuesday, March 31, 2009 5:00 PM (Yesterday)

no dude, i hear exactly the same thing in a bunch of places

http://www.terrorizer.com/sites/terrorizer.com/files/imagecache/frontpage/big182_0.jpg

i hear Ozzy, too, here and there. and yes. but am i correct in noting that bits and pieces here are reminiscent of Helmet and Sugar (maybe Therapy?, too)? early-90s nostalgia, it's just a fist away.

First song sounds like Alice in Chains.

Ok, this is really nitpicking and bitching about Pitchfork in the '09 is ridic (esp. when it comes to metal), but it bugs me a little that Fever Ray gets a "best new music" tag with an 8.1 rating but Mastodon doesn't with an 8.0.

whoa I was not expecting to think that this album kicks so much ass!!!

i was kinda avoiding it and waiting to listen to it fearing that it was gonna be all Tool-like with the more prog influences I kept reading about but it actually works really surprisingly well and sounds great.

that's funny, I heard a little Yes in the middle and (instead of Alice In Achains)a hint of Soundgarden towards the beginning especially

that riff that comes in at 2 mins into "Divinations" gave me spontaneous screwface its deeeead serious

HOOS I think we have similar tastes in a lot of shit outside of ringtone. i see your posts in sooo many old metal threads that I dig up

this has moved from "pretty good" to "super awesome" for me.

I get that Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden vibe too. Album has totally grown on me though.
One of the best of the year so far, if I may be so bold.

I'm liking this more every time I hear it. There are a half dozen memorable things going on at any given moment in a song, and they don't linger on any of them long enough for the listener to get complacent. The harmonies on the chorus in "Oblivion" (+ the two guitar fills!!) the awesome fast riffs in "Divinations," the Sam Rivers I'm hearing on "Quintessence"--is that just me?--to say nothing of the awesomely flanged harmonies.

And I've only really processed the first half...!

The opening of the title track is a little Tim Burtallica for my taste but by the time big chorus comes in its totally worth it

Holy shit @ the drums about 5 minutes in on Last Baron

Holy crap, this album kicks ass. Being more of a prog fan than a metalhead, I've tried to get into Mastodon in the past, but it was a bit too much screaming and bludgeoning for me. This, however, is the album I've been waiting my whole life to hear. One of the best rock records in a long, long time. And damn, the production on this is off tha hook!

I bet that Relayer homage I mentioned above was intentional. This records about Russia; Gates of Delirium was about Russia (supposedly based on War and Peace).

my favourite from them so far, and i say that with firm conviction after only a couple of listens.

i liked blood mountain on the whole, but struggled with a couple of the tracks, finding it at times stuck awkwardly in the muddied middleground between extreme metal and QOTSA or something.

the balance on this new album seems just right.

i also really dig their first record too.

one more thing - scott kelly's guest spot in the title track is outstanding. it's a pity in some ways that he always overshadows the other singers on these albums.

I'm not a metalhead at all. It's my other half who is and he keeps flinging stuff at me and some of it's stuck (Meshuggah, Textures, Isis) but this album is really amazing. I agree with the comparisons upthread to Ozzy and Alice in Chains, I came up with the same ones.

The overall story that links his sister's death with the weird rasputin thing, is fascinating and VERY prog. I cant be bothered trying to listen to it in thelyrics, but yeah, this album is very interesting.

May I timidly say this is very much an acid album?

weird that they sectored up 'the czar' into parts in the title as the whole song flows really nicely together as the one piece. maybe to accentuate the concept or something.

'oblivion' is an amazing opening track