I will try to check out some albums from them soon. I'm wondering
Pepe Deluxe >> King Gizzard
like
Burst >> Mastodon
but regardless, I am liking some of their music. The vocals though and guitar work are where Pepe differs. At least it got me to revisit Queen of the Wave and remember what a masterpiece it is. We'll see if King Gizzard (KG?..hard time using those 2 letters unless it's myself and Kevin Gilbert..or maybe Kyle Gass/Tenacious D). lives up to even half the hype. I worry their albums may meander or be hit and miss/not so focused. But maybe 1 or 2 of them will work start to finish.
i may add more later, but for now here's my comment.
not too surprised; Pain of Salvation, Fates Warning, maudlin of the Well and SikTh are nowhere to be found. Also Burst (whose album "Lazarus Bird" I find better than any album Mastodon ever made) and Green Carnation's "Light of Day, Day of Darkness" are sadly not even in the spectrum of this list.
That being said, the list is decent, although I don't care for Tool nor most Meshuggah, but instead of 10, this list probably could have been a Top 20 or 25.
apparently being released in June. Double Album? not a concept record.
My interest in Mastodon is casual for the most part, but I certainly will check this out when it's released no regardless. I'm not sure based on that article/articles how much of a prog influence/element it will have, but so be it. The Hunter was honestly pretty forgettable to me, but I know others really enjoyed it.
Here's the 1st single released this past week. It's okay I suppose, the section about 2.5 minutes probably being the best moment.
I know it's like 7 hours old, but worth sharing still: I do wonder what the he refers to "rescheduling" this show on their next tour. Perhaps Minneapolis will get a special makeup kind of show, sort of like Bloc Party did a few years ago. Although if it's at Myth, I'm unsure how much I'd want to go still.
Hi guys! I'm writing from beyond the grave. Seriously, I was not in a car crash and I haven't broken my arm. All that happened is I hit my head in mastodons tour bus as I was getting a new pair of (red) underwear out from my suitcase. Wish the story was more rock and roll, believe me. Anyways I split my head open down to the skullbone and had to be taken to the emergency. They gave me a bunch of shots in the wound, cleaned me up and stapled my head shut with 8 metal staples. Head is sore and if I smile it feels like the wound is gonna burst open again, but I'll be on stage by tomorrow again. I feel extremely disappointed that we couldn't play at the myth in Minneapolis, but paramedics told me I couldn't. We will reschedule the show for our next trip to the USA. So all rumors of me being in a car crash are false. I did crash my head into a car though, well...a bus really. Sorry for disappointing our fans in Minneapolis but I hope you understand. See you next time. Best. MikaelFacebook Post
He was not in an accident with an AUTOMOBILE/CAR, but just an accident. NOT a BROKEN ARM, but a collision to his head (which I worried). This now more specific/detailed account doesn't sound so worrisome, but still, hopefully the effects of this won't be much long term.
Many have already learned that yesterday’s performances at The Myth In St Paul had to be cancelled due to Mikael having an accident. Right before stage time Mike bumped his head on the tour bus which resulted in a pretty deep cut that required urgent medical attention. Mike was taken to hospital which he left a little later with eight stitches and a nasty headache. He’s doing OK now and we expect him to be up and running (though slightly slower) again for tomorrow’s show and onwards. Mike & the band were very disappointed not being able to play yesterday but thank everyone for their understanding and for the tons of get-well-wishes Mike has received since. The band also thanks their friends in Mastodon for playing an extended set that hopefully kept all who attended happy.
5/7/12 11:24PM
I just noticed some posts on some of the forums within the last hour or so. Opeth frontman singer/guitarist etc Mikael ÅkerfeldtI guess was in an auto accident earlier today/tonight, Monday May 7th, 2012. Here's 1 story which confirms Opeth canceled their show at Myth in Maplewood, MN tonight due to this.
OPETH Cancel Tonight's Show Due To Mikael Akerfeldt Being Hospitalized
Tonight's Opeth set at Myth in Minnesota has been canceled. The band's tour manager has just informed the crowd that Mikael Akerfeldt was in a reported car accident of sorts and has been hospitalized with a broken arm. Akerfeldt is said to be doing fine and expected to return to the tour shortly. Both Ghost and Mastodon will play extended sets to fill in. Further details will be posted as they become available.
As that story mentions, he was hospitalized with a BROKEN ARM, which is serious, but not hugely critical long term you'd think. However, if more happened (like something involving his HEAD?), that would be more serious.
But, as of right now, a lot of the details haven't really been released. I suppose by tomorrow sometime they could be.
In the mean time, as a fan of his and Opeth among his other music, I am sincerely hoping the severity of this accident to his health (physical and anything else) is not incredibly high.
Also a little ironic how this happens (or took place?) in my hometown, the venue, MYTH, actually is literally less than a 15 minute drive for me, is kind of eerie. I wasn't going to go due to a number of factors, probably biggest being price and the fact it sold out. But I can only imagine a lot of the speculation that may have been made there tonight. Sucks for those who went hoping to see Opeth. Maybe Mastodon or Ghost did extended sets.
1 Black Tongue
2 Curl of the Burl
3 Blasteroid
4 Stargasm
5 Octopus Has No Friends
6 All the Heavy Lifting
7 The Hunter
8 Dry Bone Valley
9 Thickening
10 Creature Lives
11 Spectrelight
12 Bedazzled Fingernails
13 The Sparrow
After two years of touring behind Mastodon's prog-metal epic Crack the Skye, guitarist Brent Hinds is gearing up for a big return this year: The heavily tatted frontman has worked up two records with his side-projects West End Motel and Fiend Without a Face — and is putting the finishing touches on Mastodon's fifth album, due out later this year.
"It's very close," he tells SPIN of the Mastodon LP. "I have two guitar solos left to record, and one or two vocal parts and a couple of keyboards and that's it."
For the follow-up to Skye — a loose concept album about Tsarist Russia that remains Mastodon's highest-charting album yet — Hinds, bassist Troy Sanders, guitarist Bill Kelliher, and drummer Brann Dailor are getting back to basics.
"Blood Mountain and Crack the Skye — those albums took too long to make," says Hinds. "This only took us a couple weeks to record and there's a totally different feeling to it. It's a jump-on-your-bed, get naked, and go streaking kind of record. I haven't had this feeling about a Mastodon record since [2004's] Leviathan. It's just fucking awesome.
"We've got a song about fighting, there's a song about lifting heavy stuff, there's a song about people on meth creeping around in trees trying to get the best wood grain out of a tree to sell it at Lowe's for [drug] money... The album is kind of silly. We're taking the piss out of things."
Of the final tracks, produced by Mike Elizondo (Fiona Apple, Eminem), Hinds is particularly stoked for "Blasteroids," which he calls "pretty spastic and fun and bouncy," as well as "All the Heavy Lifting," which is a sludgy tribute of sorts to one of the group's favorite metal bands. "It kind of sounds like Neurosis, with that evil, minor, creepy sounding stuff.
Still, the album won't be totally "silly" — it will also include reflections on personal tragedies the band has undergone over the last year. For "The Sparrow," Hinds penned a tribute to his brother, who died unexpectedly last December while hunting. (In fact, Mastodon have two working titles for the album in honor of Brad: The Hunter or Brother.)
"Me and my family are in the phase where we've accepted it and now I'm paying homage to him," says Hinds. As for its sonic vibe, "It sounds like Zeppelin with these smooth buttery vocals and a huge Jimmy Page-style guitar solo. Me and Brann play off each other also in this sort of proggy way. There's a lot of stuff for the listener to tweak their ear to."
Prior to Mastodon's new disc, Hinds will release a double-album set on June 7 featuring his two side-projects Fiend Without a Face (his mid-90s band prior to joining Mastodon) and West End Motel. (Stream music below.) The records, which feature material that he recorded in the mid-'90s, are a welcome departure from Mastodon's thrashy, progged-out fare: Fiend Without a Face finds Hinds digging into his love of old garage rock bands like the Mummies and Mothers of Invention-era Zappa. Highlights include "Tsunami," which tips its hat to Dick Dale's twangy surf guitar, and "Get Straight," which features snatches of Devo's "Whip It." "I love '80s New Wave music and I'm a gigantic Devo fan," Hinds says. "I've got the whole Devo costume and everything."
But Hinds' music with West End Motel is far weirder — and cooler. A collaboration with his best friend (and local Atlanta musician) Tom Cheshire, the group's music sounds like Tom Waits and Tim Burton co-hosting the creepiest vaudeville show ever. Lyrically, the two offer up a deranged snapshot of American culture — many of the tunes were inspired by spontaneous freight-train trips they took years ago.
"It's all about that experience of traveling on trains and along the rails, that nomadic, once-in-a-lifetime, last hurrah kinda thing that you had," says Hinds. "Don't get me wrong. It's not like I was sum bum or anything — I had a construction job — but this is something I see kids doing all the time nowadays, and these songs are all about that experience."
But even though Mastodon are gearing up for a return, Hinds won't abandon his work with his other bands: he's hoping to plot a run of East Coast dates this summer with Fiend Without a Face, and has two more records already in the bag. "I've just been dying to get this stuff out there," he says. "And I think Mastodon fans will like it — they're open minded."
Well, my feelings about Mastodon maybe haven't been as documented as they could be in here. But I did write up this back in 2009 about
Mastodon - Crack the Skye
"The Last Baron" is awesome. And the truth is I probably enjoy more than half of this album. But I think hype and expectations hurt it. It's 3.5 stars, and many people made it out to be their best work. Sort of in the Muse-disease. They haven't gotten over the hump. Baroness made a record at a similar level this year, but I guess my expectations weren't as high for that. I also think the vocals for this band, while not all that different than Burst or Baroness stylistically, kind of stick-out like a sore thumb at times. I feel like I'm hearing dumbed-down singing to be honest. And of course to mention Burst, I would rather just listen to them instead overall. They're gone, so that idea for new music may never happen again. I think Leviathan still remains their best work, but even that I don't feel is hardly at Burst's level.
and I still feel that way, as Burst just are or were more my thing. But, I still enjoy Mastodon enough to be interested in their next work (unlike some of the shark-jumping bands, or bands who I've never got their hype, even among prog and metal fans). And Burst sadly are no more.
From the article though, this sounds like a less serious kind of writing. Maybe it'll be more Motorhead influenced or something. If it's more like Leviathan, I may get more into it as I probably consider that album my favorite still (not by any large margin mind you). But we'll see.
1. The Waterway 4:34
2. Immune 6:57
3. Burning in the Rain 4:20
4. Atonement 2:00
5. Indra's Web 5:42
6. The Duel 3:53
7. Brindle 4:29
8. No Ever After 3:57
9. Veil 7:42
10. Until Dawn 4:30
11. Sepia 2:13
12. Frail Hand 9:41
Wow, over the last week I just can't seem to get enough of this album from this Madison, Wisconsin based progressive metal band Orphan Bloom. It's ballsy, riffy, bluesy, technical, groove metal. This record has these thick yet catchy guitar hooks at times that never leave your head. "No Ever After" and "Until Dawn" maybe being the most memorable. Some other standouts include the epic "Indra's Web" the opening cut The Waterway" and the closer "Frail Hand." Along with some songs with these nice acoustic ballady sections in "Brindle" and "Veil."
I am really loving this album a ton, and probably a bit more with each listening. These guys have the chops, the memorable melodies, the riffs, the molding of influences. Even their singer, while he's not the greatest singer I've ever heard, keeps growing on me and I find fits their music extremely well.
The groups who do come to mind, just for the sake of a reference point: King's X, Mastodon, Rush, Motorhead and along the lines of both Mastodon and Motorhead, the great band from Texas I saw a few years back with Fair to Midland, The House Harkonnen.
Really badass, groovey blues metal, that is progressive rock of a kind, but really never is guilty of excessiveness.
And one other thing that I can't help but think about is at the show I saw them a few weeks ago in Minneapols at the "Progasm" at the 400 Bar, they played some new material. In other words, their next work may not be far away, and could be even better, as they clearly were the band I was impressed by the most that evening.
I think one of the biggest parts of what I love about them is the guitar tones they use and the tasteful guitar solos. Their lead guitarist Saigopal Nelaturi brings influences that are non-traditional-to-many-hard-rock/metal bands. As shown at the beginning of "Indra's Web" among other sections. I think among other things, his guitar work and style, makes them stand out over so many other "prog" and "prog metal" bands trying to do something significant now.
I probably would call this among if not the best 2010 record I've heard in 2011 thus far. Those are the kinds of albums I look forward to every year, even if I'm not around during the initial release period/year.
I can't wait to hear what they do next and see them live again.
