New Mastodon Album

[godgrinder]

Some parts hark back to the Remission/Leviathan days but the album is a bit too long for its own good. Would be better if it's ~50 mins long like most of their albums.

Also while Nick Johnston might be good for touring I'm not sure if he brings much to the table album-wise.

 

[dooredge]

Also while Nick Johnston might be good for touring I'm not sure if he brings much to the table album-wise.

Nick has writing credits on 5 songs.

 

[mermer]

I think this is a really good album. The use of keyboards and Nick's lines definitely set this album apart from their previous work. I was very upset when Brent left the band, as it marked the end of an era for both Mastodon and that specific style of music that has influenced me for decades. This album far exceeded my expectations and left me feeling hopeful and excited about the new chapter the band has entered.

 

[BenoA]

I work from home and I had it in rotation today (when the phone was not ringing ) and the more I listened to it, the more I like it. The drums are solid and some guitar solos are really twisted and fit the vibes of the songs. I like that they go from crunch tones to more heavy and that they don't sound like 90% of the other bands out there.

 

[Skinwalker]

It’s not bad.

It’s also not that good.

 

[DrewJD82]

Surprise, surprise, I fucking love it. I also loved H&G, Emperor and Once More Round The Sun. These guys became my favorite band once they did Crack The Sky and only The Hunter has been my “meh” album.

Not sure I’ve heard such a natural sounding drum sound on a heavy album, ever. It’s like a couple stereo mics above the toms and some close mics on the kick/snare and that’s it. Guitar tones surprised me, but I dig them. Bill said he did a bunch of them at his house, like “In The Ruins” was all him getting the tones with mic placement there instead of dicking around in their studio doing it.

I said it last week elsewhere but the guitars seem ‘humble’ to me as far as the tones go, they only get big when the song gets big. Nick has very clearly been studying Brent’s playing the last year, there’s 2 solos on there that are spot-on Brent solos and when Nick does his own thing it’s not out of place at all.

Troy deserves far more credit as a vocalist than he gets, that dude hits some fuckin’ notes you wouldn’t think a caveman could hit. He’s been doing that for a while but for some reason it’s unnoticed.

I’m probably at 15 listens and I’ve barely begun to memorize how the songs even go, music like this grabs me in little nuggets first then eventually entire songs grab me.

 

[Shevek]

Surprise, surprise, I fucking love it. I also loved H&G, Emperor and Once More Round The Sun. These guys became my favorite band once they did Crack The Sky and only The Hunter has been my “meh” album.

Not sure I’ve heard such a natural sounding drum sound on a heavy album, ever. It’s like a couple stereo mics above the toms and some close mics on the kick/snare and that’s it. Guitar tones surprised me, but I dig them. Bill said he did a bunch of them at his house, like “In The Ruins” was all him getting the tones with mic placement there instead of dicking around in their studio doing it.

I said it last week elsewhere but the guitars seem ‘humble’ to me as far as the tones go, they only get big when the song gets big. Nick has very clearly been studying Brent’s playing the last year, there’s 2 solos on there that are spot-on Brent solos and when Nick does his own thing it’s not out of place at all.

Troy deserves far more credit as a vocalist than he gets, that dude hits some fuckin’ notes you wouldn’t think a caveman could hit. He’s been doing that for a while but for some reason it’s unnoticed.

I’m probably at 15 listens and I’ve barely begun to memorize how the songs even go, music like this grabs me in little nuggets first then eventually entire songs grab me.

Totally agree about Troy's vocals. The guy is an absolute beast.

 

[mermer]

Surprise, surprise, I fucking love it. I also loved H&G, Emperor and Once More Round The Sun. These guys became my favorite band once they did Crack The Sky and only The Hunter has been my “meh” album.

Not sure I’ve heard such a natural sounding drum sound on a heavy album, ever. It’s like a couple stereo mics above the toms and some close mics on the kick/snare and that’s it. Guitar tones surprised me, but I dig them. Bill said he did a bunch of them at his house, like “In The Ruins” was all him getting the tones with mic placement there instead of dicking around in their studio doing it.

I said it last week elsewhere but the guitars seem ‘humble’ to me as far as the tones go, they only get big when the song gets big. Nick has very clearly been studying Brent’s playing the last year, there’s 2 solos on there that are spot-on Brent solos and when Nick does his own thing it’s not out of place at all.

Troy deserves far more credit as a vocalist than he gets, that dude hits some fuckin’ notes you wouldn’t think a caveman could hit. He’s been doing that for a while but for some reason it’s unnoticed.

I’m probably at 15 listens and I’ve barely begun to memorize how the songs even go, music like this grabs me in little nuggets first then eventually entire songs grab me.

I absolutely agree! Especially regarding the sound of the drums and guitars. The drums have a great sense of space, but the guitar tones could be a bit more distinctive; there’s nothing wrong with them, but they don’t quite grab me the way the guitars did on Hushed and Grim, Emperor of Sand or Once More ‘Round the Sun. All those recent albums featured a bold, unique, and powerful guitar sound, whereas on this album, it feels a bit more 'understated.' Perhaps that was done to make room for the keyboards, but I would have liked to hear a bit more of Bill’s chuga-chuga sound.

 

[tricalibur]

i just cant with these dudes anymore, it just sounds like some sort of circus fun house music that drives me nuts after a few songs. Not really heavy anymore, the drummer is just way too busy all the time and theres no groove, the singing is not good I do like their first couple albums, and they are one of those bands i want to like probably for nostalgia reasons, but one spin of this album was enough

Im pretty much with you here. Although, I will say The Hunter and Once More Round the Sun have some tracks I do dig. This one is sorely lacking those signature Brent guitar solos, but Troy is sounding really good. But why for the love of god does Brann have to over-inflect his vocals trying to sound like a gospel singer or something?.. Overall it’s decent, but not even close to their peak of Leviathan/Blood Mountain. Best not to think of these guys as a metal band anymore. Some sort or prog/pop/fusion act at this point. The addition of keyboards does somewhat help, and the arrangements seem to breathe a little better with less cluttered vocals. Something about the constant chord changes and overly emotive vocals that accompany them, which is a hallmark of the latter (commercial) version of this band, is fundamentally repulsive to me. It sounds like they’re actively trying to let the instrumentals shine through a little more. But yea, overall the loss of Brent Hinds is a major net-negative. But the band hasn’t really been good since 2006 in my opinion. The whacky arrangements and introduction of Brann’s weak vocals on Crack the Skye really ruined that album for me.

 

[RaceU4her]

But the band hasn’t really been good since 2006 in my opinion. The whacky arrangements and introduction of Brann’s weak vocals on Crack the Skye really ruined that album for me.

I fucking hated that album, like gets me irritated and in a bad mood kind of unlistenable hate lol. The earlier stuff i thought was cool, and they ripped live, i wouldnt call them my favorite band or anything though, then that album came out and i was jus like wtf is this, and everyone else was praising it like it was Zep 4 or Master of Reality or some shit. i still check out every new album, but even after 20 years now the stench of crack the skye lingers and i just cant get into it lol. Maybe ill go back later and see if i still hate it as much

 

[skoora]

Im pretty much with you here. Although, I will say The Hunter and Once More Round the Sun have some tracks I do dig. This one is sorely lacking those signature Brent guitar solos, but Troy is sounding really good. But why for the love of god does Brann have to over-inflect his vocals trying to sound like a gospel singer or something?.. Overall it’s decent, but not even close to their peak of Leviathan/Blood Mountain. Best not to think of these guys as a metal band anymore. Some sort or prog/pop/fusion act at this point. The addition of keyboards does somewhat help, and the arrangements seem to breathe a little better with less cluttered vocals. Something about the constant chord changes and overly emotive vocals that accompany them, which is a hallmark of the latter (commercial) version of this band, is fundamentally repulsive to me. It sounds like they’re actively trying to let the instrumentals shine through a little more. But yea, overall the loss of Brent Hinds is a major net-negative. But the band hasn’t really been good since 2006 in my opinion. The whacky arrangements and introduction of Brann’s weak vocals on Crack the Skye really ruined that album for me.

I dig his vocals a lot. Felt getting him in the mix on Crack the Skye was a great idea and thought his melodic choices on this new one were great.
Potato-Potahto strikes again!!!

 

[anomaly]

I'm not a big fan of this band any more but this album is growing on me for some reason. There's not much else out there to listen to that's new either so I'm giving this one a fair chance. I can say that I'm digging it so far. Much better than the new Lamb Of God album IMO.