Blood Mountain is the best metal album I've heard since The August Engine

[dorian gray]

I used to play bass for Mastodon but got fired for being too good

 

[cthulufhtagn]

need to pick dis up

 

[General Zod]

I'm totally gonna pay JayK five quid to give your sexy bald head a noogie next time he sees you.

Isn't that like $12,000 in real (American) money?

Zod

 

[Dark One]

Zod, you're missing the big RC development here..... NAD thnks you're sexy.

 

[JayKeeley]

who doesn't

 

[jimbobhickville]

It's my #1 of the year still, although Aghora is coming out next week, so we'll have to see if it can stand up to the debut.

Then again, most of you wankers don't like my taste anyway. Oh, and Nad, have you not heard Unexpect - In a Flesh Aquarium? Hot damn is that some good metal, and it came out between the two.

I was also surprised to not see Mars Volta on your year-end list.

 

[Krigloch the Furious]

booo, bad band.

 

[Necro Joe]

Album of the year for me too and a big step up from Leviathan. Go Nad.

 

[Dev]

My 2 cents :

Remission >>>>>>>>> Blood Mountain >> Leviathan

I only enjoyed Remission on the long run. Blood Mountain is pretty ok but it goes in every direction possible which is something I barely stand . Sometimes it becomes a wankfest like in "Capillarian Crest" or just bad ("Bladecatcher" ) . I think they really have something, the only problem is that they are praised far too much.

 

[Demonspell]

Then again, most of you wankers don't like my taste anyway. Oh, and Nad, have you not heard Unexpect - In a Flesh Aquarium? Hot damn is that some good metal, and it came out between the two.

Just picked that up...fucking demented. Sounds like La Masquerade Infernale played at the frenzied pace of someone like Ephel Duath, with Fantomas-ish interjections all over the place.

 

[JayKeeley]

OK I finally listened to this a bunch of times.

I don't know why but I have both Remission and Leviathan in my CD collection. I never listen to them and I think I've told NAD a billion times that I'm going to send them over to him.

That said, Blood Mountain is a different animal. It's a big change from Leviathan if you ask me because it sounds as if they've dropped the -core elements and moved into heavy metal territory.

Guitar harmonies galore, tons of progressive riffing, and clean vocals with melody. Yes, there are still some harsh vocals but they're less "shouty" and more "thrashy" if that makes sense. At times, the dude sounds like Tom Araya, and everywhere inbetween.

This is like progressive bay area speed metal, or something. I like it. Perhaps it deserves some of the praise it's been getting.....hmmmm.

If I end up with 3 Mastodon CD's in my collection then I know I've finally entered the world of NAD-madness.

 

[Demilich]

I know there's a reason I bought Remission, but once I had it I just couldn't get into it, so I sold it. I've kind of wanted to check out this new one because of some of the praise its getting. Plus it has Josh Homme on it!

 

[JayKeeley]

Haha, I never knew that. It's funny because there were times when I thought "Kyuss vocals??". There's a ton of stuff going on in this album.

 

[Demilich]

Josh is on track 7, "Colony of Birchmen." Theres also this:

The album's last song, "Pendulous Skin", contains a secret "fan letter" from Josh Homme, who provided guest vocals on the album. At 21:25, He says: "Dear Mastodon, my name is Joshua, I'm a big fan from Southern Cal. Really diggin' on your new scene. That's why I hope you don't mind when I got your new demos for your new CD, I had to sing parts on them and send them to you as a tribute. I hope you're not mad about me also uploading them onto the Internet. But hell, it seems like you guys are so cool that you might dig something just like that. Sincerely, your fan, Joshua M. Homme. P.S., Keep it real...REAL (studio effects are used)....*laughter*....REAL."

 

[dill_the_devil]

Jay - what do you consider '-core elements'? I've seen you use that phrase several times in connection with Mastodon and a few other bands, and I go a little bit cross-eyed every time trying to work out what you mean by it. Is it just the 'harsh' vocals?

 

[Krilons Resa]

so, this thread inspired me to listen to this album again.

nope, still don't like it.

PS - I always liked Emission though.

 

[JayKeeley]

Jay - what do you consider '-core elements'? I've seen you use that phrase several times in connection with Mastodon and a few other bands, and I go a little bit cross-eyed every time trying to work out what you mean by it. Is it just the 'harsh' vocals?

Good question.

For me it's low-brow music. Very little lead melodies, lacking solos, and more emphasis on hammering out the chords. Heavy metal is quite an intricate beast, and -core generally manages to take away those intricacies.

Vocals represent so much of a genre in that if you don't agree with the vocals, you may find yourself dismissing the entire genre altogether. Case in point -- someone might like death metal music but hates the vocals, and so disregards death metal in every manner.

That's me with hardcore. The vocals are enough to make me want to skip the genre in its entirety. I don't know where bands like Isis or Mastodon sit because I can take some of their stuff (especially Isis for obvious reasons), but generally, any vocals that are "shouted" turn me off.

I'm ok with black, death, thrash, power, clean, etc....but "shouty" vocals are lame.

One of the biggest "jump the shark" moments in metal is when Sepultura went from Arise to Chaos AD. (Less for vocal reasons, more for dumbing down of their supreme thrash roots).

 

[dill_the_devil]

Nice answer, and even despite me being something of a metalcore apologist, I pretty much agree with the '-core elements simplify music' aspect - I'm a big Hatebreed fan, but even I can admit that they do little more than meaty breakdowns and riffs that are pretty basic. I can see where you stand with the vocals too - although personally 'shouty' vocals don't bother me as much as monotonous vocals in any style. I'm a big fan of Carnal Forge's singer, Jens C. Mortensen, because he seems to pack about fifteen distinct vocal approaches into each track.

 

[JayKeeley]

Yeah of course I generalized in the answer but sometimes it's difficult to avoid when trying to make a point.

To be honest, every genre has its few gems.

In reality though, music is at its best when you can air guitar to it.

 

[dill_the_devil]

Ain't that the truth!