Mastodon appreciation: the best band on earth | 'Once More 'Round The Sun' out now

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Well thanks to this thread, I've been checking out the entire Mastodon discography for a few days. I fucking LOVE THEM.

I'm definitely not a hardcore metal listener. But I do love alot of these songs.

I found the first two albums, Remission and Leviathan hard to get into at first. I was a little meh to them at first even though they sounded rocking.

But then Blood Mountain hit the spot for me. More melodic, more complex. I loved Sleeping Giant. Circle of Cysquatch. Colony of Birchmen. This Mortal Soil. Fucking Wolf is Loose is incredible. I really liked it right away.

Crack the Skye took me awhile. It was dark and moody and took a couple of listens to really take hold of me. But fucking WOW, once it did, this album is incredible. Divinations and Oblivion blew me away. The Csar is fantastic. Ghosts of Karelia gave me chills. And then I finally sat through The Baron. It absolutely slayed me. What an album!

And then The Hunter. All I had read about it was everybody bitching about it. I was expecting a complete turn from the earlier material. Not so at all! The Hunter is fucking great! I think it may even have my favorite songs. Stargasm, Dry Bone Valley, Bedazzled Fingernails, Spectrelight, The Hunter, The Sparrow, Curl of the Burl. I fucking love them all! Yes they are way more melodic than before, and I LOVE it.

And now I'm kind of trying to enjoy the earlier stuff. I've been watching videos of them live, and I fucking love March of the Fire Ants, Blood and Thunder, Megalodon, Iron Tusk. I'm sure many other songs will continue to grow on me.

So all in all, thanks for the thread. Mastodon has a new fan! Looking forward to the new album!
 
Mastodon, along with High on Fire and The Sword consume most of my listening time these days, absolutely love the evolution of their albums so far. I didn't think they could top Crack the Skye, but The Hunter has really grown on me.

Good shit.
 
Good thread. Opeth is in my top 2 all-time fav bands along with Tool, but Mastodon are def. top 5.

Mastodon are BY FAR the most fun to sing along with like a maniac in the car though.
 
VindicatorZ said:
Well thanks to this thread, I've been checking out the entire Mastodon discography for a few days. I fucking LOVE THEM.

I'm definitely not a hardcore metal listener. But I do love alot of these songs.

I found the first two albums, Remission and Leviathan hard to get into at first. I was a little meh to them at first even though they sounded rocking.

But then Blood Mountain hit the spot for me. More melodic, more complex. I loved Sleeping Giant. Circle of Cysquatch. Colony of Birchmen. This Mortal Soil. Fucking Wolf is Loose is incredible. I really liked it right away.

Crack the Skye took me awhile. It was dark and moody and took a couple of listens to really take hold of me. But fucking WOW, once it did, this album is incredible. Divinations and Oblivion blew me away. The Csar is fantastic. Ghosts of Karelia gave me chills. And then I finally sat through The Baron. It absolutely slayed me. What an album!

And then The Hunter. All I had read about it was everybody bitching about it. I was expecting a complete turn from the earlier material. Not so at all! The Hunter is fucking great! I think it may even have my favorite songs. Stargasm, Dry Bone Valley, Bedazzled Fingernails, Spectrelight, The Hunter, The Sparrow, Curl of the Burl. I fucking love them all! Yes they are way more melodic than before, and I LOVE it.

And now I'm kind of trying to enjoy the earlier stuff. I've been watching videos of them live, and I fucking love March of the Fire Ants, Blood and Thunder, Megalodon, Iron Tusk. I'm sure many other songs will continue to grow on me.

So all in all, thanks for the thread. Mastodon has a new fan! Looking forward to the new album!
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Reading this post makes me so happy. Another convert. If you're not into metal I can imagine the early stuff being a bit harder to get into, but it grows on you.

Mastodon is a great 'gateway' band. I started listening to a lot of other metal because of them. Tip, VindicatorZ and other new fans: try out Baroness' Blue Album now. Pretty sure you'll love that as well.

A little taste

I've been on a Remission binge as of late. Fire Ants still is a kick to the teeth after a ton of listens. And the random blues lick in the middle of Crusher Destroyer... God I love this band.

Got recommended High on Fire in the metal thread, which is now my 2nd favorite metal band. Matt Pike = legend.

Hulud said:
Mastodon are BY FAR the most fun to sing along with like a maniac in the car though.
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Hell yes. I can't count the number of times I've listened to their albums in my car. One time I sang/yelled through everything on CtS, headbanging included. People that saw me driving by probably thought I was nuts.
 
Got into them around the time Crack the Skye came out, absolutely blew me away.

Love The Hunter as well, as it gives me a good album for me to recommend to new listeners to ease the transition into their older stuff. Stargasm and Octopus are great tracks.
 
Andrew_Korenchkin said:
Trust me, you won't regret listening to it. It's an amazing album, very evocative with tons of killer melodies and amazing songwriting.
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You were right man, listened to it a couple of times already. There's just something amazing about listening to black metal during a gloomy autumn day. The album is a masterpiece. How are the other ones compare to it? I still buy physical but since they're so hard to find in store I'm relying on iTunes. Might go ahead and grab Crimson II...
 
The Main Event said:
You were right man, listened to it a couple of times already. There's just something amazing about listening to black metal during a gloomy autumn day. The album is a masterpiece. How are the other ones compare to it? I still buy physical but since they're so hard to find in store I'm relying on iTunes. Might go ahead and grab Crimson II...
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Damn, not sure honestly. I've been trying to find more like it in the genre, but this one is quite special. I haven't heard anything else from them, but I'm going to give Crimson II a shot as well.
 
VindicatorZ said:
Well thanks to this thread, I've been checking out the entire Mastodon discography for a few days. I fucking LOVE THEM.

I'm definitely not a hardcore metal listener. But I do love alot of these songs.
Click to expand...

I listen to loads of metal and don't really get the Mastodon hype~

Around the time of their first 3 albums Boris was putting out similar stuff but so much better. Boris now is like an unrelated genre though
 
Creamium said:
Got recommended High on Fire in the metal thread, which is now my 2nd favorite metal band. Matt Pike = legend.
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Give these a try:

Boris - Heavy Rocks (the first one, they released a completely different album in 2011 also called Heavy Rocks. Fans call it Heavy Rocks 2 usually)
Boris - Pink

They put out so much stuff though and a load of it is b-sides so it's sort of hard to navigate if you actually want to hear good stuff. I think Pink is probably the most accessible if you're looking for something hard and fast, their earlier stuff is much sludgier and their later stuff is just them doing whatever they feel like. Like a Jpop song next to a death metal song it's weird.

Sleep - Dopesmoker
Pretty much the album that gave birth to this entire genre, although it's the same guy as High on Fire so you probably know about it

Acid Bath - When the Kite String pops
The band only released 2 albums before the guitarist died in a car crash but the first one was awesome

Off the top of my head
 
I went through a huge Mastodon period when I was big into Protest The Hero. It was around the time Leviathan had come out, and it was actually GAFers who recommended Mastodon.
 
Been a fan since like 2005, Leviathan is still my favorite, mostly just because of how consistent the theme of that album is. Saw them live when they were touring with Against Me for Blood Mountain, first concert actually, it was pretty great despite each band took like an hour to set up. They use to do a great The Bit cover, looking at youtube apparently they can't pull of the vocals like they used too.

Enjoyed Blood Mountain, and I appreciate Crack The Skye's ambition, even if the songs where they don't go for broke kind of drag, I.E. Ghost of Karelia and Crack the Skye. Both ten minute plus songs though, great. EDIT: Think I meant Quintessance.

The Hunter though, can't stand that album. Besides Curl of the Burl, Blasteroid and The Hunter, don't enjoy any of the tracks, and two of those have massive caveats. Curl of the Burl feels a half step two fast, like they had a perfect stoner metal riff and decided to speed it up...cuz yea. And Blasteroid, talk about just doing something completely different and being great at it, till they get cold feet and include that blood-curdling scream and "metalness," gross.

Also, I second any recommendation of Acid Bath.
 
Booker Dewitt said:
The Hunter though, can't stand that album. Besides Curl of the Burl, Blasteroid and The Hunter, don't enjoy any of the tracks, and two of those have massive caveats. Curl of the Burl feels a half step two fast, like they had a perfect stoner metal riff and decided to speed it up...cuz yea. And Blasteroid, talk about just doing something completely different and being great at it, till they get cold feet and include that blood-curdling scream and "metalness," gross.

Also, I second any recommendation of Acid Bath.
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Does nobody like the song "The Sparrow?" I find that song fucking beautiful, and the solo is incredible.

And the rest of The Hunter, I really love Stargasm, Dry Bone Valley, and Spectrelight among others.
 
Love Mastodon and find every one of their albums to offer something complex and refreshing. Anyone else seen them live? I've seen them twice and their stage presence has pretty much been non-existent. Always super-technical and energetic on stage, though.
 
FaceDa said:
Give these a try:

Boris - Heavy Rocks (the first one, they released a completely different album in 2011 also called Heavy Rocks. Fans call it Heavy Rocks 2 usually)
Boris - Pink

They put out so much stuff though and a load of it is b-sides so it's sort of hard to navigate if you actually want to hear good stuff. I think Pink is probably the most accessible if you're looking for something hard and fast, their earlier stuff is much sludgier and their later stuff is just them doing whatever they feel like. Like a Jpop song next to a death metal song it's weird.

Sleep - Dopesmoker
Pretty much the album that gave birth to this entire genre, although it's the same guy as High on Fire so you probably know about it

Acid Bath - When the Kite String pops
The band only released 2 albums before the guitarist died in a car crash but the first one was awesome

Off the top of my head
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The bolded sounds terrible to me, but I'll check out that Pink album. I've heard of Boris before (lot of fans here on gaf I think?), but I didn't know they made sludge/stoner stuff

Yes I know Sleep, big fan of course

Never heard of Acid Bath, will give that album a listen.
 
I have Blood Mountain, Crack The Skye, and The Hunter. I remember seeing Blood Mountain at the record store and picked up a copy just based on how sick the album art was. I got hooked. Listened to them on the way to work today.
 
Jroderton said:
I have Blood Mountain, Crack The Skye, and The Hunter. I remember seeing Blood Mountain at the record store and picked up a copy just based on how sick the album art was. I got hooked. Listened to them on the way to work today.
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Get Leviathan + Live At The Aragon( DVD) when you get a chance. .
 
I wouldn't really consider myself a big metal listener but I really like some of this bands stuff.

Are there anymore bands that play music like this?
 
Funny how neither Mastodon nor Baroness seem to be into growling these days. Not that that necessarily has to be bad, I love me some Remission but also The Hunter and Yellow & Green. The new song sounds great too.
 
NutJobJim said:
I wouldn't really consider myself a big metal listener but I really like some of this bands stuff.

Are there anymore bands that play music like this?
Click to expand...

Baroness is your go to choice indeed. Listen to the blue album!

If you like the heavier side of things, definitely give High on Fire a shot. sample sample 2

You'll want to check out Electric Wizard's Dopethrone as well, and maybe you'll dig Gojira as well.
 
MY MAN!!!

Amazing band & blows pretty much all metal out of the water.

(Best album: Leviathan. Best song from that album: Seabeast.)

I have one serious issue with their last couple albums, tho. Their mastering and sound is just so awful. They are an unfortunate victim in the loudness-wars. Very harsh, overcompressed sound that sucks all dynamics out of the recording and that makes listening to it so tiring. The way The Hunter was mastered... it's just utter shit.
 
I'm a little ehhh to that new single though. Kind of a generic riff, decent chorus. The song is merely ok. I expect bigger things from the album.
 
High Road is fantastic, on repeat again after a tough work day. The new album can't come out soon enough now, loving this single.
 
Blood Mountain > Remission > Leviathan > Crack the Skye > The Hunter

for me of course. found out about them from rock band actually, since a lot of metal isnt played on Canadian radio. been a hardcore fan ever since.

also: seen them live twice, once with opeth, once with dethklok. wish they would come back to vancouver

K0Rpoma.jpg
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I love Mastodon, gonna see them a few weeks with Gojira and Kvelertak (soooo stoked).

Buuut I think "High Road" is a supremely unexciting track. I really like Troy's higher vocals, but the song writing is disappointingly basic and straightforward; the drums are especially lacking in any sort of rad fills and the main riffs are lackluster by any standard, especially that of Mastodon. It's one of the more radio-friendly and lame songs they've ever done; hopefully the rest of the album is better.
 
I like them quite a bit as well. Crack the Skye being my favorite. They lead me to Baroness whom I like even more.
 
hiryu said:
I like them quite a bit as well. Crack the Skye being my favorite. They lead me to Baroness whom I like even more.
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I'm a big fan of Baroness too. Their sound is definitely similar to Mastodon but they're a great band in their own right. I really like the color theme they have going with their albums too. Each color has a distinct sound, and the artwork on each album is really beautiful.

I need to check out the new Mastodon track.
 
Just popping in to say I love the new song 'High Road'. Leviathan is my favorite metal album of all time, second only to Slayer's South of Heaven. Seeing Mastodon live is life changing. Love hearing Brann sing like this. They are just such an awesome band. I think it is cool to switch up who is the lead singer. They are really evolving well over time.
 
I don't consider myself a metal head but Blood Mountain is probably in the top 20 of my favorite albums. I fucking love how the album closes out with Siberian Divide and Pendulous Skin.
 
Saw them in Belfast when they were touring for Blood Mountain. Awesome live band. Their tour t-shirts weren't of the highest quality though. Two washes and I was left with a plain grey t-shirt.
 
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