Mastodon - The Hunter (2011) - First Listen and Review

These albums get leaked and then I listen to them for the first time all the way through while typing out my inane thoughts as each song flashes by. Why do I do this?
A) Because I am deluded... living in a fantasy world thinking I am Hunter Thompson and Cameron Crowe ...
B) because I am amused to read what I wrote a year later and see how stupidly wrong I was ...
C) because none of my real friends and relatives will listen to me babble on about relatively obscure forms of musical expression such as ECM solo piano or in this case extreme metal
D) all of the above

For the record I am writing this in New Delhi and drinking Chivas 12 year, chilled but with no ice.

Purging of the pre-conceptions - I already had heard the first two songs on this album. I also heard that on this album they used all the songs which were too heavy, too brutal or too written by somebody not named Brent Hinds on the last album. Are Mastodon taking the piss? Is this their "Houses of the Holy"? Inconsistent collection of leftovers and off-topic experiments? Who knows. Crack the Skye was awesome, Leviathan was awesome too, Blood Mountain was fantastic. Remission was their first and the last one I owned and its brutally uncompromising and hard to hear what they are singing. That's what I know. (the 9 songs on Call of the Mastodon are even more brutally screamed aggressive cave paintings with over the top drumming. so all their shit is great... so far...)

and off we go.

BLACK TONGUE
Mastodon are damn unique. Because they permit their drummer to go off and go nuts. The detuned guitars are very powerful but lots of bands have done that (the first being black sabbath to the best of my knowledge). Very few have let their drummer consistently take the lead role --- even during verses. Playing through, over, against, between ... almost never repeating the same part for more than 16 measures in a row. That's Mastodon.
This song reminds me of some of the great stuff on Leviathan. And its got some nice guitar work, nothing too shredding but quite powerful nonetheless. The singing here is in a similar vein I believe to Leviathan but perhaps is a bit clearer. It took them awhile to believe in their vocals enough to set them free in the mix.

CURL OF THE BURL
Piss officially taken. Some disco influence here. Still crazy shit going on in the guitars in the chorus, some doubling back and cutting the time. But what the fuck are they singing about and why? Is this the first Mastodon party anthem since... ever??? (maybe the song with the scratching in Blood Mountain). The middle section opens it up ... just a bit... into that alice in chains space --- at least guitar wise --- but we are still neurotically propelled forward by the drums. the drums and mostly the snare, which is used throughout the bands career as a rapper uses a turntable ... to control the space --- to ripple time. Its all about the snare with this band.

BLASTEROID
what are these titles? what am i supposed to do with this southern rock intro? wild stuff. i need some more chivas. I think Brent Hinds is a great guitarist. He doesn't always make it out of the mix --- but on the last 2 albums the mix is cleaned up and you can better appreciate all the different styles he can throw at you and always sound unforced.

STARGASM
beep beep whistlestar pop. and some nicko mcbrain type tom rolls. very dramatic. where are we going with this one??? If we are playing the which album is this an outtake from then obviously its from crack the skye... isn't it? That album was originally rumoured to be about rasputin and then ... they decided that was too obvious??? I wish I had a lyric sheet for the Brent songs cos its not easy to hear wtf he is singing. oh wait "you're on fire" x 8 ... of course that's what he's singing (?!?!) The rhythm guitar in this song, and in this band, is damn propelling. In some bands like Maiden its the bass but in Mastodon its the rhythm guitar which is the tank treads and the bass is like underground party streamers of color. Buried under six feet of muddy fuzz of course. That's just the way it is. oh and by the way "you're on fire"

OCTOPUS HAS NO FRIENDS
from the title i am going to guess its an aqua hunger teens outtake? Great vocal layering, they obviously learned a lot doing the last record. I'm a little shocked by the poppiness of it all.

ALL THE HEAVY LIFTING
"can you show me where to find the stream - i've been told before that the water's clean"
great guitar playing in the verse --- the chorus reminds me (for the first 4 or 5 chords) of the track "public enema number one" from no prayer for the dying - and why shouldn't it be so seeing as Brann Dailor is a massive Maiden fan. or maybe I am and I am making a connection that doesn't exist. apparently. but wasn't it fun activating dead cells of my brain which haven't been heard from since that night in January 1991 at the GMU Patriot Center when I saw eddie live for the first time. Actually the last time too since in 1996 at Hammerjacks there wasn't an eddie. No room on stage for that stuff. Just a raw club gig with Fear Factory opening. But this is supposed to be about Mastodon and they just switched gears on me in this song. and then again. in the space of like 10 seconds. "we didn't come this far just to turn around". true enough. nobody is gonna confuse this stuff with an attempt to suck in a wider audience --- this is more indulgence, a purging of the spirits, abstract painting on an invisible canvas. fade out. and i'll shut up now.

THE HUNTER
I guess its not a song about Ted Nugent. But it has a cool Mastodonian acoustic + electric guitar double tracked arpeggioed out opening. cool. This is how phasing should be used. Phasing should take you back to 1978. Or 1968. Or something. "All the love I make is equal to the love I take" ... now they are inverting Paul McCartney. Damn, they are bigger now after Crack the Skye. And that's the cleanest vocals Troy has laid down... ever? Confidence in hearing their own voices --- a good sign. Classic Brent leads. The guitar part will remind you of another old gem that appeared --- oh wait --- on their last album (The Czar). But why quit while you're ahead. And they're ahead by all measurements. This song is the best on the album so far. They front-loaded the album with oddities in order to prove something... but what?

DRY BONE VALLEY
Brent channels the edge? just for a bit. Then these guys show what they learned from Josh Homme in the vocal dept. Vocally, Mastodon have gotten better with each album. You can hear what they are singing, and they actually have some nice harmonies now.

THE THICKENING
A song about Jeff Hanneman in the 90s? No, no, just kidding. Seriously? the second half of this album is twice as good as the first. Better songs, better lines, better singing, what does it mean? Usually by the way with this band its the opposite. The first 4 or 5 songs on Leviathan are just the best streak of throat grabbing metal awesomeness ever. Blood mountain opens damn strong as well too before it goes WEIRD. Here for some reason, the album keeps getting better and better as it goes along.

CREATURE LIVES
Maybe this one belonged in the first half of the album. WTF. I don't get it.

SPECTRELIGHT
And we're back. Just when you thought Mastodon had gone all theatrical on us --- they reemerge from behind the barn with a freshly sharpened axe and some furious forward pedaling rhythm.

BEDAZZLED FINGERNAILS
The bass shines in the song, but it shines underneath, in the dark, beneath all the other moving parts. But the bass playing here carries the verses and makes the song.

THE SPARROW
Starting out like it could be another instrumental Brent album closer... is it? Its not an acoustic instrumental but it is a mid-tempo strolling trip through coolness. Groovy lead guitar, reverberated vocal ah-ing... its an atmospheric curtain coming down on this interesting, although perhaps not very consistent album.

overall: 3.5 stars. too weird to be their greatest but many moments of brilliance. Can't wait for their sixth album.

wait...what?

Elvis Presley... sporting a Gibson EDS-1275, not unlike the one made famous by Jimmy Page in live performances of Stairway to Heaven, but with double necks of 6 strings each? I don't get it... First, I'm shocked to see Elvis with the guitar made famous by JP, a full 8 years earlier, second I'm wondering why Elvis would need a second neck with 6 strings (not 12 like JP)...

Did Elvis use some altered tunings? Was he tuned to open G? Dropped D? Mastodon-esque tuning 2 whole steps down of CFA#D#GC ?http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

More light needs to be shed on Elvis' low-tuned brutal death-core period.

some links provided by my friend Gad Erez:

http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/24732-elvis-doubleneck-gibson/

http://www.abalonevintage.com/gibson_double_neck_guitars.htm

Ten bands you may never have heard of ...

... but you should check out as soon as possible.


Is a band unknown if they've sold tens of millions of albums? if they have a gold record? if you can buy their cds at your local cd shop (does such a thing still exist?). If they've been parodied on Saturday Night Live? If they played their own 3 day festival to 70,000 hard core fans?

OK, so they aren't UNKNOWN per se. But they may be unknown TO YOU and that's what I hope to correct.


Here they are in order from most unknown to ridiculous that I need to tell you about them:


JFA
old school skate punk of the most 80s risers, rails and clear grip tape variety. some great live clips on youtube. I may own the only copy left of the 1984 Live CD... who knows...




Fugazi
Local hometown favorites from Washington DC. Post-punk formed from the ashes of Minor Threat. Great guitar and rhythms. My favorite album has got to be In on The Kill Taker. $8 post-paid.



Camel
"Music Inspired by the Snow Goose" is their big seller but the albums "Moonmadness", "Nude" and "Mirage" are great ones as well. So many awesome songs, many instrumentals, delivered with one of the greatest guitar tones this side of David Gilmour by Camel guitarist Andy Latimer.



Wishbone Ash.
Argus, their best and most famous album, was album of the year in Sounds in 1972 --- yet this is a band which sadly doesn't get enough mention or credit today. I first heard of them when Steve Harris mentioned they were one of his favorite groups in an interview in the 80s. I have to say he learned a lot from them as the bass sound in Iron Maiden is very reminiscent of Martin Turner's sound on the Wishbone Ash albums from 1970-1980. Iron Maiden also had producer Martin Birch who was the engineer on many Wishbone Ash albums. In addition to Argus, I recommend the first album (Wishbone Ash), New England, Pilgrimage, Wishbone Four and the awesome title track of the Number the Brave album (otherwise not their best work).





Government Mule
Founded in 1995 by Warren Haynes, Allen Woody and Matt Abts --- all longtime Allman family sidemen --- Gov't Mule started out as a Southern Rock Power Trio that didn't shy away from covering say... Prince, John Coltrane or The Beatles. These days they are a four piece and have several quality albums to their name. A great one to start with is "The Deep End Volume 1" which features a ton of bass all stars paying tribute to Woody after his untimely year 2000 demise.

I give you the first Mule song I ever saw... from the Bonnaroo DVD of 2002...



Mastodon
I was introduced to this massively heavy band by our drummer Saar Gur. These guys combine southern style leads, hyperactive Keith Moon like drumming and crunching dropped tuning riffs. Heavy.

Here's a hysterical video they did for the last album:


Opeth
Another band I was introduced to by my friends Roy Berger and Saar Gur. Opeth is the thinking man's Swedish death metal. In fact they are the only death metal I listen to although I do have a soft spot for At The Gates (and Lamb of God if they count as death metal).
Anyway Opeth...
They combine the heaviest playing you'll ever need to hear (the end of Deliverance, Ghost of Perdition, The Lotus Eater, others), with some of the sweetest soloing and harmonic prog-rock styled playing reminiscent of Camel and Pink Floyd. They also have an all-clean vocals album (for those of you who aren't ready for cookie monster vocals)
So without further ado... opeth



but wait! This is also Opeth




Phish
A college favorite of mine and many others that just haven't made an impact overseas (yet). I've gone months where I've only listened to this band. Mostly live recordings of their fantastic and off the wall shows where they never play the same set, rarely play the same song the same way, and work in insane covers and jams.
Check out the album "A Live One" or my other personal favorites "Rift" or "The Story of the Ghost"


Rush
How can a band who's sold 30 million albums be unknown? Rush refer to themselves as the "world's biggest cult band" and they have a rabid following in the US and Canada and to a certain extent in other places (Rio, Brazil certainly). Three incredibly proficient musicians and gifted song-writers, who have managed to make great music in 4 decades and across a wide range of styles. Their first album sounded a bit like Led Zeppelin or Aerosmith, then they went deep prog, followed by hard rock including their big hits "Spirit of Radio" and "Tom Sawyer" following which they dabbled with new wave and even had a song with a horribly geeky rap in the middle of it. In the 90s they added some grunginess to their guitars but the basic direction remains intact.



Blue Oyster Cult
Ok you've heard of them. But forget about "Don't fear the reaper". Listen to the amazing album SECRET TREATIES.