So. Umm. WTF happened to Mastodon?!

[gunslinger_burrito]

I don't know how to react to this. Honestly I feel like the worst thing about it is the actual song.....
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp7CYvh8FwA[/youtube]

I still love Remission, Leviathan, Blood Mountain, and everything except some of the vocals on Crack the Skye.

The Hunter? Meh.

THIS?

[foomanfat]

Amazing.

[goroth]

Wow.

That was... yeah...

I love Remission, love Leviathan, and the rest has just been progressively less and less my thing. Guess there's no stopping that trend with this latest release. What I'm interested in, is how given that their audience must surely be 99% white male, what are they trying to get at with this vid? Is it ironic?

[PetZounds]

music is pretty shite though

[Joe Gress]

[Tristan]

I don't know, they're probably the shittiest Rock Group I ever saw live, before that gig I loved Crack The Skye, now, not so much...
This isn't too unexpected I think, they probably had to dumb it down a notch, so this time they can actually play the songs and put on a show live you know...
I hope for them they learned how to sing live in the meantime...

[braaandooon]

Haven't been as happy with the last few releases myself. Live performances started to suffer with the release of blood mountain when the tandem of vocalists started singing more. Brent being way to fucked up on stage for the most part hasn't help their cause either. Still like some of the material, but their best days are behind them.

[Jakezor]

Sorry ladies the Anaconda video shoot is that way --->

[jfrey]

I'm not bothered by it. It's not their best but I don't dislike it either.

But, I also think that Crack the Skye is by far their best album - like to an extent that I hardly even think of it as in the same category as their other albums. And nobody agrees with me on that so idk. Wasn't into Remission or Blood Mountain. Love Leviathan.

[D.o.S.]

They started to suck when they started to sing.

I'll still go see them next month, but damn.

[gunslinger_burrito]

I actually don't mind the video. The twerk irony or whatever they were going for doesn't bother me. It's the song that I don't like. So watered down compared to older material.

Musically, Crack the Skye is probably the most mature, imo. I like Blood Mountain because it has all the weirdest technical aspects, and it's surely their most experimental album. But the last couple albums have felt progressively simplified, which is fine, just different. I encourage any and all bands to evolve and change their style up. I just think it's weird that they went from heavy and intricate to "hot topic metal" for lack of a better term. I would've preferred it if they stayed technical and just got better at juggling all the vocals.

They started to suck when they started to sing.

I'll still go see them next month, but damn.

I saw them a couple yeas back for the Hunter tour. I figured they would play well, and they did, but I was surprised at how good the vocals were, too. I've seen some reeeeeeeally embarrassing live videos concerning vocals. They also played a fair amount of old songs, which made me happy. So maybe you'll luck out

[D.o.S.]

Yeah I saw them on the Hunter tour, with Opeth. It was kind of lame, but I don't like Opeth. They were much better doing Leviathan + Remission material when I saw them open for Slayer way back (almost exactly a decade from when I'll be seeing them again, actually. And at the same venue too), but that band is pretty dead and gone at this point.

At least I'll get to see Gojira.

[Harry_Manback]

I like the new album far better than the Hunter, but agree they've gone downhill.

They blew their 'introspective-intense-prog' load on Crack the Skye and seem to be in party mode. Poking fun at themselves and the Dungeons & Dragons metal scene in general.

Whatevs...I like booty.

[goroth]

Yeah I saw them on the Hunter tour, with Opeth. It was kind of lame, but I don't like Opeth. They were much better doing Leviathan + Remission material when I saw them open for Slayer way back (almost exactly a decade from when I'll be seeing them again, actually. And at the same venue too), but that band is pretty dead and gone at this point.

At least I'll get to see Gojira.

Yep, I last saw them on the slayer tour. Slayer were crap, as always, but mastodon killed it. Opeth... I think their songwriting has gone downhill since damnation. But I don't really like prog rock, so take that for what it's worth.

Have seen Gojira three times now and they are just insanely good. Always deliver regardless of the venue.
Enjoy it duder!

[Tristan]

I'm not bothered by it. It's not their best but I don't dislike it either.

But, I also think that Crack the Skye is by far their best album - like to an extent that I hardly even think of it as in the same category as their other albums. And nobody agrees with me on that so idk. Wasn't into Remission or Blood Mountain. Love Leviathan.

I'm completely on the same page there with you I think, Crack The Skye is by far my favourite album of theirs, well, I don't like any of it anymore after seeing them live though to be honest.
Funny to hear that more people have had such a lacking experience while going to see Mastodon live, I thought that maybe I was going crazy or that the fact I saw Isis a few months earlier, which in contrast is one of the best Rock bands I've ever seen live, had something to do with it.
That said, when I saw Mastodon the vocals were crap and sometimes hardly hearable, they all stood there like a bunch of potato bags and I'm pretty sure Brent forgot a good part of his more intricate guitar parts, at least it didn't sound close to what it was like on the record, there weren't that many people in the audience rocking out either, mostly they just stood there and went "Uhh, wut, okayyy, next" like my cousin and I did.