So. Umm. WTF happened to Mastodon?!

[braaandooon]

Lmao, this incident came to mind actually, so Dillinger may take that title...

http://www.nme.com/photos/the-21-grosse ... 170145/7/1

[jrmy]

So, what's the general opinion on clean, melodic vocals in metal?

I've never been a fan of either extreme (cookie monster or operatic) - I like a good gruff Lemmy-esque bark, or melodic-but-not-soaring vox. Of course, there are exceptions, but I've fully come to grips with the fact that, having grown up with late 80's/early 90's thrash, I am officially into "old-guy metal," and am not a key demographic any more... although there seems to be a ton of retro-thrash going around these days...

[Twangasaurus]

Depends entirely on the band/style/whatever. NWOBHM would sound pretty silly with Cookie Monster vocals. But if corrupted had auto tuned whining over the top they'd sound toy as.

Of topic but I just never understood how "toy" became a part of "street" lexicon. It's literally the most flacid piece of slang ever.

[dase]

That's because you only get up on legals

[dub]

possibly waxed mustache metal, although the super clean vocals are even pushing it out of that range. Maybe into end of season highlights reel metal? They've definitely gone door guy metal (remission), had a stop off at burrito metal (leviathan) through to line cook / kitchen metal (crack the skye).

I'll take leviathan as burrito metal.
Though I'm having difficulty understanding the progression from door guy metal through to kitchen metal. I thought it would be the other way around

Bouncers are aggro and line cooks are high as balls. Possibly.

It's been a weird fucking journey, I've been listening to Mastodon since they formed (big TITD fan), and have pretty much recoiled in horror at every new release. Then in various ways grown to enjoy them. The pop flourishes started creeping in immediately with Leviathan, a track like Naked Burn I hated at first. Then adapted. Back then I found the terrible vocals endearing, I think I'd prefer them over the studio polished ones nowadays, in fact all the rough edges have been rubbed off haven't they? Also that tension, that definitely came out of TITD and Lethargy, it's just gone completely, everything feels sickeningly comfortable.
Blood Mountain was a let down for me because it seemed to be heading in the same direction, and felt like a bit of a retread of Leviathan, with a couple of more wacked out moments, but somehow felt less epic? I really loved Crack the Skye, if they weren't going to punch you in the face anymore, I could get behind ridiculous prog. Couldn't really get into the Hunter at all. There's moments on this latest one I enjoy, probably just the solos really. They're the only parts that feel chaotic anymore.
I'll always have time for them I guess.

It's funny, they were called the next Metallica early on, and while they aren't on that level of cultural success, their career has some hilarious parallels. Not least of all that everyone's gotta have an opinion about them aha.

[Twangasaurus]

That's because you only get up on legals

Probably but don't you be lipping me Thomas O'Malley!

[gunslinger_burrito]

Instead of starting a new thread, I'm just going to leave this here.....
http://pitchfork.com/news/57067-mastodo ... t-tickets/

[Joe Gress]

I'll give them one thing, they sure know how to spin controversy in their favor.

[EVIL]

oh for the days when mastodon opened for HIGH ON FIRE during the art of self defense tour.

i have not seen them live since they toured with Dethklok in 2009 was it? i saw them twice that year and the first time was real early on the first tour after crack the skye came out. they played two sets that first show. first set was the entire crack the sky album and the second was almost an hour and a half of everything else. they were just about perfect. the dethklok show they were rather meh...

the instrumental version of crack the skye is pretty awesome!