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Brix Smith spent lockdown recording a solo album with Youth. that's number one on my list. Slowdive have a new album in the can already, and Ride may have one coming as well. but what i'm really hoping for is new Swervedriver...their two post-reunion albums are fucking fantastic.

coldbrightsunlight wrote:..

D.o.S. wrote:..

goroth wrote:..

Damn i wish i saw them when they were touring Leviathan.

My story is a bit different. At the time i was in high school and quite money-less, so friend who was not into metal but got this super fast internet connection (at the time), was doing the "dirty job" for me when i couldn't afford albums - or when i wanted to listen before buying. When Leviathan came out - i was like 16 or 17 - i started to read some reviews here and there and wanted to know some of their music, but the only thing he could find was a fucking video. Blood and Thunder. Useless to say that i was IMPRESSED. So i went through that thing multiple times because it was the only thing i got from Mastodon, but after a while i totally forgot about them, the fact that at the time my interests where gravitating towards weed 24/7 might be involved.

Fast forward to 5 years later, by that time i was a better guitar player, and deep into proggy stuff, i start to read about them again with their new album "Crack the Skye" which, apparently, is a sort of 70ies inspired heavy prog, and is till remember reading that (for the reviewer) it was LSD-drenched.

DING!

And that was it. I fell in love with that album from the first listen, and subsequentially discovered their previous ones in less than a month, and loved every single bit of each one. Sick Riffs, the sickest drums, sick groves, sick vocals, sick concepts, EVERYTHING. Bill, and even more Brent's playing had the biggest influence on my guitar approach: i think at the time i learned 95% of their catalog (most solos excluded ) and spent months trying to replicate that hybrid picking that was giving me goosebumps everytime.
Besides this, add that in that very year my previous relationship fell apart, my band was breaking up, a bunch of other things happened, and i met my actual partner because we were both into Mastodon and started talking about them.

So that's why i have CTS tattoo, obviously made during an alcohol-fueled session by a firend who started tatooing less than a month before. Not the most eye-appealing thing, but that's not what matters.
Because of this whole discussion, yesterday i tried to listen to Emperor of Sand again. Some good riffs, a couple good moments here and there, and they really improved with the vocals but it still just makes me want to crank Leviathan one more time. Even if i will never totally dislike a Mastodon record, the comparison with their past releases is unavoidable.

I saw them live a bunch of times, and I try to see them every time they come down here anyway, because they're always killer. Last time I saw them was 2 or 3 years ago when they were touring with Scott Kelly and it was a really good concert, despite not knowing the new songs.


OK, I won't hijack this thread anymore.

Looking forward to the new Arab Strap album and whatever else Rock Action decide to put out. Otherwise I don't think I even know of anything else coming out this year lol.

Dowi wrote:and they really improved with the vocals

u crazy. They'll never beat the vocals on Remission (or anything else on Remission). The vocals continue to get worse over time.

Dowi wrote:OK, I won't hijack this thread anymore.

Thread hijacks are the best don't stop. Love the tattoo

dubkitty wrote:Brix Smith spent lockdown recording a solo album with Youth. that's number one on my list. Slowdive have a new album in the can already, and Ride may have one coming as well. but what i'm really hoping for is new Swervedriver...their two post-reunion albums are fucking fantastic.

Speaking of Youth (kind of), Deafkids recorded some(?)/all(?) of a new record with Jaz Coleman of Killing Joke that I'm quite excited for, considering both parties are fantastic.

I haven't listened to any of the new Swervies yet but they were always my favourite shoegaze band.

coldbrightsunlight wrote:

Dowi wrote:and they really improved with the vocals

u crazy. They'll never beat the vocals on Remission (or anything else on Remission). The vocals continue to get worse over time.

Just to be clear, I enjoy the old raw vocals too, I was talking from a more unpersonal point of view: it's undeniable that they improved their vocal abilities. I
remember seeing them at the beginning of the CTS tour cycle, and even if I loved them on the album, the live result was.. Ehm.. Barely decent? but during the years they really worked on it and now you see the results both in live and studio. The fact that now they have some truly awful melodies is another story.

retinal orbita wrote:Bongzilla I don’t have high hopes for....

Full disclosure: I'm a total "no objectivity available" Bongzilla fanboi and have been for a real long time.

But... I think it sounds pretty much like Bongzilla!
https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2021/02 ... ae-driver/

Sucks Cooter decided to retire, but I think keeping the band a three-piece instead of finding another bassist was the right call.

the weed you need

and madvillainy 2 will finally be released

I'm always late in the game when it comes to new music. Yesterday I listened to the last CoL track, and honestly i'm a bit let down. Besides having really good sounds, I felt like it lacked substance, but maybe i wasn't in the right mood. Will wait to hear the whole EP and see if my mind changes.

On the other hand, the "metal" phase i've been into since the beginning of the year is still going so i've finally catched up with some of last year's releases, and i have been totally blown away by Stare into Death and be Still.

Dowi wrote:

coldbrightsunlight wrote:

Dowi wrote:and they really improved with the vocals

u crazy. They'll never beat the vocals on Remission (or anything else on Remission). The vocals continue to get worse over time.

Just to be clear, I enjoy the old raw vocals too, I was talking from a more unpersonal point of view: it's undeniable that they improved their vocal abilities. I
remember seeing them at the beginning of the CTS tour cycle, and even if I loved them on the album, the live result was.. Ehm.. Barely decent? but during the years they really worked on it and now you see the results both in live and studio. The fact that now they have some truly awful melodies is another story.

I get the feeling that their vocal skills have improved proportionally with the development of better pitch correction algorithms. The vocals on the Adult Swim live thing sounded about 1 step from Ariana Grande.

Dowi wrote:I'm always late in the game when it comes to new music. Yesterday I listened to the last CoL track, and honestly i'm a bit let down. Besides having really good sounds, I felt like it lacked substance, but maybe i wasn't in the right mood. Will wait to hear the whole EP and see if my mind changes.

On the other hand, the "metal" phase i've been into since the beginning of the year is still going so i've finally catched up with some of last year's releases, and i have been totally blown away by Stare into Death and be Still.

I love you dude.

Couldn't agree more on CoL. And Stare into Death is easily on my top 10 from the last 10 years. I have listened to it more than anything else from 2020 and it just gets better and better.

goroth wrote:

Dowi wrote:I get the feeling that their vocal skills have improved proportionally with the development of better pitch correction algorithms. The vocals on the Adult Swim live thing sounded about 1 step from Ariana Grande.

Ding ding ding ding ding ding

I also object to the framing where tuneful singing is "objectively better" than yelling really good. I posit that the true mark of vocal talent is sounding good and Mastodon sounded better when they were just yelling more.


Stare into death is killer

OK, i declare defeat but i stand for my ideas.

Also, i've been going through the "Everything sucks..Records of 2020" thread and catching up with a lot of records i missed in 2020, so please continue to write about new music here so in 2022 i can catch up with albums from 2021

Aand here's the new CoL in its entirety, will listen later tonight

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