Not Metal

Mastodon

Crack The Skye

I love Mastodon’s music, ever since I picked up Remission after seeing a dude’s t-shirt with the “horsesplosion” art. I’ve dug what they do. But…

I wasn’t excited about this album at all before it came out. Maybe I’d listened to Blood Mountain a little too much, maybe because I hadn’t been listening to nearly as much metal as I had over the last two and a half years, or maybe it was because Brendan O’Brian was involved. Whatever it may have been, this album was hanging out in the “I’ll get to it whenever, its on the list, but its not a priority” zone and it was not moving off it anytime soon.

Then the rumors about the album being about Rasputin and some other shit and the album went onto the “God I hope this doesn’t turn into a Mars Volta thing” list. The only other album on the list is the next Mars Volta album. And that list is well below the list in the above paragraph.

Then the album art came out. All I saw at the time was “Tonight! At the Planetarium! Lazer Metal!” It wasn’t as iconic as the previous records and I wasn’t pleased. I know what I liked, and I liked old Mastodon. I feared the worst. My shrunken penis was conferring with an underused mattress and they feared the worst.
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Totally watchable quality

Get a taste of the awesomeness.

Earlier I had posted up my review of Mastodons’ live set here in Chicago at the Metro. The words to describe the chills on the back of my neck took a back seat to the words used to describe the group of idiots in the pit. With my whiny bitching aside, Metalsucks and Culture Bully have each posted up their own take on the live set. The latter includes several glorious videos of the show at Fine Line Music Cafe in Minneapolis. Fan or not, I implore you to take the 6:15 out of your day to watch this video.

Mastodon “Oblivion” (Fine Line Music Cafe, Minneapolis, 04/29/2009) from Culture Bully on Vimeo.

If you’re kicking yourself for not going to their show you’ll at least understand why now with better reason you should have gone instead of sitting at home looking at porn and going to bed early.

Epically epicocous!

Big smelly fucking dudes with no shirts!

Where: The Metro, Chicago IL.

Oh, and one other stereotypical metal head: big fucking dude with a big fucking beard.They were abundant in the crowd on the main floor where at times I was crammed between “them” on the front line of the pit and one obese sweaty fuck garbed in complete White Sox gear. Strangely, the Sox had not played that day.

The Metro was the perfect venue for this show. There are others like it in Chicago, but this small cramped vintage hall is about 4 blocks down the street from my apartment. So that’s really why.

Intronaut opened up the show. They were very very very heavy. I’m pretty sure they fall in the “NeurIsis” camp. Which some people hate. But, honestly the riffing reminded me more of Meshuggah or Dillinger when they’re trying to be melodic and not spaz. Regardless, I found myself read more »

“I smoked this weed that was so good it made me want to quit smoking weed.”

Well, he won’t be doing any PSA’s for D.A.R.E.

I love Mastodon. And I love the amount of effort they put forth in giving an honest interview. So if you’re as much of a fan as most of us are enjoy the link to an audio interview with guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds on their latest effort “Crack The Skye” and life in general. Mastodon’s Brent Hinds on making “Crack The Skye”.

“Divinations” live at Coachella Festival

Shit quality. You get the idea though.

Ok, the audio really sucks balls. But, it’s a taste to come of what to expect on their current set of dates for the North American Tour happening now. Visuals! Yetis! Guitars! Beards! Yes!