Mastodon - Once More 'Round The Sun

Finally, one of my most anticipated albums of the year is here!

"Once More 'Round The Sun" is Mastodon's sixth album (seventh if you include "Call Of The Mastodon"). They have evolved little by little over each record since their debut "Remission" in 2002.

Brann Dailor, the drummer, has gotten more and more vocal space for each record as he is probably the best "clean singer" in the band, in the early days Brent Hinds, the guitarist, was the one doing the "melodic" singing. This has added a new dimension in Mastodon's music and you get almost pop-like choruses in a few times. We got a small taste of it on their 2009 masterpiece "Crack The Skye" in the song "Oblivion" where he sings the chorus. They took it one step further on 2011's "The Hunter". Whereas "Crack The Skye" was a concept album with a strong album structure, "The Hunter" felt more song based. Since "Crack The Skye" was such a success maybe they felt they had to work hard not to repeat themselves. For me they produced a great record in "The Hunter", perhaps just not as good as some of their other albums.

On "Once More 'Round The Sun" I feel they have nailed the dynamics between "the new and old Mastodon", so to speak. This album has equal parts "Leviathan", "The Hunter" and "Crack The Skye".

I was a little sceptical when I first heard the first single "High Road". That song has that kind of popish chorus but with some heavy riffs elsewhere in the song, not at all unlike the title track on "Crack The Skye". However the song grew on me and it was great live when I saw them a couple of weeks ago in Oslo. Sadly they only played a 30 minute set opening for Metallica...

The second single, "Chimes At Midnight", was also a song that didn't really do it for me immediately. After listening to the song a few times and now on the album I think it perfectly sums up what is so great about Mastodon and what I love about them. The psychedelic and dreamy intro, the stuttering riffs, just enough melody and raw punk like energy and the transmission from the heavy riff into the outro is just brilliant, goose-bumps every time!

All in all a great album and I can't wait for Mastodon to come to Scandinavia this winter!

Led Zeppelin - II - Super Deluxe Box Set

I bought the second box set a few days ago. It's more or less the same concept as the first one that I wrote about the other day. I'll just explain and show you with a few pictures:

 

The sealed box set.

The cover of the hard cover book.

Lots of pictures, stories, newspaper features etc. in the book.

Two CDs. One is the remastered version of the original album, the other one is a collection of studio outtakes.

The vinyls. They include the same music as the CDs.

Also this album featured a numbered print of the artwork. Limited to 30 000.

The album on the record player. Sounds great of course!!

One and Two on the shelf together with Donald Duck. I'll probably have to move Donald once I get Three, which I'll hopefully get this weekend!

Jack White - Lazaretto - Ultra LP

I was never a big White Stripes fan, as a vinyl collector I regret that because all the vinyls go for big money! I was also a bit sceptical towards Jack White's solo debut "Blunderbuss" that was released two years ago. It took some time before I gave it an honest listen. I'm glad I did so! His first album was really good so the expectations were quite high for his new album.

The most remarkable about this album is probably the pressing of the vinyl. I'll let White himself explain the whole concept in this video:


Amazing stuff!

Mr. White is known for his vinyl interest and he was the ambassador for Record Store Day last year and for RSD this year he released the fastest produced record ever.

Luckily the music on this record isn't all that bad either. With such a special vinyl it would be sad if the music wasn't up to par but it definitely match the quality of the pressing!

Led Zeppelin - I - Super deluxe box set.

Led Zeppelin are finally re-issueing their old classics on vinyl! The first batch of releases includes their first three albums. They all get the same treatment. They are released as a single vinyl (with the original album remastered), a double vinyl (with some studio out takes never heard before) and as a super deluxe box set. I'm looking to get the box set of all of them!

I will by them in chronological order, they are a little pricey (understandably) so I can't afford to buy them all at once.

So I got number one a couple of weeks ago and the box set includes so much cool stuff that I'll just show you pictures of it:

The sealed box set. 

A replica of the original press kit from Atlantic Records.

A numbered art print of the cover (there is a total of 30 000 copies) 

The two records. The original album remastered on 180g by Jimmy Page. The second vinyl is filled with studio out takes previously unreleased.

 

The vinyl on the record player. It sounds great!

Rival Sons - Great Western Valkyrie LP

I wonder if the release of this album was planned to coincide with the re-issues of Led Zeppelin's first three albums? And if it was, is it a sign of brilliance or a sign of economic suicide?

It's almost impossible to write about Rival Sons without mentioning LZ. RS play an updated version of LZ's rock 'n' roll. I even started to listen to this new album with the intention of writing a post like "why buy/listen to this record when you have Zeppelin's first three albums available?". However, this is an impressive record and for me their best yet!

In a world where The Hellacopters doesn't excist anymore we need a straight up rock 'n' roll band that brings something else to the table than just being good, or to use the Swedish Word "lagom". With "Great Western Valkyrie" Rival Sons might be able to fill this spot.

Darkthrone - Black Death and Beyond vinyl box set.

Out of all the Norwegian black metal bands, Darkthrone is probably the band that I've favoured the most. I always liked the raw punky, crusty approach they had and the later albums are almost more d-beat punk than black metal. The band is still going strong as well more than 20 years into their career. Their 2013 release "The Underground Resistance" is proof of this! Also Fenriz seems like a cool dude ;) 

I received this box set today. It's sort of a greatest hits from the band on three vinyls. One is their black metal stuff, one is the more death metal oriented and the last one is the other styles (hence the name...). It's a nice box set all the vinyls are on different colours. The black metal one is obviously on black vinyl...

It also includes a huge booklet with loads and loads of pictures and stories from the band. Also included is an embrodied patch and a certificate.

The year so far.

So far 2014 hasn't produced the same quality of records as last year. I have only bought twelve albums released this year (if I have counted correctly) and they haven't all been too great.

The best of the year so far is probably Truckfighters' "Universe". A great stoner rock album.

Besides this album there hasn't been too much to get overly excited over.

The Mogwai album was really good, as expected.
The Beck album was good, but not great.
I'm spinning the Sunn O)))/Ulver album for the first time at the moment, a verdict on that is coming up...

The album besides Truckfighters that has made the biggest impression however is We Live In Trenches' "Life Crisis". A really cool hardcore/post-punk album released by the DIY label Farsot. Get it at the Judas Cradle Recordings store.

Dungen collection.

So the January record a day theme is still going on on Instagram (obviously...). Today the theme was an artist or group that starts with the letter "D" and I decided to post a picture of my Dungen collection.

The pyschedelic pop/rock group is one of my favourites. They've released six albums so far and there are rumours of a new album this year. Let's hope the rumours are true and for yet another masterpiece! Nothing will to "Ta Det Lugnt" though...

If anyone has the first album on vinyl or the tri-coloured single "Ögon Näsa Mun" released by Jack White, please let me know and I'll get it of your hands!

First order of the year. Indian - From All Purity.

Today was supposed to be my first day back at work after christmas vacation. Last night I got ill though, so no work for me today.

I comforted myself today by ordering the first record of the year.

Relapse is releasing the fifth album by sludy, dystopic metal band Indian. A first listen is available and it really got me hooked:

Robyn vinyls.

I got a smaller chock today!

Robyn's "S/T" and "Body Talk"

On Instagram there's a theme now to post one record a day in January. Everyday you have a theme to post and today's is guilty pleasures. I posted this picture of my Robyn vinyls. They're not really guilty pleasures as I think Robyn is really cool, but those were the ones I went with.

I decided to go and check discogs.com to see what the value of these two records were and I was really surprised. It looks like you have to pay between $100 and $200 to get them, and that's each! There are three copies of "Body Talk" on sale there now and they all cost over $300...

Now I know discogs isn't always that reliable but it looka like it might be this time, especially when they have added the sales stats to the release page, a really cool feature! Also a quick search on popsike.com shows sales for nearly $200 for each album...

I could listen to vinyl...

The last spin of 2013, and the first of 2014.

Happy new year!

So 2014 is here and as music goes it looks to be a good year. Just check my previous post.

The last vinyl I played in 2013 was Locrian's "Return To Annihilation". It's some cool experimental black metal. Sounds a bit like Deafheaven at times.

The first spin if 2014 was the same as in 2013, Graveyard's "Lights Out". Maybe I have started a tradition now to always play this album as the first one every year? It's certainly worthy of such a tradition. It's a brilliant album!