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!

2014 - A Look Ahead

So, we've just summarized 2013, no it's time to look a head!

Already it seems like 2014 is promising to be a really good as well in music. There are some albums that have been announced that I have high hopes for, and then there are some albums that haven't yet been announced but that I hope will get released,

Here are a few of the highlights to look forward too:
Tool - When will we see the follow up to the brilliant "10 000 Days"? Next year it will be eight years since the last album and the next album will be the fifth in the bands 20+ years career, they're not the most productive band to say the least...

Foo Fighters - It looks like Foo Fighters will release a new record next year, "Wasting Light" from 2011 was one of the best albums the band has released yet, and that is saying a lot!

Opeth - I haven't seen anytrhing confirmed so far, but a follow up to the 2011 release "Heritage" seems logical. It will be very interesting to see which direction Åkerfeldt takes his band on this one.

Mastodon - Mastodon is another band that I'm really anxious to see where they are headed with the next album. After the masterpiece of "Crack The Sky", they made a "little-bit-of-everything-album" with "The Hunter". A new Mastodon album is always something special though!

Iron Maiden - Do we dare hope for a new album in 2014? They probably won't have time to record it so maybe for 2015? And will this be the last album of their career?

Mogwai - Mogwai is one of the first albums to be released in late January. They just keeps getting better and better so this oughta be good!

Beck - It is always interesting what this man will come up with! The new album is set for a February release.

And there are of course tons of other great albums to be released in 2014. It looks like it could be a good year,,,

Torche - Harmonicraft

It becomes more and more evident that 2012 was a brilliant year, record wise. I'm having a hard time putting a best of list as I have at least 20 albums that I want on a top ten spot...

Torche's "Harmonicraft" is one of them. This is really another one of those incredibly interesting bands that you can't put into one genre. There is equal parts Baroness, Mastodon and Foo Fighters, to name a few. I would probably call it sludge-pop.

It's a really cool vinyl edition with a lollipop coloured slip mat and the album is presented on a clear vinyl.

Baroness - Yellow & Green

I'm really looking forward to get my hands on this new Baroness album. It's called "Yellow & Green" following the "Blue Record" and "Red Record". Below is a taste of what's coming from the record. It's not as sludgy as before, which I kind of miss, it's a bit more "pop" if you can call it that. Hopefully this follows the build up to Mastodon's last album "The Hunter" where the first two songs were "Curl Of The Burl" and "Black Tongue", where both were a bit more "popish" than their earlier material but it fitted perfectly on the record.

Record Store Day releases.

As  I said in my previous post, I am gonna post about some of the releases I got for myself on RSD.

As mentioned there were a lot of records released for this day and the two biggest releases for me were these two:

These are two split singles by Mastodon. The pink one is with The Flaming Lips, where both bands perform their own versions of the same Flaming Lips song "A Spoonfull Weighs A Ton". The other one is a split with Feist. On this one Feist performs a Mastodon song in her own version and Mastodon performs one of hers. Since the style of music is so different between these two it's very fun and interesting to hear the different takes on these songs. Both songs taken from two of the best albums last year.

Mastodon - The Hunter

Mastodon - The Hunter
I just realised that I haven't really written anything about one of (if not THE best) best albums of last year.

It was released in September last year and I feared that I wasn't gonna listen to the album too much as it was released around the same time as Opeth's "Heritage". "The Hunter" was usually my first choice of record to listen to for a long time, and I do still put it on the record player quite frequently. At the moment I'm playing the copy on the picture, the double vinyl edition pressed on 45RPM for beter sound quality. I also got the regular vinyl edition as well as the special edition CD.

If you're not already into Mastodon this record is a perfect introduction to the band as it blends and mix from the entire back catalogue of the band. There are raw punk metal songs that easily could've fit on the bands debut "Remission", there are progressive metal numbers that would have made a good addition to the quality material that made "Leviathan" one of the best albums of the -00s, the melodic riffs that made "Blood Mountain" a beauty to listen to are there as well and last but not least the progressive rock that made "Crack The Skye" the bands true masterpiece are without a doubt featured as well.

This might make the album sound as unfocused and all over the place, but somehow Mastodon manage to keep everything together and "The Hunter" really feels like an album with a clear idea from start to finish.

2011 best of list.

So my "best of the year" project turned out to be a little bit over ambitious. When you work full time and you've got a baby in the house time is quite limited. I decided to pu together a list of the ten best albums from last year. I won't rank them, but put them in alphabetical order.

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Tao Of The Dead

The Black Keys - El Camino

Bon Iver - Bon Iver

Danava - Hemisphere Of Shadows

Foo Fighters - Wasting Light

The Haunted - Unseen

M83 - Hurry Up We're Dreaming 

Mastodon - The Hunter

Opeth - Heritage

PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

What a day!

Two of my most anticipated this year are from my metal favourites Opeth and Mastodon who are both releasing new albums this fall.

Today both bands released the first songs from their respective albums.

Here you'll find Opeth's song "The Devil's Orchard" from the upcoming album "Heritage", which will feature only clean singing. The second album Opeth has released without growls.

And here's the new Mastodon track: