Mastodon — Hushed And Grim
✦✦✦✧ Mellower, more expansive, but also surefooted and intriguing. This is some of Mastodon’s riskiest stuff yet, and is a rewarding buffet of their growing appetites. See the rest here
Band Archives: mastodon
Legend Of The Seagullmen — Legend Of The Seagullmen
✦✧✧✧ I swear to god, when this album started I thought at first that I’d popped on a Primus album. Unfortunately, that’s probably the listening high point of the debut album from this high-concept stoner band. I’m hardpressed to think of another supergroup as intent on casting its constituent pieces in a worse light. See the rest here
Mastodon — Cold Dark Place
✦✦✧✧ This is at least more interesting than the band’s previous effort, “Emperor Of Sand.” By now, Mastodon have tunneled straight through their own Baroness ambitions, only to emerge in some alien post-metal proto-folkrock nowhere of their own making. So, you know, kudos for sounding unlike anything else. I’m just not entirely sure I dig it. See the rest here
Mastodon — Emperor Of Sand
✦✦✧✧ What the hell is this.
No, really. What the actual fuck.
Hm. Okay, that’s more like it. Now if only they can… OH COME ON! See the rest here
Giraffe Tongue Orchestra — Broken Lines
✦✦✦✧ This is one of those cases wherein the supergroup is very recognizably a sum of its constituents (you can very clearly strong echoes of DEP, Alice In Chains, The Mars Volta, and Mastodon on the track “No-One Is Innocent” in particular). But there’s novelty here too, a perverse cohesion that melds into something unlike anything presaged by the bandmember’s other bands. See the rest here
Mastodon — Once More ‘Round The Sun
★☆☆☆ This album puts forth the difficult-to-dispute premise that Mastodon is slowly, steadily, smoking enough dope to transform themselves into Baroness. There’s some interesting musical direction on here, and the band’s performances are generally as good as they’ve ever been. But even on tracks like “High Road” and “Chimes At Midnight,” where you can still detect a glimmer of the swagger and bravado that really was the whole point of the band to begin with, everything feels like it was processed through a cheap King’s X or QOTSA filter. See the rest here
Killer Be Killed — Killer Be Killed
★☆☆☆ This is a wildly uneven effort on every level. Vocalists, energy levels, and styles change midsong without warning or reason. The low points, if we’re being very honest, is whenever Max Cavalera or Troy Sanders open their mouths to sing. (Remarkable as it may seem, Greg Puciato’s vocals are a breath of fresh air every time you get to hear them here.) See the rest here
