an interesting question is, Is Mastodon overrated? i really, really thought so when all the hyping around Leviathan was happening and people were just swallowing the Moby Dick thing whole and basically exalting this metal band for (gasp) having read a book, when actually the application of the book in the lyrics is kind of not that big a deal. not to mention that it can be kind of silly. like when they're singing about Queequeg, you're like, Uh, great.
anyway, but i revisited Leviathan today with fresh ears and i'm really starting to think it's an awesome album. at first i didn't think the songs were as well constructed as the Remission ones. i appreciated the fact that they tried to focus the vocals a bit and not have them be so monotonous, but the songs seemed like strings of riffs to me when i first checked them out. now they feel perfectly natural and not indulgent and snappy and everything good like that; i love how they're all like three minutes; that's solid. "I Am Ahab" is just a killer prog-pop song; it just moves so quickly and efficiently. and "Iron Tusk" obviously rules. i'm doing a bad job here, but let's just say that i like it better now.
have an advance of the new one, Blood Mountain, and i'm really really digging it. vocals are getting into a sort of Chris Cornell place (though sometimes into to cheesy post-Vedder territory) and the guitars are just on fire, though sometimes it seems like they're just showing off with sevens and fives and all that mathy stuff. you can't help but laugh the fifteenth time there's a 1-2 1-2 1-2-3 break or some shit like that. but there are some extremely memorable riffs and some straight-up beautiful passages ("Ol'e Nessie"-style, baby!), and there's also this extremely fucked up instrumental song that's the wackiest and most adventurous thing they've done. people will definitely be freaking over that when it comes out.
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today enjoyed "Sleeping" by the Band from the extremely underrated Stage Fright disc. God bless you, Richard Manuel
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another Mastodon issue is, Are they the saviors of metal? it's a lot of pressure to put on them and that may have turned me off from Leviathan, just this idea that it was supposed to be a landmark. i don't know what they are, but i bet they'll be this Tool-like bad: very long-lived and sort of beyond criticism b/c of their intensely strong fanbase. but they're really more accessible. this new one is still about songs; no major surprises. it's really just a sort of Leviathan 2, though i can see the next album being considerably different. there will probably never be another Metallica, who i suppose are the best metal band ever. i mean, right?
