Mastodon - The Hunter

Atlanta's progressive metal quartet, Mastodon continues kicking ass and taking names on their fifth studio album. Produced by Mike Elizondo, the band delivers a majestic, modern metal album, driven by Brann Dailor's thundering drums and the dizzying guitar work of Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher. The snarl of the riffs wrapped around the explosive beat on murderous "Curl Of The Burl" almost makes, front man, Troy Sanders' metal-kissed melodic vocals feel like an afterthought, as he belts, "I killed a man because he killed my goat / I put my hands around his throat", amidst crunchy guitars.
Finger-bleeding fret work opens "Octopus Has No Friends", morphing into frantically spraying riffs encircling the shifty, dramatic tune. For all the buzzing riffs sawing their way through rolling beats on "All The Heavy Lifting", with Sanders demanding, "Just close your eyes / And Pretend that everything's fine", and classic metal chug of grimy riffs on soaring "Spectrelight", Mastodon is more interesting here when they bury treasure within the burly metal exterior. The swirling clusters of guitars tumbling around a frayed, rapid-fire beat on "Blasteroid" has a gooey southern rock core underneath the glistening layers of prog-metal roaring on top.

Frankenstein-inspired "Creature Lives" gets a more classic rock slant, complete with choir fuelled backing vocals and more elegant guitar, while the bluesy riffs of "Thickening" finds the band channeling their jazz influences for a restlessly shifting rhythm. Angular jabs of guitar on "Bedazzled Fingernails", the spacey solo in the middle of steadily sawing "Dry Bone Valley", and swirling creak of guitar winding through metal ballad "The Hunter" are all great reminders of the band's musical prowess on an album that rarely lets you forget. The album kicks the doors open with gleaming licks and livewire drums on foreboding "Black Tongue" and only lets up to pretty up their sound on the chilled closing ballad "The Sparrow", pushing the drizzled guitars in the distance a bit as if finally letting them get a well-earned breather. 

Support The Band : http://www.myspace.com/mastodon

 Download The Album : http://www.wupload.com/file/398029357/Mastodon_-_The_Hunter_

FOR PUPPY MICHEAL ROUSSIS

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Tao Of The Dead

Some bands reach for the stars and fall short. And some end up in another galaxy.

When …And You Willl Know Us by the Trail of Dead singer Conrad Keely described the band’s new album, he said he always wanted to create an album that was a continuous piece of music and referenced albums such as Yes’ Relayer, Rush’s Hemispheres and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.

Obviously, those are pretty big aspirations. And while I’m not sure Tao of the Dead, the band’s seventh album, will be mentioned with the likes of those albums, this is still a brilliant piece of work.

Trail of the Dead’s intent was to concoct an album that was basically just one long song, well technically two (the album is 12 tracks, the final one separated into five parts). I can honestly say that it feels like that. Every song does bare difference from the others, but they also flow seamlessly into one another.  You’d think that the band never stopped playing while recording the album.

And just to be clear, this is one grandiose album. It is equal parts mathy, atmospheric and upbeat rock n roll. There are plenty of sunny, trippy synth flourishes. And there are plenty crunchy rock numbers that warrant playing loudly. This album has as big a sound as any of Trail of Dead’s previous works, maybe even bigger and grander.

I’d pick out individual tracks and elaborate on each, but that would defeat the purpose of the record. This really is just one long piece of music, one that shouldn’t be listened to by skipping ahead to your favorite song. This is an all-around enjoyable album. It’s a concept album that doesn’t need you to think much about it to fully appreciate it.

I know it’s only January, but Trail of the Dead have set the bar for 2011 pretty high.

 Support The Artist :

  http://www.myspace.com/trailofdead