Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Crunch Time: Mastodon

Relapse Records varsity squad circa early 00's
*Welcome to the latest edition of Crunch Time, where I swoon over some of my favorite HEAVY riffs.*

Once upon a time, Mastodon was a damn fine metal band. Today's Crunch Time installment hearkens back to that time. The early to mid 2000's to be exact. Mastodon was the result of two unique halves forming one new staggering musical whole. Bill Keliher and Brann Dailor (ex- Lethargy and Today Is The Day) brought the metal and spazz elements, while Troy Sanders and Brent Hinds added the rockin' Southern fried sludge that made Mastodon such a fucking beast. They crafted brutally heavy, yet mind bending-ly intricate songs that speed off in a zillion different directions but remained catchy and memorable as hell. After losing their original lead singer early on, Mastodon's subsequent "triple vocal attack," resulted in three different dudes who never sang in their lives just shouting their balls off and laying down some gnarly and distinctive extreme metal vocals in the process. Brann's drumming was straight out of this world. Like a speeding freight train about to derail, he jumped between wicked time signatures and tossed out twisted stick patterns like nobody's business. But yes, who could forget, the RIFFS. Thats what Crunch Time is all about remember? So listen to "Crusher Destroyer," the opening track from Mastodon's 2002 debut album, Remission and judge for yourselves:



Crushing riff? CHECK. T-Rex sample from Jurassic Park? CHECK. What else do you need?! That opening riff is so basic, yet devastating. It delivers pulverizing left hooks to your skull while the nonstop snare work jabs you to death. THIS is my Mastodon.

Sadly, in recent years the band has settled into a self indulgent wank fest (er, sorry Prog nerds but its true!). Horrible attempts at clean/melodic singing and a near complete loss of all the dynamic qualities listed before makes the present day incarnation of Mastodon a sad sight for this long time fan. At least Bill's new band Primate has some balls. Oh wells.

21 comments:

  1. Badass but as you said, back in the day.

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  2. Oh yeah!! They are my drive super fast on the freeway band!

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  3. This song made my testicles drop even lower.

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  4. This is actually raelly good! going to check their music, also following!

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  5. i like ther cover song of one. thats pretty awesome. also. that guy has wicked side burns

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  6. F*ck yeah, more heavy stuff please!

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  7. where's the t-rex sample? :(

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  8. I saw these guys live in Vancouver when I saw Alice in Chains. I was actually really surprised at their stage presence

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  9. Oof, that was excellent yet painful at the same time.

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  10. Yeah, their last album sucked balls and didn't blow my mind like their earlier ones. They are still technically awesome, and it's good that some new people have been exposed to them, but the good stuff has already passed I fear.

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  11. Now this band, I don't like it :)

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  12. This shall make my morning tasks much more Epic.

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