Mastodon (USA)

[Horex]

Mastodon - Once More 'Round The Sun (2014)













Year : 2014
Style : Progressive Metal , Alternative Metal , Sludge Metal
Country : United States
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans + Video
Size : 158 mb

Bio:

Mastodon is an American heavy metal band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 2000. The group is composed of Troy Sanders (bass/vocals), Brent Hinds (guitar/vocals), Bill Kelliher (guitar), and Brann Dailor (drums/vocals). Mastodon has released seven studio albums, as well as a number of other releases. The band's 2002 debut album, Remission, garnered significant critical acclaim for its unique sound.Mastodon's second full-length release, Leviathan, is a concept album based on the novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. Three magazines awarded the record Album of the Year in 2004: Revolver, Kerrang! and Terrorizer.The song "Colony of Birchmen" from the band's third album (released in 2006), Blood Mountain, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 2007. Blood Mountain was followed in 2009 by Crack the Skye, and in 2011 by The Hunter, which debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart and achieved major commercial success in the United States. The Hunter features the song "Curl of the Burl", which was nominated for a Grammy for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance in 2012. Mastodon's 2014 album, Once More 'Round the Sun, peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 chart and features the band's third Grammy-nominated song, "High Road". The band's seventh album, Emperor of Sand, was released on March 31, 2017, and features the band's most commercially successful song to date, "Show Yourself", which peaked at No. 4 on the US Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart in June 2017. The followup single, "Steambreather", peaked at number 18 on the same chart in October 2017. The album's opening track, "Sultan's Curse", earned the band their first Grammy award.Emperor of Sand was the band's first album to receive a Grammy nomination. It was nominated for Best Rock Album.

Album:

The Georgian boys are back with their sixth album already and every single of their releases was a surprise for the listeners and it's no exception this time either. Their evolution towards more progressive realms felt natural and so is their endeavour into more melodic territories.In 2011, we were offered a very poppy album with the sadly underwhelming The Hunter, an album plagued with too many songs and fillers but with some jewels like the title track or “Stargasm”. I'm sure I wasn't the only person expecting their new one with haste and interest. I've been following the band intensely since the excellent Blood Mountain, an opus created just when I was starting to get into metal and even if my horizons changed after my formative years, Mastodon remains an important band for me and they'll be seen as the most important American metal band of their generation. I remember when I discovered them, I was sixteen and it was the week that I also got Frances the Mute by The Mars Volta, a band that also became one of my favourite. I opened BM's booklet and I thought it was very odd that Cedric Bixler-Zavala (singer of TMV) was featured as a guest. What a fun coincidence, everything happens for a reason! And now, it's time for the first Mastodon full length since the tragic dissolution (some will say hallelujah but to hell with them) of the El Paso prog juggernauts and it's easily a contender for my album of 2014.After only one listening, I already told myself that the main problem of their previous record was solved. OM'RTS has absolutely no filler whatsoever. Its main strength is its cohesion and unity. The eleven songs for fifty four minutes is perhaps their most balanced album to date. One of the forces of an album like Leviathan was its diversity but it didn't worked as well on Crack the Skye, an album with a great vision ultimately afflicted with an overachieving will. I mean, I liked the long tracks like “The Last Baron” but the album wasn't as close-knitted as this one even though I think it was honourable progressive metal. CTS also had too many members of the band trying their hand at the mic and it felt disjointed at times. While their new opus is definitely their strongest vocally speaking or at least their most accessible. I'm sure the people who were complaining about how the vocals were their weakest quality won't find much material to complain about here. Sanders (who's obviously Mastodon's best singer) and Hinds are prevalent but they seem harder to differentiate this time around or maybe it was so well constructed that it isn't apparent.Their deliveries are mostly clean but rough and they're simply better at the game, they know their forces and explore them. The choruses are powerful and the use of ethereal, atmospheric but grasping vocals enhance the whole experience.Lyrically speaking, it's not as special as CTS or weird like The Hunter, it doesn't seem conceptual this time around (perhaps for the better since they'll be repeating themselves and that's counterproductive.) The lyrics are still deeply personal and metaphorical and they flow very well. It's kind of giving me a contemplative vibe that goes hand in hand with the rock influences they're incorporating this time around, you can easily hear the love they have for Deftones and Alice in Chains and I have no problem with that!.It goes without saying but don't expect Mastodon to go back to their sludgey roots on this album, it's perhaps heavier than The Hunter or maybe I think it is since it's not as joyful. It's sort of a return to a math-esque sound not so present on their two latest albums and it delivers immense heavy riffs as well (such as the great epic closer “Diamond in the Witch House” with “surprise” guest vocals from Neurosis' Scott Kelly.) Of course, a Mastodon album wouldn't be complete with other guests, this time the all girls punk band The Coat Hangers from their local city of Atlanta are featured on the fun “Aunt Lisa” with girly, shouted vocals adding a juvenile feel to the track.Hinds and Kelliher (massive guitarists for sure) are not quite as inclined to show off their lead guitar skills as they were before but they let loose some tasty leads like on the single “High Road”. Throughout the album, they prove once again that they're modern metal's most accomplish guitar duo. They have their own distinctive approach and alongside Dailor's inventive, intense and intelligent drumming, it's part of Mastodon's signature sound. It's full of blistering and smart riffs intertwined with groovy rhytmns played wonderfully showcasing that they're one of the proudest Rush disciples of the new millenium. Mastodon has always been a technical band but I truly believe that it never was a burden to their compositions, quite the opposite.Indeed, it's progressive & technical but without giving up one iota of melodic might. “Tread Lightly”, the opening song, is the perfect example with its sweeping leads and its catchy vocal patterns. They learned of their gigantic progressive voyage with CTS but played a more subdued card on OM'RTS and still managed to craft an impressive and original record. Proof that sometimes less is more. Nevertheless, this album is fucking intricate and rich and it's just doesn't try to be too creative or pop, it just is. It's like they accepted the fact that they were going in a poppier direction, that's a direct continuation of The Hunter which can be seen as a transition album since the formula & the quality weren't quite there yet.It really feels like Mastodon took the better songwriting of The Hunter and mixed the idiosyncratic power from their other albums with it. Someone might dislike Mastodon for a bunch of reasons (their immense popularity, their beards, the fact they moved on from extreme metal and so on...) but no one can say that they sound like another band. If a bunch of hipsters try to mimic them, they'll strike again with a new, fresh record and the kids will have to update their sound once again. They're reinventing themselves after each record and for most bands, this prowess would be disastrous but not with these fabulous and silly hairy homo sapiens sapiens.It's without a doubt their best album since Blood Mountain and it helps building an important, almost faultless legacy for the band. I had low expectations after their previous album and this was a pleasant surprise. Highly recommended for fans of adventurous, catchy prog metal with a flair for originality. Mastodon are still on the rise and there's no way to stoptheir progression. In time, you will join them in the sun, In time, you will help them accomplish wonders.

Line Up:

Troy Sanders - Bass, Keyboards, Vocals (2000-present) - See also: Killer Be Killed, ex-Social Infestation, Gone Is Gone, ex-Four Hour Fogger, ex-Knuckle, ex-Puaka Balava
Brann Dailor - Drums (2000-present), Vocals (2009-present) - See also: ex-Evisceration, ex-Lethargy, Arcadea, Fiend Without a Face, ex-Gaylord, ex-Today is the Day
Brent Hinds - Guitars, Vocals (2000-present) - See also: Fiend Without a Face, Giraffe Tongue Orchestra, Legend of the Seagullmen, The Blood Vessels, West End Motel, ex-Four Hour Fogger
Bill Kelliher - Guitars, Vocals (backing) (2000-pesent) - See also: ex-Lethargy, Primate, ex-Butterslax, ex-Girdle, ex-Today Is the Day

Tracklist:

01. Tread Lightly 05:14
02. The Motherload 04:59
03. High Road 04:15
04. Once More 'Round the Sun 02:58
05. Chimes at Midnight 05:32
06. Asleep in the Deep 06:12
07. Feast Your Eyes 03:23
08. Aunt Lisa 04:08
09. Ember City 04:59
10. Halloween 04:39
11. Diamond in the Witch House 07:49

+ Video "The Motherload" (Official Video)




Download links for all albums only on our blog here: http://goodmetalandhar.do.am/

[Horex]

Mastodon - Emperor Of Sand (2017)













Year : 2017
Style : Progressive Metal , Alternative Metal
Country : United States
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans + Video
Size : 158 mb

Bio:

Art is a cyclical beast. The same can easily be said of Grammy Award nominated hard rock juggernaut Mastodon. The group’s four members recognize the importance of life’s omnipresent cycles on their sixth full-length album, Once More ‘Round the Sun. The band orbits around themes of loss and rebirth, twirling a sonic spiral of its signature robust riffing, hypnotically haunting soundscapes, triage of dynamic voices, and thundering seismic grooves. At the same time, this particular collection proves personal for Brann Dailor, Brent Hinds, Bill Kelliher, and Troy Sanders. The very title says something slightly different for each member."Quite literally, Once More 'Round the Sun means a year-in-the-life," explains Dailor. "Lyrically, we were discussing things that happened to us recently, whereas in the past we looked further back for inspiration. It's about 365 days in this band. It was a tough and strange journey. We happened to be in the middle of completing a full rotation musically as everything else was going on.""It's about being a man and trying to survive in the world. You’re facing all of the crazy shit that goes along with it," adds Hinds. "You've got to just keep rolling. It's the daily grind everybody deals with. It's grinding and rewarding."Kelliher concurs, “A lot of crazy and epic things have happened in the nutshell of the past year. For me, I had recently gotten sober. I really focused my time on writing music instead of drinking and being hung-over. We were in a different space here. Another year has gone by, and we wrote this record.”Sanders smiles, “The title itself deals with a cycle. Writing, recording, and touring are kickass experiences that we get to relive over and over again. We’ve got the ability to strap it on and go out another time. I look forward to riding this out once more with my three friends.”Mastodon’s own collective cycle encompasses a staggering string of accolades. Whether it’s the public endorsement of peers as diverse as Metallica, Pearl Jam, Queens of the Stone Age, CeeLo Green, and Feist or unanimous praise from the likes of Time and Rolling Stone, the band continue to make an impression at every turn. 2011’s The Hunter saw them achieve their highest chart debut yet, reaching #10 on the Billboard Top 200, while the single “Curl of the Burl” notched their second Grammy Award nomination in the category of “Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance”. In between scorching stages everywhere from Sonisphere and Download to Bonnaroo and Coachella, they scored the Josh Brolin sci-fi western Jonah Hex and have been sought out for soundtracks including Pixar’s box office smash Monsters University. As far as rock ‘n’ roll goes, their legacy irrefutably stands alone. However, that legacy expands yet again with Once More ‘Round the Sun.In order to uphold a modus operandi of experimentation and evolution, the boys enlisted the talents of super producer Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Rush, Alice In Chains, Deftones, etc.) for the very first time. They holed up in his Falcon Rock studio in Nashville throughout the fall of 2013, cutting what would become Once More ‘Round the Sun. Given his passion for the band, Raskulinecz immediately clicked with the musicians.“He was very hands-on,” says Sanders. “We were fans of the Deftones and Alice In Chains records he’d done, and we initially met him during the BlackDiamondSkye tour. He literally called Brann every six months reminding us that he was on the hunt to work with us when we were ready. This was the right time.”“He was like a coach,” Kelliher goes on. “He brought some energy to the band. I remember he was like, ‘You guys are Mastodon. You’re one of the biggest bands in metal. Give me some of those chunky and thick riffs!’ He let us be who we are.”It’s indisputable that Once More ‘Round the Sun is Mastodon through and through. Kelliher’s twelve-string acoustic guitar ominously heralds the record’s onset during album opener “Tread Lightly” just before crashing into an unmistakable roar from Sanders. Hinds churns out a psychedelic slide guitar solo during the title track that entwines with Dailor’s drums in entrancing, yet enigmatic union. The Kelliher-penned first single “High Road” pummels with an intense polyrhythmic guitar groove before snapping into another unshakable refrain from Dailor.Kelliher explains, “I wrote that on a day off while we were on tour in Luxembourg. I was sitting in this rainy city on a Sunday. Nothing was open. I felt like I needed to write something to reflect how I was feeling. I started banging on a guitar. I was thinking Neurosis and The Melvins low-tuned with a little more pop sensibility for the chorus.”“You can headbang to that one for days,” grins the drummer. “I love the simplicity of it. Lyrically, it’s an angry number where you want to see someone destroyed. It’s heavy-handed in that sense, but it’s the fantasy I felt at the time.”Then, there’s “The Motherload”. Sharring vocal duties between Dailor and Sanders the track cruises from a propulsive six-string onslaught into an riveting chorus—one of the band’s biggest to date. “That one is personal for me,” Dailor admits. “It’s not wanting to lose someone and the powers-that-be are trying to take that person away, or the world is just against it. You’re doing everything you can and scrambling to hold on and salvage it.”Nodding to their roots, “Chimes At Midnight” sees Sanders call out the words “Hearts Alive”, making a connection to the centerpiece of the band’s critically acclaimed 2004 breakout Leviathan. He reveals, “I never repeated a line on purpose, but I felt like it was time to!”On the other end of the spectrum, Hinds delivers a raucous and raw departure in the form of “Halloween”. Wielding a thrashed-up punk riff, the song eventually explodes into incendiary soloing from the axeman in homage to his favorite holiday. However, the biggest surprise comes during “Aunt Lisa”, an anthemic send-off to Brann’s late aunt featuring Atlanta femme punks The Coathangers on a rousing gang vocal.“This one came out pretty effortlessly. It’s about Brann’s Aunt Lisa, her wild spirit, and free personality. I love what The Coathangers did. They’re good friends of mine, and they owed me a favor because I got the Mastodon guys to dance around like girls in their video,” chuckles Hinds.Brann continues, “My aunt liked anything I did. She definitely lived life to the fullest. If she walked in the room, all eyes were on her. I loved it. I don’t think I’ve ever come across energy like that before, and I don’t know that I will. You never knew what was going to happen when she was around. She had a huge impact on my life. I didn’t get to say goodbye to her properly. This is me trying to say goodbye.”Everything culminates on the expansive finale “Diamond in the Witch House”. Boasting a vocal call-and-response between Sanders and Neurosis’s Scott Kelly, on his fourth Mastodon collaboration, the track unfolds in cinematic fashion over eight minutes punctuated by Kelliher’s hulking riffs. “It’s about the fragility of taking responsibility,” admits Sanders. “That’s what happens when you have kids. Precious lives are in your hands and dependent upon your actions. The idea spun from that. It’s about proving your worth and prevailing.”Mastodon continue to prevail artistically, and this particular rotation, Once More ‘Round the Sun, upholds that tradition of progression. “We’ve built a band that’s been able to morph, evolve, and change,” Dailor concludes. “Our fan base expects greatness, but they also expect things to be weird and different. I feel confident that we’ve risen to that challenge.”Hinds leaves off, “It would be nice if people walk away enjoying the listening experience. That’s the ultimate goal. It’s interesting to see. One thing I know for sure.they can’t walk away and say it’s not original.”

Album:

Emperor Of Sand follows after Once More 'Round The Sun and The Hunter before it as a mixture of streamlined hard rock and periodic bursts of classic Mastodon fury, with a psychedelic alt-rock haze seeping into a few riffs. As with any Mastodon album, Emperor Of Sand houses some inspired musicianship now and then, especially from Brann Dailor, but in keeping with the band's recent trend, the album centers around less kinetic displays and aims for commercial heaviness.Clearly Mastodon have been looking for a way to take the multifaceted proggy sludge sound that they helped define into the commercial realms, and while Once More 'Round The Sun hinted that The Hunter did not spell the end of classic and inventive Mastodon, Emperor Of Sand trips back into artless safety. The deadpan vocal delivery and generally unadorned instrumental tracks on "Show Yourself" and "Precious Stones" sound like they're setting up the album to be something that it isn't, or at least shouldn't be: a straightforward, indie-influenced singalong that doesn't go very far and criminally under-utilizes the immense musical talents this band possesses. Taken on their own, "Show Yourself" and "Precious Stones" are some of the least interesting songs in Mastodon's entire catalogue.A couple of other songs throughout the album ("Ancient Kingdom," for example) fall back into a very standard and unadventurous method of songwriting that can feel disappointing when "Scorpion Breath" and "Steambreather" try so hard to pull the album back into the dynamic, progressive, and just plain impressive territory of Crack The Skye. "Scorpion Breath" even has some moments that sound like blackened stoner, which would be a great new avenue for Mastodon to pursue if they didn't spend so much time trying to strip layers off their sound. The usual bright, jangly guitar riffs and harmonized choruses paint a Mastodon sheen over some otherwise unremarkable, grungy, radio rock tracks, but without the heavy low end, dynamic song structures, and impassioned delivery of past albums, Emperor Of Sand lives up to its name: it's just a little sand castle compared to Blood Mountain.Emperor Of Sand doesn't have a lot of new ideas; some of those ideas that are new to Mastodon aren't new to the rest of the world. I enjoyed this album a lot at first, but the initial appeal wears off after comparison with the band's older material, and there are only a few songs I could see myself revisiting after giving the album its requisite handful of full playthroughs.

Line Up:

Troy Sanders Bass, Keyboards, Vocals (2000-present) - See also: Killer Be Killed, ex-Social Infestation, Gone Is Gone, ex-Four Hour Fogger, ex-Knuckle, ex-Puaka Balava
Brann Dailor Drums (2000-present), Vocals (2009-present) - See also: ex-Evisceration, ex-Lethargy, Arcadea, Fiend Without a Face, ex-Gaylord, ex-Today is the Day
Brent Hinds Guitars, Vocals (2000-present) - See also: Fiend Without a Face, Giraffe Tongue Orchestra, Legend of the Seagullmen, The Blood Vessels, West End Motel, ex-Four Hour Fogger
Bill Kelliher Guitars, Vocals (backing) (2000-pesent) - See also: ex-Lethargy, Primate, ex-Butterslax, ex-Girdle, ex-Today Is the Day

Tracklist:

01. Sultan's Curse
02. Show Yourself
03. Precious Stones
04. Steambreather
05. Roots Remain
06. Word To The Wise
07. Ancient Kingdom
08. Clandestiny
09. Andromeda
10. Scorpion Breath
11. Jaguar God

+ Video "Show Yourself" (Official Video)




Download links for all albums only on our blog here: http://goodmetalandhar.do.am/

[Horex]

Mastodon - Crack The Skye (2CD) (15th Anniversary Deluxe Digibook Edition) (2024)













Year : 2009 (15th Anniversary Deluxe Digibook Edition 2024)
Style : Progressive Metal , Alternative Metal , Sludge Metal
Country : United States
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans
Size : 239 mb

Bio:

Mastodon is an American heavy metal band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 2000. The group is composed of Troy Sanders (bass/vocals), Brent Hinds (guitar/vocals), Bill Kelliher (guitar), and Brann Dailor (drums/vocals). Mastodon has released seven studio albums, as well as a number of other releases. The band's 2002 debut album, Remission, garnered significant critical acclaim for its unique sound.Mastodon's second full-length release, Leviathan, is a concept album based on the novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. Three magazines awarded the record Album of the Year in 2004: Revolver, Kerrang! and Terrorizer.The song "Colony of Birchmen" from the band's third album (released in 2006), Blood Mountain, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 2007. Blood Mountain was followed in 2009 by Crack the Skye, and in 2011 by The Hunter, which debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart and achieved major commercial success in the United States. The Hunter features the song "Curl of the Burl", which was nominated for a Grammy for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance in 2012. Mastodon's 2014 album, Once More 'Round the Sun, peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 chart and features the band's third Grammy-nominated song, "High Road". The band's seventh album, Emperor of Sand, was released on March 31, 2017, and features the band's most commercially successful song to date, "Show Yourself", which peaked at No. 4 on the US Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart in June 2017. The followup single, "Steambreather", peaked at number 18 on the same chart in October 2017. The album's opening track, "Sultan's Curse", earned the band their first Grammy award.Emperor of Sand was the band's first album to receive a Grammy nomination. It was nominated for Best Rock Album.

Album:

15th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Mastodon's fourth studio album, Crack the Skye, on 2CD. Disc 1 is the original album remastered while Disc 2, Crack the Skye: The Score, features instrumental versions of each track. Originally released in March 2009, the album features "Oblivion", "Divinations" "The Last Baron" and more.Crack the Skye is the fourth studio album by American heavy metal band Mastodon, released on March 24, 2009, through Reprise, Sire and Relapse Records.The album debuted at number 11 on the Billboard 200, selling 41,000 copies in its first week.In Australia, the album debuted at number 19.It had sold 200,000 copies in the US as of September 2010, making it one of their highest-selling albums to date.According to an interview on the DVD The Making of Crack the Skye, this album represents the element of aether, which is represented by the souls and spirits of all things, a theme closely related to the context of the album. Because the elements of fire, water and earth have already been represented by the band's first three albums Remission, Leviathan, Blood Mountain and the band's seventh album Emperor of Sand, respectively, the element of air is the only classical element which has yet to be represented by a Mastodon album, as their follow-up studio albums The Hunter and Once More 'Round the Sun do not represent an element, nor are they concept albums.Crack the Skye is the first studio album to feature drummer Brann Dailor as the band's third lead vocalist.

Line Up:

Troy Sanders - Bass, Keyboards, Vocals (2000-present) - See also: Killer Be Killed, ex-Social Infestation, Gone Is Gone, ex-Four Hour Fogger, ex-Knuckle, ex-Puaka Balava
Bill Kelliher - Guitars
Brent Hinds - Guitars, Vocals (2000-present) - See also: Fiend Without a Face, Giraffe Tongue Orchestra, Legend of the Seagullmen, The Blood Vessels, West End Motel, ex-Four Hour Fogger
Brann Dailor - Drums (2000-present), Vocals (2009-present) - See also: ex-Evisceration, ex-Lethargy, Arcadea, Fiend Without a Face, ex-Gaylord, ex-Today is the Day

+ guests:

Rich Morris – keyboards, synth and mellotron
Scott Kelly – lead vocals on "Crack the Skye"
Brendan O'Brien – production, mixing, backing vocals

Tracklist:

Original Album (Remastered)

01. Oblivion 5:47
02. Divinations 3:39
03. Quintessence 5:27
04. The Czar: Usurper / Escape / Martyr / Spiral 10:54
05. Ghost of Karelia 5:25
06. Crack The Skye 5:54
07. The Last Baron 13:01

The Score (Instrumental Crack The Skye)

01. Oblivion (Score) 5:47
02. Divinations (Score) 3:39
03. Quintessence (Score) 5:27
04. The Czar: Usurper - Escape - Martyr - Spiral (Score) 10:54
05. Ghost of Karelia (Score) 5:25
06. Crack The Skye (Score) 5:54
07. The Last Baron (Score) 13:01




Download links for all albums only on our blog here: http://goodmetalandhar.do.am/