Mastodon - High Road

     What's this? Another post this week? Could it be...

     ...Yes, it is. Hey everybody, just your friendly neighbourhood noisemaker, saddling back up to wrangle you your daily dose of all things heavy. Things are still getting settled here at Loud Noises HQ, but as I said in one of my hiatus posts, I have a lot of things to catch up on, and that list has only gotten longer since then, so let's just get straight to it, shall we?

     First up, I feel I have to feature "High Road", the first single from Mastodon's forthcoming sixth LP Once More 'Round the Sun. I know you're all probably at least aware of the existence of this record, and if you're a Mastodon fan I'm sure you've already jammed "High Road" a few times, but just in case you're among the uninitiated, or haven't paid attention to Mastodon in an album or two, here's the deal: take one big, stompy monster of a riff, add in some classic-metal-sounding leads, and cover the whole thing a liberal layer of Mastodony melody, and you've got "High Road" in a nutshell.

     It's not quite as epic or proggy as Mastodon have been in the past (Crack the Skye is still the pinnacle of the band's career in this writer's opinion) but it does have a relentlessly crushing quality to its simplicity. If you're hoping for more of the epic spaciness of albums past, "High Road" might disappoint somewhat, but if you're just looking for a modern metal song with a bit of classic, old school feel, "High Road" just might scratch your itch. Either way, new Mastodon material is always cause for excitement in my book, and I for one am looking forward taking another spin around the sun with the boys.

Monday: Mastodon - Divinations

     Mastodon fans were given reason to celebrate last week when it came to light that the band's latest album is done being recorded and awaits only some final mastering touches before it can be unleashed upon the world. We also found out (or at least I did, maybe you already knew, smart guy) that the disc will be entitled Once More Round the Sun.

     In my book, news of an album nearing completion plus the reveal of said album's title equals grounds for featuring a Song of the Day by the band in question, and the fact that Mastodon isn't some up and coming new band isn't going to dissuade me one bit. So it's time for a Mastodon Monday.

     Last time I did a Mastodon song, I picked "Oblivion", so it feels only natural (almost mandatory, really) to go with "Divinations" this time around. Press play and say a prayer to whichever gods you favour that this album will drop sooner rather than later.

Saturday: Mastodon - Oblivion

     Word on the street is that new Mastodon is being readied for the world, and while I'm not one of those people with a serious hate on for The Hunter, I certainly would prefer something a little more reminiscent of, say, Crack the Skye.

     That's why we're going with a song off Crack the Skye tonight, in the hopes the metal gods will hear us and look kindly upon us. Specifically, I can't get around choosing album opener "Oblivion", simply because it blew my fucking mind the first time I heard it, kicking down the door to my brain so the rest of the album could charge in unimpeded. If you've got the time tonight, put this one on and then just let the record play.

Song of the Day: Mastodon - Crack the Skye

     A wee bit late  tonight/this morning, but nevermind. Again tonight I've got to do a little creative logicking to get where I want to be, but it'll be fine, you'll see. What the fuck am I talking about? Well, yesterday I wanted to do a Tesseract song, but for want of a new Tesseract song I got where I wanted to be via the roundabout way of Fellsilent, a band tangentially connected to Tesseract in a 6 degrees kind of way.