Arcadea - Gas Giant

     It's a kinda sorta Techno Tuesday for you this evening, and hey look, it's actually on Tuesday! Will wonders never cease?

     Why do I say "kinda sorta" this time around? Because this isn't electronic music, strictly speaking, which is what I think of when I think techno. But Arcadea is more synth-based electro-prog than techno per se. And why should you care? Because Arcadea happens to be a project that involved none other than Mastodon skinsman Brann Dailor, playing acoustic drums here in all his unholy glory.

     The result is an interesting synthesis of digital and analog, of electronic and organic, that sounds like it could be electro-Mastodon, but not quite. It's actually a pretty cool bit of fusion, but even if you don't dig the style smashing, some fresh pieces of badass drumwork from Brann are always welcome. So check out "Gas Giant" and then groove out while we all await further news of a full-length.

Mastodon - White Walker

     Chances are you've heard at some point in the last little while that there's going to be some pretty decent metal representation on the latest Game of Thrones album/mixtape (yeah, I know, right? That's a thing). Today you get to hear a sample from Catch the Throne, Vol. II in the form of new material from Mastodon.

     "White Walker" is light on the heavy and heavy on the mood, if you follow me. Don't expect much crushing or pummeling, but a haunting, white walker-y kind of atmosphere abounds. Do expect a slow build of brooding and dread that bursts about three quarters of the way in. Not what you might expect from Mastodon, but tasty nonetheless.

Saturday: Torche - Minions

     Pretend it's actually Saturday evening for this next song, and you're relaxing out with a drink or two, in need of something kinda heavy but also kinda laid-back. You're not looking to be pummeled just now, and skilled sludge slingers Torche have got hypothetical you covered.

     Torche have a new album, Restarter, coming out early next year, and after some hyping and some teasing we've finally got a full song to chew on in the form of first single "Minions". It's a somewhat sludgy, predictably fuzzy jam that, as is par for the course Torche-wise, reminds of prog-less Mastodon or even something like Kyuss. It plods along with a crushing, marching kind of beat, but lacks the relentlessness of something full-on Metal.

     The stoney drone of "Minions" also sounds very old-school to me somehow, in a way I can't quite put my finger on, other than to say that I could see my high school self listening to it and approving. That's a pretty decent endorsement, because that guy's got good taste.

Friday: The Melvins - City Dump

     The other day, when I was listening to the new Faith No More song, I was doing so on the Ipecac Soundcloud. Every time "Motherfucker" ended, some other song started before I had a chance to go back to the start of the player's chosen playlist for more "Motherfucker". Eventually, however, I started liking the first little bit of that other song, and upon further investigation, this is what I found.

     Your song today is "City Dump" from the 2013 record Tres Cabrones by The Melvins. I've never been a huge Melvins fan, for whatever reason, but by the time I got all the way through "City Dump" I was thoroughly digging things. It's a sludgy, stonery kind of track that almost reminds me of the southern psychedelic grunginess of Mastodon or Baroness.

     I don't know that I'm going to go out and devour The Melvins' back catalogue now, but I certainly won't write them off as quickly as I have in the past for not really being my style. Some of their shit, at least, is most definitely my style.

Sunday: The Matador - Destroyer

     OK, so maybe I was wrong about you yesterday. Maybe thrashy melodeath like the kind peddled by British Bloodshot Dawn isn't your cup of tea. That's fine. Perhaps sludgy post-metal will be more your speed?

     Australian act The Matador has the market cornered on big, crushing post-metal with a decidedly sludgy, doomy feel. Mastodon and Baroness both come immediately to mind, but to say that The Matador sounds like either of those bands wouldn't be quite right. Mastodon are a little proggier, and Baroness are a little bit more folky space rock.

     The Matador, on the other hand, are just big and heavy and abrasive. Their latest Destroyer has apparently been three years in the making, but those three years have resulted in a seasoned, refined sound, the sound of a band that's confident with where it's at. I'm not sure if that makes any sense to you, so you should probably just have a listen to title track "Destroyer" and see if you can decipher some meaning from my sage musings.

Album of the Week: Mastodon - Leviathan

     Mastodon have released another song from their forthcoming album Once More Round the Sun, but rather than feature it today (it hasn't been all that long since I recommended "High Road", after all) I figured I'd do you one better and advocate you spend the week with some classic Mastodon.

     Mastodon has such a strong back catalogue that I have a plethora of options for your Album of the Week, but if we're talking classic Mastodon, there's really only once choice: 2004's Leviathan. It's got it all: great riffs and songs, stellar drumming, a multiple-vocalist assault, a lofty concept based on Melville's Moby Dick, and even some kick-ass artwork. There's no denying Mastodon is among the biggest bands in modern metal, and this is the record that put them on the throne.

     Now, if you already dig Mastodon, chances are you know how good this album is, and you should need no further prompting from me to want to revisit it. But if you're somehow unfamiliar with the band, or you're only cozy with their newer material, you owe it to yourself to check Leviathan out. Their newer stuff is, of course, good (Crack the Skye being beyond "good" and into the realm of "fucking awesome") but there's nevertheless something special about Mastodon's great white whale.

Monuments - I, The Creator

     June is shaping up to be a good month for new metal. Yesterday I was talking about Mastodon's new album Once More 'Round the Sun, which comes out on the 24th of June, and today I'm directing you to the first song to be released from Monuments' sophomore disc The Amanunensis, which comes out the day before (in Europe anyways, we'll have to wait a week or two over here across the pond).

     I've featured the British prog djentlemen of Monuments and their first album Gnosis a couple of times before, mostly for their much-better-than-average djentish riffing and miles deep grooves. But "I, The Creator", the first song we heard from The Amanunensis, gets the nod today for throwing a stronger sounding sense of melody into the mix.

     Some among you will of course decry things like an increase in clean singing as being too poppy (or something more colourful). But think about it this way: the formula of groove-centric metal plus catchy melodies is what yielded Australia's Circles. Or Sevendust, for that matter. If Monuments were to evolve in the direction of either of those bands, it wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen. Have a listen to "I, The Creator" and see what you think.

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.

Friday: Killer Be Killed - Wings of Feather and Wax

     Since I mentioned them in "yesterday's" post about supergroup Antemasque, and have really talked about them before, I figure it's high time I give the figurative fifteen minutes to Killer Be Killed.

     Why? Let's do the math. Troy from Mastodon + Greg from The Dillinger Escape Plan + David from The Mars Volta + Max Cavalera from Sepultura and Soulfly = reason to be intrigued. That's a formula to get interested in right off the bat, and it doesn't hurt that the couple of songs that've been released so far aren't half bad either.

     You're probably way ahead of me on this one, but if maybe you've heard about this project and are still on the fence or something, have a listen to "Wings of Feather and Wax" from Killer Be Killed's debut self-titled album, due out next month, and see if you dig.

Opeth - Master's Apprentices

     Mastodon, eat your heart out, because Opeth have got you trumped in the new album department. Sure, we now know that Mastodon's Once More Round the Sun is nearing completion, but Opeth have done one better and not only released the title of their forthcoming disc Pale Communion but also announced a release date of June 17 to boot! Happy early birthday to me!

     The first single from Pale Communion isn't due out for another month or so, so for now we'll have to delve into the band's back catalogue for a suitable song to celebrate the news of new Opeth. Tonight I'd like to suggest the epic "Master's Apprentices" from the 2002 disc Deliverance. It's anyone's guess what Pale Communion will sound like, but here's hoping it's got a little of this classic Opeth flavour.

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.

Ethersens - To Live is To Forget

     We call things "post-hardcore" to broadly connote that in some way they've been influenced by the impact of of hardcore, perhaps even moved beyond it. Ditto for "post-metal". But has anybody ever heard of "post-alt-rock"? Yeah, didn't think so.

     Maybe because it's not really a thing? Maybe, but the opening minutes of the epic "To Live is To Forget" from last month's Your Wandering Ghost by France's Ethersens remind me so much of 90's alt-rock and alt-metal that I'd be willing to coin the term.

     If, however, that sounds like the kind of thing that makes you want to click away to some other page as fast as possible, know that Ethersens are not just rehashing anything from the most formative decade of my musical youth. Their big melodic sensibilities are filtered through a proggier, more modern lens. I hear flashes of Alice in Chains and I Mother Earth in "To Live is To Forget", but I'm also getting hints of The Ocean or even Mastodon.

      Ethersens might not be earth-shattering if this kind of sound isn't your cup of tea, but if nothing else, it's certainly tasty enough that Your Wandering Ghost warrants further investigation. Meet me back here when you're done.

Rosetta - Oku/The Secrets

     Today's band cropped up on a few year-end lists that I saw, and likely more that slipped past my vigilant gaze. Even I've recommended them to you before, but it's been a while, so it's once again Rosetta's time to shine.

     Rosetta's sludgy, vaguely Mastodony post-metal certainly isn't about instant gratification; several songs on last year's The Anaesthete clock in at six minutes or longer, and the album as a whole is chock full of ebbing and flowing. Rosetta are definitely a band who've mastered the art of the build and release.

     Today's song, however, starts out with the release and works backwards. "Oku/The Secrets" opens with some hammering guitars and drums, and then levels out into some rolling thunder riffing for the groove that carries the latter portion of the song. Some volume is a must for this one.

Mastodon - Aqua Dementia

     I keep trying to think of something ultra-modern to use today to sorta kick off the first full week of the new year, but my mind keeps wandering back to things not so super modern.

     Today's song, "Aqua Dementia", is from Mastodon's seminal Leviathan, a record that's ten years old this year. But despite their age, both the song and the album stand up to anything that's come out recently. In fact, I would argue that Leviathan may well be the apex of Mastodon's creative powers, the high water mark that they'll never best. What do you think?

Mastodon - Stargasm

     Super quick post tonight, because it's late, I'm tired, and I have to be up in like four hours or so for work. So, yeah.

     Mastodon's The Hunter has taken a while to grow on me, and it's still not my favourite record by the band, but I definitely feel a lot more love for it now than when it was released. To that end, you're getting "Stargasm" as your song this evening. Put it on and then lie down and look at the sky, or something similarly stargasmy.

Song of Friday: Mastodon - Colony of Birchmen

     Silly, sleepy me, going to bed last night without posting a song. Shame on me.

Song of the Day: Mastodon - Blood and Thunder

     I've never read Moby Dick. I've tried, mind you, it's just a grueling slog of a read getting Ishmael aboard the Pequod and I've never finished Ahab's quest for vengeance. But thankfully I don't have to. I can instead rely on Mastodon's 2004 opus Leviathan to give me the gist.

     Or not. Either way, "Blood and Thunder" is badass, and the kind of song that might just be worth losing a leg over, provided of course that a health supply of sweet, sweet whale oil is included in the bargain. Artificial illumination for all!

Song of the Day: Colossus - Pillars of Perennity

     Just a quick post this evening to turn you on to a sludgy Swedish prog outfit with a new album. Tell me more, you say? OK!

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.