It’s been awhile since we got together for an Album Club here at Rice and Bread. Maybe we’re still getting over the Gaslight Anthem brouhaha last time out, or perhaps it’s just really tough to pick an album that deserves the kind of deep conversation that we like to dish out. Whatever the reason for the delay, we’re back, and we’ve got heavy rockers Mastodon’s new album Once More ‘Round the Sun all lined up for you. See what happens when two longtime metalheads and two relative metal newbies tackle the Atlanta, Georgia four-piece’s latest, bludgeoning effort.
The Album Club:
Jason Schreurs, Rice and Bread Magazine co-founder
Megan Cole, Rice and Bread Magazine co-founder
Greg Pratt, Rice and Bread Magazine contributor
Blake Morneau, Rice and Bread Magazine contributor
The album: Mastodon’s Once More ‘Round the Sun
Jason: So, guys, how are you feeling about this new Mastodon album?
Greg: I’m feeling great about it, but I’m a big Mastodon fan. I should say, right off the bat, that I’m feeling a bit bad. Last time we did a band that I love, and here we are again doing a band I love. And poor Megan is probably pulling her ears off at this point.
Megan: I didn’t hate this one, Greg.
Jason: I’m also a big Mastodon fan, maybe not as big as you are Greg. I’m not as into the super proggy, nerdy metal stuff that you are. No offence.
Greg: None taken.
Jason: But this one took a good three or four solid listens to sink in, and we can talk more about that later, but Blake, how do you feel about the album?
Blake: I imagine that it’s like when I play reggae music for people, and it’s how they feel. I like it, but I feel like I don’t have the metal vocabulary to really know why I like it. I haven’t listened to it as many times as I have the other albums we’ve done, just because it’s such a crushing, relentless assault compared to what I’m used to listening to. I really like it and it’s really exciting to me, but I feel kind of dumb listening to it…
Jason: Oh, don’t feel dumb, Blake. We all have to have our introduction to extreme metal at some point. So Mastodon obviously have a few albums under their belts and they’ve tried a lot of different things while keeping on the same course, which is a proggy, heavy rock, thrash metal kind of deal. I’m not even sure where I’d place this album in their canon; it seems like it’s going to take some more time to grow on me. Where do you feel like it fits in with the rest of their stuff, Greg?
Greg: Well, it’s definitely a grower. My relationship with Mastodon is that I’ve loved them since day one and I’m definitely a fan, and I find their earlier stuff is the stuff I enjoy most and the easiest to grasp onto, and as the years went on they got more and more proggy and weird. They put out some albums that I found totally impenetrable and I can barely even enjoy, and then the past couple, including this new one, were much more, believe it or not, simple and basic, and they’ve got into a Queens of the Stone Age rock thing, but with some real serious prog overtones. So they’re in a strange place as a band; it’s sort of half and half hard rock and weirdo, prog-geek rock. I don’t know what kind of mood I need to be in to listen to this though. Like you said Blake, it’s difficult, and even as a big fan I don’t really put this one on a lot.
Jason: I think the mood you have to be in is an orgasm-face, guitar-soloing mood.
Greg: [Laughs] A lot of lonely dudes are listening to this by themselves on a Saturday night.
Jason: Yeah, a lot of noodling on here. You mentioned, Megan, that Metallica seemed like a frame of reference for this album for you?
Megan: Well, we have to keep in mind that my basic education of metal music is pretty much non-existent, so when I hear most metal it sounds like Metallica to me, even though it probably doesn’t. The more I listen to this, I hear other rock references; there are some parts where it’s like a Guns ‘N’ Roses moment, or Queens of the Stone Age in the vocals a bit, so while I heard some Metallica, I definitely don’t think they sound like Metallica.
Jason: Were you guys not totally floored when you watched that video I sent of them playing “The Motherload” on Jimmy Kimmel and it was the drummer who sings that song?
Greg: Yeah, I had no idea he sang on that.
Megan: I’m always floored when I see a drummer singing, because the thought of playing the drums to me is unfathomable, like how they manage to do so many things at once, it just doesn’t register, but to try and sing on top of it; I’m always impressed by that.
Jason: One of the cool things about Mastodon is that all four of the dudes are really involved in the songwriting, so Brann Dailor, the drummer, writes a lot of the songs and the lyrics as well, so to see him step up and do lead vocals on that song and play it on Jimmy Kimmel… I love those moments when the drummer’s just back there with his microphone singing like crazy.
Greg: He’s a phenomenal drummer, and one of the best drummers in metal. He’s really tame on this album and it was funny, because in that live performance, and if you listen to that song on the album, and I love that song, by the way…
Blake: Yes! That song kicks ass.
Greg: But if you listen to it on the album versus that performance, you’ll see that on Kimmel that he’s just playing a straight 4/4 beat start to finish in the verses, whereas on the album it’s one big drum roll, so I guess it’s a bit different doing it in the studio versus actually singing and drumming at the same time, which is no knock on his playing because he’s amazing. But I thought that was kind of interesting…. Okay, who cares? No one cares [laughs].
Blake: I find that quite interesting, Greg. This is helping my metal education.
Megan: I’d like to assure you, Greg, that it wasn’t in the drumming that I heard the Metallica references.
Jason: Oooh…
Megan: That’s a Lars Ulrich jab. That’s right in Lars’ ribcage there [laughs].
Jason: She’s learning metal well. She’s using Lars jabs already; that’s pretty awesome. A metal disciple in the making over here.
Megan: Maybe I know more about metal than I thought, or least more about Metallica than I thought.
Mastodon at a slightly less pensive angle.
Jason: Can we talk about the totally rad moment in the song “Aunt Lisa” where the cheerleaders come in? That was the defining moment of the album for me.
Greg: You know what? I didn’t like that, and it’s the same reason I always fucking hated that on the Faith No More song “Be Aggressive,” which is the comparison everyone keeps making, because it’s the only two times metalheads have ever heard cheerleaders in their lives, apparently. But that Faith No More song always bugged me when the cheerleaders came in, and it bugs me on this one, too. But I’m not sure why.
Blake: I fluctuated wildly back and forth on that one. The first time, I hated it, then the second time, I loved it. Part of me laughed and part of me just wanted to claw my eyes out.
Jason: Supposedly the idea to do it was just a goof, and they decided to stick with it. Which is another thing I like about this band, is that they don’t take themselves too seriously. And there are other bands like that, too, like Red Fang from Portland, and Torche from Florida, and these bands that play this churning, heavy rock, but they’re not super serious about it. They do have a sense of humour as well.
Greg: Yeah, which is awesome.
Jason: It is a pretty punishing album at times. As extreme metal newbies, Megan and Blake, how do you guys feel about being pounded for an hour?
Blake: I enjoy it, to some degree. But, like I said, without really knowing enough about it, it’s hard to entirely differentiate bad metal from good metal. So, I like being bludgeoned in the face, but I wish I knew what I was getting bludgeoned with. I really like the song “Asleep in the Deep,” because it was my calm in the middle of everything, and I know there are songs on metal albums that tend to do that, from what I understand. So I gravitated towards that bit of a breather on an album that kind of strangled me, but in a good way.
Jason: Megan?
Megan: I don’t mind being pounded for an hour [laughs]. Umm, I enjoy heavier stuff. I enjoy Baroness, but I guess that’s a bit of a different style than this. I don’t enjoy the noodley guitar stuff on this album, and it starts to be a little too Rush for me, and women hate Rush, so I’m immediately turned off by that. But I didn’t mind the album, and I actually found it a lot easier to listen to than the Gaslight Anthem.
Jason: I think Mastodon are more in tune with what they want to do as a band, for themselves, and they don’t seem to really care too much about outside influences, where maybe Gaslight don’t have that luxury as much.
Greg: And Mastodon has gotten a lot of success over the years, which is crazy after following their first EP and album; they were super heavy and were considered extreme metal, so to think that they’ve become one of today’s almost mainstream metal successes is really wild and kind of weird.
Blake: Oddly enough, they are one of the few metal bands I’ve seen live. I saw them play in Nashville at Bonnaroo in 2008 and they were crushing, and they were there because Metallica was there, and they had gotten some token metal bands to satiate Metallica’s fans, and that’s when I first heard about Mastodon and I enjoyed them.
Jason: I love the production sound here. It’s Nick Raskulinecz, who produced Deftones, Foo Fighters and the newer Alice in Chains stuff, and it’s got that real overloaded, everything-turned-up-to-11, peaking-in-the-red sound, which I love.
Greg: Yeah, I agree, it sounds great. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how much I love that song “The Motherload,” the one that they played on Kimmel. When I first heard this album, most of it whizzed by because it’s so intense, except for that one song where, finally, after all of these years, Mastodon just lay down a 4/4 beat and a catchy chorus, and it was uplifting and positive sounding, and totally unexpected, and it’s just a great song.
Blake: I really love the positivity in that song. It caught me off-guard when I finally heard the lyrics on the second or third time, but I thought it was awesome.
Jason: Supposedly, the theme of this new album is “death,” so maybe it’s not the most positive theme, but it’s also about finding that hope, I guess. And, yeah, that song’s awesome. It sounds straight off of Ozzy Osbourne’s Bark at the Moon from 1983.
Blake: Yeah, I get a lot of Ozzy feel off this record.
Jason: Okay, anything else to add?
Greg: Mastodon are awesome and this is a great album.
Blake: Thanks for rattling my brains, Mastodon!
Jason: Do we have a couple of new metal converts over at Rice and Bread? Can we hit you with some grindcore now?
Blake: Oh, that might be a little too advanced.
Jason: Or how about some of the Dillinger Escape Plan, Megan?
Megan: Never! And it’s not like I haven’t given them a try, but, no.
Mastodon‘s Once More ‘Round the Sun is out now on Reprise Records.
No Comments