Frownland

The Hunter is great musically, but I don't really like the vocals on that album. Blood Mountain still takes the cake for me.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

KMS

Mastodon was at it's best with yelling, screaming and face melting walls of distortion.

Except for Crack the Skye, it makes up for not having the latter due to musical brilliance. The Hunter strips back from that, without the charm of the brutality.

mr dave

I find it's more the guitar leads. There are way more bends and blues scales on this last disc and something about the way they're layered and the relatively sparse bass in some of the spacier instrumental parts just triggers memories of Floyd in my head.

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Engine

One thing that was finally done right on The Hunter is Brent Hinds' vocals.

In the beginning his high pitched shrieking was okay but I still would have rather heard only Sanders on the mic. The later, more polished albums feature embarrassingly horrible vocals by Hinds. Especially Blood Mountain if I remember correctly. He just can't sing, and I always hated how they tried to make him into a real singer on the later albums. For proof, watch the DVDs that came with Blood Mountain and Crack the Skye. One or the other shows Hinds in the vocal recording booth with nothing but his trying-to-be-serious-and-good-but-simply-awful vocalizing in all its glory. I was seriously embarrassed for the guy watching that.

Anyway, he sounds pretty good on The Hunter somehow. The songs are simpler and more straight up metal than on the the previous two (I never really liked Mastodon as a prog band) and Hinds' vocals actually add something to the songs for maybe the first time.
Unpopular opinion I guess, but the new one is my favorite since Leviathan.

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Alfred

I actually like Hinds' vocals a lot on Blood Mountain and Crack The Skye. He's got a certain quality that conjures images of mythical creatures.

Namely, trolls, dwarves...

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Engine

Trolls and dwarves? That's kinda weird. Anyway, I probably sound like I'm shitting on Mastodon a bit but I don't mean to be. They're one of few bands whose CDs I purchase without fail and I think all of their albums are good if not great. I have each 'deluxe edition' of their albums that come with a DVD and I'll buy the one for The Hunter too.
I scoured youtube for the Hinds moment I mentioned before but got bored. If you're a fan you should watch all of their 'making of' DVDs because the whole band is hilarious, smart and insightful.
I found this 'making of The Hunter' clip:

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Like an arrow,
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Alfred

I actually find Brent to be a bit annoying. He seems to really enjoy hearing himself talk in most interviews I've seen. Seems pretty chill in that video though.

As for owning physical copies of Mastodon's work, I have Live At The Aragon and Blood Mountain on CD and Leviathan and the Divinations picture disc on vinyl. I really want to get myself a vinyl copy of Remission, which has easily my favorite Mastodon artwork, and maybe a double LP version of Crack The Skye (I've heard that the single LP sounds like crap). The strength of Mastodon's albums on the whole and their incredible artwork make owning physical copies more desirable than most bands, for me.

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Surell

The Hunter is straight up metal and Floydian? I've been missing something.

Btw, Alfred, not trolls, ogres. Ogres and dwarves.

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RVCA

I agree Engine, Hinds' voice was initially a big turnoff for me on Crack the Skye especially, but I've grown accustomed to it. I've always really loved Sanders' voice though

Howard the Duck

which one's Hinds and which one's Sanders, neways?

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