Album Rating: 2.5

This album is so incredibly "meh". To say the songwriting on this album is "mature" is downright insulting to my intelligence. It's pop metal, churned out and easily accessible to the masses. It's territory well tread by many other bands while bringing pretty much nothing new to the table. The only thing noteworthy on the album is the drumming. While it may be a pretty decent metal release and a great starter album for newcomers to the genre, it doesn't live up to Mastodon's own legacy of profound releases. Utterly disappointing.



Need to write a review to put this album in it's place: a dusty, forgotten shelf.

u mad bro?


im fucking loving this

Rawrrrr! Hear the new users roar! BigHans you know nothing! Nothin'!

Album Rating: 2.5

Not surprised after looking at what sort of music you're into.

huh?



if you're referring to my favorite bands list, I haven't updated that since I joined 3 years ago

Album Rating: 2.5

Like I said, it's a metal album geared towards people not really into metal. It ditches any semblance of their technical and progressive songwriting prowess for simple, easy to follow Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, Chorus formulas, pop-influenced hooks, and clean singing. Not saying I don't like some clean singing here and there, but it only works well in small doses for me. It's not the Mastodon I've grown to love over the years, just a really diluted parody of it. No theme, no story, no thought. Just a random collection of songs ready for radio drones.

I like lots of metal

Album Rating: 2.5

Metal? or "metal"?



Name some favorite bands.



I base my rating of this album on all of Mastodon's collective works. Compared to most metal albums,

this album isn't bad per se, it's fairly enjoyable, but they have a legacy to live up to and this

falls totally short. Especially after what an album Crack the Skye was.

Album Rating: 2.5

I agree with this dude.

Nadja, Moss, Boris, Shrinebuilder, Neurosis, Ulver, and Blut Aus Nord

Album Rating: 3.5

my favorite bands are a7x and as i lay dying fuck you guys

you guys just don't listen to good metal

Easily in the top 5 greatest albums of the last 2 years. i had it emailed to me through a music journalist friend of mine that hooks me up sometimes, and it hasnt stopped playing on my computer for 2 and a half weeks.

and thronewolf is too hipster to give this album credit for being pure genius.

Thronewolf is just lacking an open mind to this album in my opinion. Who cares if it's not Crack The Skye, Blood
Mountain, or even Call Of The Mastodon for that matter? This is Mastodon coming in with a new style and I am sure
without a doubt that there was no intention in "selling out". We're humans Thronewolf, we like melody. Heck, we like
simplicity. So what if these guys want to make straight, heavy metal songs? As long as they're making music that sounds
good to my non-elitist ears, I'm perfectly okay with that.

Album Rating: 2.5

You guys missed my point. If I were to rate this album as if there were no other Mastodon albums,

I'd probably give it a solid 3.5, maybe even a 4. But given that their past albums were so

incredible (albeit, for different reasons) and kept pushing their boundaries to what they could

possibly do, this album fell short. I never once felt this was a step forward. A 2.5 is an "average"

score, and in context with albums like Leviathan, Blood Mountain, and CtS, I'd say "average" is

fitting for this album in comparison.



I have high standards for the bands I love, sorry. I just don't throw out 4 or above unless I truly

feel they deserve it.



Just watch this interview and they basically say they gave up on working hard on a full album

experience within the first minute. Instead of developing a cerebral, musical experience, they just

wanted to write a bunch of riffs and make them into songs somehow. Brann even says they were totally

unprepared to record an album. Really disappointing based on

their track record. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfKKP73WLTo

Album Rating: 5.0

Fucking love their aesthetic, give less of a shit about the music.













Okay this was a pretty good album.

Album Rating: 2.5

@JayKim: "So what if these guys want to make straight, heavy metal songs? As long as they're making

music that sounds good to my non-elitist ears, I'm perfectly okay with that"



That's a total cop-out then. You're basically admitting you don't uphold any artistic integrity when

scoring an album. As long as it "sounds good" we should all just praise and adore it as genius? No

thanks. Not interested in albums that just "sound good". I don't condone mediocrity. They better be

friggen amazing if they want a score higher than 3.5.

Album Rating: 4.5

Sounding good is more important then artistic integrity in my opinion.

Album Rating: 2.5

Well, that's the reason our radio waves (or any major media outlet) are overwhelmed with crappy music. People settle for mediocrity and just "sounding good". I'm sure Taylor Swift "sounds good" too. Doesn't make it good music. It does nothing to advance the arts and everything to encourage mass distribution and consumption of "meh".

Album Rating: 4.5

Well, you know, Taylor Swift isn't all that bad. Physically.

oh and musically, but yeah

she's hot.

omnom.