Is anyone else here absolutely addicted to Blood Mountain? I really love how Troy's bass cuts through the mix perfectly. It just seems like there's not a whole lot of chatter going on about such a kick ass band and bass player on the boards.

Huge fan. Saw them a couple of weeks ago and they sounded exactly like they do on the records. I think their albums are getting better and better with each release, Blood Mountain being the most recent and best. Troy is such a good bass player, especially considering that he's the main singer. When I saw him, he was playing a P-bass with a humbucker in the bridge position. The bass was sunburst, only instead of orangey-brown, it was gray that faded to black, with a black pickguard. One of the coolest basses I've ever seen.

When I saw him, he was playing a P-bass with a humbucker in the bridge position. The bass was sunburst, only instead of orangey-brown, it was gray that faded to black, with a black pickguard. One of the coolest basses I've ever seen.

Yeah I've been listening to them for years now. The pain job on that P-bass is to match the two guitar players' two tone colors. I heard he got his Fender Prophecy stolen.

I love Mastodon. I'm going to Roskilde Festival next week and seeing them there. Twill be crazy...

Yeah there great Leviathan was recorded with the Ibanez SRX700 and the Fender Prophecy, they definatley sound sick on that album.

amazing stuff

I've seen him with a Fender Prophecy, some sort of Godlyke and some sort of Yamaha RBX. He's a great player and Blood Mountain is an amazing album :D Seen them twice too :) And their drummer is amazing :P
Dan

Huge fan.I saw them live at the HOB.They totally rocked.Just as good live as they are on the CD.Troy Sanders is a very underrated bass player.

I saw them last week, our bands played both at the graspop metal meeting in belgium.
Troy is a great guy, I talked to him before the show, I could see them right from the stageside!
what a rad liveshow!!! they're really an awesome band!

I like them, but they have never been able to get anywhere near topping "Remission". I had the chance to go and see them live, but after watching a live dvd of them I decided not to bother.

I like Mastodon OK.

Worst band opening for Iron Maiden EVER! (no, wait that have to be the band on the last tour) and as far as i can tell mr. sanders was nothing special.

Worst band opening for Iron Maiden EVER! (no, wait that have to be the band on the last tour) and as far as i can tell mr. sanders was nothing special.

I know it was weird for Maiden to have Mastodon open for them but IMO Trivium was probably one of the worse openers for Maiden lately. And I like Trivium, I've seen them live twice and I thought they were horrible both times.

Seen them three times - awesome band. Love all the albums. They're the best metal band since Black Sabbath, in my opinion.

Great metal band. Progressive metal without the pretentiousness, hair metal singers and 20 minute guitar solos.

One of my favorites. :)

great song structures, there one of the few bands that give me that feeling in my gut when i watch them.

They don't play at their best when supporting another band though, for the real Mastodon watch them on their own tour somewhere small.

these guys kick major booty. saw them open for slayer. blood mountain and leviathon are great. totally dig troy's overdriven tone. i have trouble hearing the bass on leviathon though.

Wait, Mastodon should have NEVER opened for Iron Maiden.

You guys see Metal: A Headbangers Journey where he talks about being a 10 year old completely into Iron Maiden blah blah blah, and then said at age 12, he needed something a god bit heavier (enter clips of Slayer)...

...Mastodon is what you listen to when you need something heavier, they are NOT in the same ballpark. as for Remission, its like comparing Undertow to 10,000 days, definitely different worlds again. I dig both of them. Crystall Skull, megalodon, and crusher destroyer are my three favorite tracks.

Wait, Mastodon should have NEVER opened for Iron Maiden.

You guys see Metal: A Headbangers Journey where he talks about being a 10 year old completely into Iron Maiden blah blah blah, and then said at age 12, he needed something a god bit heavier (enter clips of Slayer)...

...Mastodon is what you listen to when you need something heavier, they are NOT in the same ballpark. as for Remission, its like comparing Undertow to 10,000 days, definitely different worlds again. I dig both of them. Crystall Skull, megalodon, and crusher destroyer are my three favorite tracks.
Iron Maiden > Mastodon.

Iron Maiden > Mastodon.

if you are over 30

if you are over 30

I'm 40, and I'll take Mastodon over Maiden any day. :bassist: I love the constant heavy riffage on Blood Mountain, which is a great record. It sent me back into my Slayer collection, which I had ignored for awhile. I've been into metal for almost 30 years, and for some reason could never get completely into Maiden. I dig them and have the greatest hits, but they're pretty far down on my list of metal acts.

yeah, I didn't mean to imply that if you are over 30 then you would definitely take im over the don.

I'd just be real interested to hear anyone under 30 say that IM > Don .

Sorry, but when I was 13, they put out 7th son, which was the beginning of cheeseville. I had to go BACK in the catalogue to find the great stuff.

These days, the prog meets thrash thing is huge. Math meets death, whatever you want to call it. Tons of bands totally messing with time and anticipation, and in the heavy scene I do believe that is huge. The arrangements on some tunes today are just mind blowing, Mastodon, Candiria, Isis, and the great Tool are really setting a new bar for the *** factor.

When I was in central Copenhagen the other day, I'm sure I saw one of the guys from Isis. Can this be true? I mean, are they touring at the moment?

if you are over 30

I'm 18 and I will take maiden over mastodon any day of the week, and I do think slayer suck but hey what do I know. Slayer is a second rate Kreator.

I'm 18 and I will take maiden over mastodon any day of the week, and I do think slayer suck but hey what do I know. Slayer is a second rate Kreator.

I completely stand corrected.

18 and into Kreator?!?! WOW!!! nice.

Iron Maiden sucks. They are all pretty good at their instruments, but their songs are just so cheesy. How can they be expected to be taken seriously? To me, they are even worse than the "hair metal" bands of the 80's because at least after a while it became apparent that everything was just a huge gimmick. Give me a break Iron Maiden. And Slayer is better than Kreator.

So to avoid this turning into a Mastodon-Maiden-Slayer-Kreator free-for-all...

What is your favourite Mastodon record and why? I vote Remission but I also like the songs on Lifesblood as much. Mother Puncher is my favourite metal song at the moment.

I don't know anything about Mastodon, only what I read on Wikipedia. Can the bass guitar be heard reasonably well in the mix, or are the guitars detuned and dominate everything? What are the vocals like?

I love Mastodon... I wanted to see them this past February but I had a gig of my own that night ;) Great band, definitely one of the better metal bands out there now.

Thunder Pulse: Guitars are tuned to D standard, so the bass can still be heard pretty well. Listen to one of their songs on Youtube from their new album Blood Mountain.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZKw2s_AxUIw

So to avoid this turning into a Mastodon-Maiden-Slayer-Kreator free-for-all...

What is your favourite Mastodon record and why? I vote Remission but I also like the songs on Lifesblood as much. Mother Puncher is my favourite metal song at the moment.

I think Blood Mountain is their best work to date. It may not be the most metal out of all of them but it is the most progressive. Almost every song in it had a really funny "holy crap" moment in it. Just the drums alone on Capilarian Crest are a lot more impressive than most metal thats come out in the past decade.

I was always hoping that they'd make something to top Mother Puncher, then Blade Catcher came out. It's the coolest song to see them play live. Haha Brent whistles into the mic with all of his crazy vocal effects turned on for some parts.

Nope they disses John Myung for being a little Chinese girl, well at least the guitarist and bassist did.

Nope they disses John Myung for being a little Chinese girl, well at least the guitarist and bassist did.

Haha it was Brent (guitar player) who said it when they were asked about how they felt about being categorized as prog metal. All he said was something to the effect of "well, we don't have a small Asian woman playing bass for us"

I'm a Dream Theater fan too and an Asian bass player but my hair isn't that long yet, but I thought that was damn funny when he said that. Prog metal fans could be such snobs sometimes. I really don't wanna open up a DT debate but when you've been doing the same things for 20 years I really don't think its all that progressive anymore IMO.

I was always hoping that they'd make something to top Mother Puncher, then Blade Catcher came out. It's the coolest song to see them play live. Haha Brent whistles into the mic with all of his crazy vocal effects turned on for some parts.

Ah true - I have seen them play Bladecatcher and it is fantastic. (opens Winamp and listens to Blood Mountain)

To Thunderpulse: one of the defining things in Mastodon is they never let one instrument really dominate. A lot of metal fans have complained the guitars are too low down in the mix, or that the vocals are too quiet (the latter especially on their early stuff). The way it's mixed sounds pretty unusual to my ears.

Haha it was Brent (guitar player) who said it when they were asked about how they felt about being categorized as prog metal. All he said was something to the effect of "well, we don't have a small Asian woman playing bass for us"

I'm a Dream Theater fan too and an Asian bass player but my hair isn't that long yet, but I thought that was damn funny when he said that. Prog metal fans could be such snobs sometimes. I really don't wanna open up a DT debate but when you've been doing the same things for 20 years I really don't think its all that progressive anymore IMO.

Well hi five fellow asian bassist/DT fan. I remember reading that interview. They call Myung a Chinese girl (which I think is hilarious) and LaBrie an 80s hair metal singer who "has a gay thing with his hair". Which is sort of true as well.

im 20 and maiden and slayer are my top two....mastodon isnt slayer or maiden so why the comparison??? mastodon are f-in amazing..they take me somewhere else like maiden and slayer used to!!

ohh and kreator is lame

i love there song at the beginning of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie

;4501479']i love there song at the beginning of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie

Agreed. Best movie intro ever. http://youtube.com/watch?v=3FkTORyXc6g for reference.

Agreed. Best movie intro ever. http://youtube.com/watch?v=3FkTORyXc6g for reference.

Hell, best movie ever.

I'm 18 and I will take maiden over mastodon any day of the week, and I do think slayer suck but hey what do I know. Slayer is a second rate Kreator.

Haha...that's the best thing I've ever read on here. Kreator definetly rules. Can't wait to see 'em come here with King Diamond and Cellador next year.

Everything I've heard from Mastodon has been pretty lame but then I've only heard stuff from music videos and on TV so maybe I just saw their 'commercial' sounding stuff.

There's definetly a lot of great bands that play this type of old meets new style. Sweet Cobra, Doomriders and Lair of the Minotaur are all worth checking out.

Man, will they ever top Remission?

There's definetly a lot of great bands that play this type of old meets new style. Sweet Cobra, Doomriders and Lair of the Minotaur are all worth checking out.

i actually saw sweet cobra for the first time opening up for mastodon in chicago years ago. i'm pretty sure it was before leviathan was released. furthermore, i just saw sweet cobra again last weekend in indy at dudefest.

I like them, but they have never been able to get anywhere near topping "Remission". I had the chance to go and see them live, but after watching a live dvd of them I decided not to bother.

Man, will they ever top Remission?

We get it!

I personally much prefer their latest album to Remission, and feel that Crystal Skull is the song they were born to write. Their style is rather unique and their song structures are always pretty interesting.

I'm not sure I could get into a band who's name literally means "Nipple Tooth" in Greek. Can you imagine chanting that at a gig. :)

Monster band. I've seen them 3 times, twice in really small venues, and they absolutely obliterate. I will say I like Remission and Leviathan a wee bit better than Blood Mountain, but it grew on me in a different way.

I saw Mastodon open for Slayer back in april and I can say that live they were spectacular, but if you go to see slayer, you want to see slayer haha, and when you have 2000 metal heads chanting "SLAYER SLAYER SLAYER" in between mastodon songs, you can't really argue. But they did play a great set, Colony of Birchmen kicked ass.

i actually saw sweet cobra for the first time opening up for mastodon in chicago years ago. i'm pretty sure it was before leviathan was released. furthermore, i just saw sweet cobra again last weekend in indy at dudefest.

Man, I was going to go out to dude fest but I had a gig to play saturday night...and practice for the gig friday night. I've seen sweet cobra a couple times at chicago shows and there always a blast to see.

I got some beef with their singer/bassist though. I was trying to stage dive at a show at the Logan Square where he was working security and he grabbed me and threw me off the side where there were no people. Fell a good 4 feet right on my back.

Is anyone else here absolutely addicted to Blood Mountain? I really love how Troy's bass cuts through the mix perfectly. It just seems like there's not a whole lot of chatter going on about such a kick ass band and bass player on the boards.

Hell yeah! One of the best recordings ever IMO. Vocals are a lot less hardcore-ish on this one (never cared too much for that style).

And I know this is a forum for bass...but what about those drums?!?! :bassist:



Nope they disses John Myung for being a little Chinese girl, well at least the guitarist and bassist did.

Dream Theatre's bassist isn't a little chinese girl?!?! LOL ;) - not trying to derail the post, but that's one of those bands I could listen to for years straight IIIIFFFFFFF they had a different singer. Iron Maiden too - I don't do hardcore vocals, but that hair-metal-ish NWOBHM* style vocals gets under my skin!



*See New Wave of British Heavy Metal (Maiden, Priest, etc.)