Mastodon???

[smeet]

I've been listening to quite of bit of this band lately, and enjoying it quite a bit. I really don't listen to metal (or the related genres) at all, so maybe I'm off base here, but I have an observation/question.

The chord changes that these guys use for the most part seem almost completely unrelated to the normal cycle-of-fifths diatonic harmony that most music uses. Is this deliberate, or is it because they don't know music theory, or am I just not hearing it correctly?

As I said, I like it, so no disrespect intended by suggesting that they may not know theory... Just wondering.

[llacnayr]

Mastodon is a very unique band, they might know music theory to help them, but they don't rely on it for their songs. They use riffs, kind of like how Black Sabbath and some Zeppelin songs are structured.
I got to meet them on their Volcum tour this year, it was awesome

[Lazarus.Bird]

A lot of music that stems from that sludge genre uses a "let's just play what sounds good" mentality. As someone who belongs to this mentality (although slowly changing that!), I wouldn't be able to answer your actual question.

[smeet]

As a past violinist with a background in classical and jazz, I find their musical choices alternately intriguing and frustrating. There are obvious traditional ways to resolve some of the phrases, and they almost never go where I think they will. This is refreshing, but at the same time it sometimes prevents the music from feeling like it is moving forward, if you know what I mean, since that is much of the purpose of the resolve-down-by-a-fifth tendency of diatonic harmony.

On the other hand the meter and tempo shifts they do are just wonderful.

[David Smyth]

Metal is all about heavy riffs that sound good with not necessarily theory to back it up. Riffs can be aided by some theory, but it's not usually the case.

It's just some bogans jamming some heavy (sweet sounding) riffs and their music creation is somewhat unlimited because they don't have to abide by musical 'rules' or 'guidelines' such as scales & chords..

Saw them at Big Day Out in January, they were sweet!

[aggiebass09]

Coming from a metal background, a lot of it is written (in my experience) on what sounds good. Of course that's not always the case. But then again, it could all be intentional as well.

[CertifiedLurker]

Originally Posted by Lazarus.Bird

"let's just play what sounds good" mentality.

Troy said something along those lines in an interview some years ago (in between Leviathan and Blood Mountain albums).