What are ppl's thoughts on the new Mastodon album? Personally I find it frustrating, as there are plenty of good bits and pieces but nothing comes together. Probably the biggest issue I have with it is that most of the songs build up to sections that place an emphasis on sounding trippy, which for me dials back the intensity and just kinda ruins it. It's not the sound itself, but the fact that that's what the songs build to. Ironically, some of the songs have some incredibly thick, heavy riffs in the verses and I can't help but think they would've been better served by swapping the heavy stuff with the trippy stuff.
Other albums I downloaded recently:
Amon Amarth- With Oden On Our Side. I like Amon Amarth, but I don't love them, and this album's no different
Anthrax- Persistence of Time. Welp, looks like another old album that I absolutely can't stand. Vocals are especially bad, occupy a valley of awful between clean and harsh
Fen- Carrion Skies. Idk, they're decent atmoblack I guess. Need more listens.
Hacride- Back to Where You've Never Been. Pretty decent, not amazing though. To slap a label on it, it's prog-death type stuff, a band I occasionally see recommended based on Gojira.
Katatonia- The Great Cold Distance. It's funny, iirc the last post I made in this thread discussed Ghost Brigade, and Katatonia goes for a similar vibe (albeit more mellow) and does it a lot better. Easily my favourite recent purchase so far.
The Ocean- Precambrian. A bit funny in terms of the way the album is stuctured, it starts off with some balls to the wall aggression that wears you out so that when it eventually balances out you enjoy the quieter moments more than the heavier moments. Imo that's not a good thing, but maybe with a few more listens that'll change
Soen- Cognitive. Decent, nothing spectacular. Were it not for the vocalist you could easily mistake this for a Tool album
System of a Down- Toxicity. Haven't actually gotten a chance to listen to it yet, but it's an album that I'm amazed I haven't listened to before (I've pretty much only listened to Chop Suey)