Albums of the Week: Big Business - Here Come the Waterworks, Mastodon - Blood Mountain
this week we go metallllll, in honour of one of the best sets at Pitchfork, and in honour of....genre awareness. first up is Here Come the Waterworks by Big Business. I found out about these 2 dudes because they're filling out the Melvins on the side, however I think this duo alone is a fair bit more interesting. Bass and drums, classic Sabbath-esque vocals, and an outstanding commitment to riffs. for me, riffs are the essential component of good metal-rare is the solo that doesnt stray too far into wankery, or the vocals which are just way too over the top (witness my undying fandom of the best in post-riffs from Meshuggah (iTunes link for sampling), vocals notwithstanding). the essential quality of this album is that the guitar is a supporting character and the bass does all the work. the bass guitar is notoriously underrepresented on metal albums due to the insane volumes at which most metal albums are mixed and/or mastered. on this album lovers of the bass guitar are not disappointed!!!! download the album here, and you can buy it from Hydra Head.
While i try to resist linking to Pitchfork (they dont need links anymore, after all), i feel the intro to their review of Mastodon's previous album, Leviathan, spells out a lot of what i want to say:
I've watched scores of pseudo frat boys reinvent themselves as "metalheadz." Whether it's the crystal meth or $10 dollar cases of PBR, these guys have tons of energy, a healthy appreciation for Terrence McKenna, and above all else, a whole lot of noise to make.
Unfortunately for these clowns-- and more so for the "journalists" who lap up this rubbish-- this wolf in American Eagle clothing is little more than the noise of hyperactive brats. Ample time is spent bemoaning the aesthetics of the so-called true metal as puerile, obsolete, and anachronistic, and at the same time lauding the dubious originality of bands like Isis, Pelican, and Neurosis, who seemingly missed the whole point in the first place by latching onto the very unmetal aesthetic of putting their audience to sleep.
And then a band like Mastodon comes along and just clusterfucks the entire landscape for every indie kid who thought they had the whole scene pegged.
being one of the indie kids who lapped from the teat of PFM when they chose Mastodon as the lone metal offering at this year's festival (and mark my words, this was an album i happily played out for myself before i went down there), i'm all too happy to sing the praises of Blood Mountain. The fantasy inspires the album, and the hardcore punk background keeps it from getting too cartoonish. The live experience was also killer. It dawned on me that i might like this album so much because its an outsider perspective on metal, if indeed these guys did time in hardcore punk...
anyways, here is a brilliant performance of "Colony of Birchmen" on Conan. as you can see, Mastodon pull out all the stops, and are textbook metal from guitar tone, stage presence, tattoos, and flying Vs. fine, and a guitar solo or two (the chromatic/wheedly bit at the end of that video is a pretty good example). oh, and just a touch of the bluesy hard rock metal comes from. damn. anyways, you can spin the whole album here, and buy it from their website. $12! do it!