Flush it Friday: Slickleg, Pt. 2
Reign down.
It would be unfair to restrict ourselves to just one Friday of tribute to Brent Hinds via a quick look through the Mastodon discography for some choice cuts. Today’s foray was a little tougher but worth doing. Spear and Roldy were fuming mad I omitted Blood Mountain from last week’s post. Here is my mea culpa: this album is still bad and overshadowed by the albums that bookend it, but I will admit that there are some good songs here, even if the band also ruins some of them with awful choices like the gratingly pitchshifted vocals in “Siberian Divide.”
I don’t have a song from Cold Dark Place that I care about, I’ve already covered Medium Rarities for the site, and while I could go back to the Slick Leg 7”, I’d rather highlight We Reach: The Music of the Melvins and Mastodon’s pitch-perfect, hand-in-glove cover of “The Bit.” The opener for the Melvins’ final Atlantic album Stag, “The Bit” is a blueprint for the riffs that made Mastodon… Mastodon. The band plays it straight and lets things be Melvins-y. Let’s also appreciate some of the unsung heroes of We Reach: Mare! Keelhaul! Meatjack! What a snapshot of 2005.
Every time I revisit Once More ‘Round the Sun, I think, “This is so fun!” I’m not sure I can ever really get over the embarrassing Coathangers-led gang vocals in “Aunt Lisa,” but at least everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. There’s a lightness to this album, one that has the band feeling extra proggy and freewheeling, but unlike Blood Mountain the songwriting is locked in and riffs abound. I’m going with “High Road,” a masterclass in mid-to-late-era Mastodon stylings: Troy and Brann sound great, they’re not afraid of being heavy, and all the spaciness and solos are integrated cleanly.
Oof. This is tough, y’all. That Emperor of Sand ends on a high note with a few good songs belies how confused and unlistenable an album this is. Though I have my quibbles with Blood Mountain, I at least get it. I don’t understand Emperor of Sand. What is it? Who is it for? I don’t want to make light of the serious matter that influenced the writing of the record, but this is the nadir of the band’s career. Serious question: is “Show Yourself” better or worse than Baroness’s “Shock Me”? It’s a tight race, and that’s a problem.
Do I even like that song? No matter. You know the deal with Hushed and Grim: it’s bloated and indulgent. A more generous reading would understand it as methodical in its approach to a suffocating and sun-blotting grief, but it often feels, sadly, torpid and languorous. You can make it through the 90 minutes, sure, but you can’t help but check out, letting your mind wander, turning the album into grey noise in your headphones. There are, though, moments of triumph scattered throughout. “I wish I had all the answers. I wish I knew what went wrong.” A poetic end.
AND THUS WE FLUSH!
Stick is lovin’ Silent Millenia in this week’s TMP. And wouldn’t you know it? Roldy too can’t stop listening to Silent Millenia in this week’s TTT.
Metal Aged Mom went to Michigan Metal Fest. Peel a banana and take a gander at the review!
Toilet Radio 577 features Joe n Jordan talking about something called “black metal.” I hope we never run out of genre episodes.
Silent K is on the right side of history about The Wrong Side of Heaven. End It‘s new one is out today!
Reliquary Tower is having four flaming toilets worth of fun with the new Asunojokei.
There it is! Another week down the pipes. Share your GBUs down below. Remember: Labour Day is our holiest and most sacred of holidays. Respect it and do no labour!
