Mastodon - Crack The Skye

Life has been pretty busy of late, so I'm a bit tardy getting to a review of Mastodon's latest album, Crack The Skye.  The bright side is that this has allowed the album plenty of time to marinate, so I feel I can give my full opinion without worrying later that I've stuck my foot in my mouth.

Tracklist:

01.  Oblivion (5:47)
02.  Divinations (3:39)
03.  Quintessence (5:28)
04.  The Czar (10:54)
05.  Ghost Of Karelia (5:25)
06.  Crack The Skye (5:54)
07.  The Last Baron (13:01)

As with many bands, its tough to evaluate Mastodon's most recent offering without making constant comparisons to their previous works.  In many ways, Crack The Skye is exactly what you would expect, continuing trends that have been obvious over the course of their previous three stellar albums:  reduced overall pace, further emphasis on clean vocals and melodies, more studio polish, the near complete absence of any thrash.  All-in-all, upon first dip you might come to the initial conclusion that, by Mastodon's standards, this album is pretty accessible.  Perhaps even a little.....*gulp*.....poppy.

I must admit that my own feelings about the album are a bit mixed.  I can say that I absolutely think it is very good.  But, I must also say that there are moments that evoke a slight sense of disappointment, causing me to harken back to the intense, thrashy days of Leviathan and Remission.  Crack The Skye is certainly not perfect, there are moments that do fall a bit flat, ideas that seem to sort of stall.  But that's the risk of pushing into new territory, and with that risk also comes enormous reward.

At its pinnacle, Crack The Skye showcases Mastodon's finest and most ambitious work yet, coming primarily in the form of the album's two monstrous epics, "The Czar" and "The Last Baron".  For all that was to be feared about the slower pace, clean vocals, and polish, on "The Czar" Mastodon takes those qualities and infuses them with their traditional heavy roots and a quantum leap in song writing, creating a progressive epic unmatched by anything they've done since Leviathan's incredible "Hearts Alive".  Clocking in at over 10 minutes, the song effortlessly transitions from melancholy crooning to slick, upbeat riffage to heavy monolithic crunch.  Three songs later, "The Last Baron" and its full 13 minutes of mind-blowing epic glory arrive to continue the trend.  The smooth melding of an eerie mellow intro into a monolithic core of pure progressive bliss all culminates at the heart of the song, where it utterly disintegrates into fantastic self-indulgent, mind-warping jazz-metal wankery for about 20 seconds, before launching head-first back into the thunderous heavy charge.  Such a seamless collection of dynamic elements serves to place this track atop the heap just as quickly as "The Czar" had stolen the honor from "Hearts Alive".  

The other songs on the album are, for the most part, fairly good.  They certainly do pale in comparison to the two epic tracks, but they serve as a nice and necessary change of pace.  "Divinations" is definitely a stand-out track, a solid upbeat rocker featuring an extremely well-placed surfer-esque chord later in the song.  "Crack The Skye" is another standout, featuring the heaviest crunch to be found on the album, as well as an outstanding guest vocal performance by Neurosis' Scott Kelly.  However, its on the remaining songs, "Oblivion", "Quintessence", and "Ghost Of Karelia", that I find myself grasping for a bit more.  Each of these tracks feature slick timing transitions, solid riffs, and improved vocal melodies, but its here that I feel the studio polish has rubbed away a bit too much of the legendary Mastodon grit.  The songs shift and progress, but they somewhat lack bite.  The sense of power and intensity that Mastodon typically employs to drive a song home is spread just a little bit too thin.  They are good songs, I enjoy them well enough as I'm listening, but once they finish they're all but forgotten.

Overall, though, this latest offering is more than satisfactory, and showcases some of the most dynamic work Mastodon has ever put out.  Its yet another facet of a band that is still maturing and progressing with each album.  I eagerly look forward to their next step.

What Does A Wolverine Look Like, Anyway?

Well, as most people know, a wolverine often looks like this:

Sometimes, when he is really excited, a wolverine can look like this:

But I'll bet you didn't know that soon, a wolverine might also look like this:

Yep, that's right, my next project at work has been internally labelled "Wolverine".  Oh boy, I better get this one right....

Giant Squid - The Ichthyologist

Trying to categorize Giant Squid's sound can be a bit tricky.  To be fully descriptive, you could call their style "ambient-progressive-sludge-post-metal".  But after a couple years of absorbing 2006's outstanding re-recorded album Metridium Fields, I felt comfortable enough with Giant Squid's ambient-to-heavy, sweet-crooning-to-screaming dynamic to simply settle with "post-metal".  Yes, there were many other elements in the mix, but in general, this label would do.

Then came The Ichthyologist.

Tracklist:

01.  Panthalassa (Lampetra Tridentata)

02.  La Brea Tar Pits (Pseudomonas Putida)

03.  Sutterville (Vibrio Cholarae)

04.  Dead Man Slough (Pacifastacus Leniusculus)

05.  Throwing A Donner Party At Sea (Physeter Catodon)

06.  Sevengill (Notorynchus Cepedianus)

07.  Mormon Island (Alluvial Au)

08.  Blue Linckia (Linckia Laevigata)

09.  Emerald Bay (Prionace Glauca)

10.  Rubicon Wall (Acipenser Transmontanus)

Last week, Giant Squid released their newest offering, The Ichthyologist.  Since the last album, considerable news had floated around regarding the departure of the original female guitarist/vocalist (Aurielle Gregory), the addition of a new cellist/vocalist (Jackie Perez-Gratz), as well as the relocation of the band from Austin to San Francisco.  All of this completely threw my expectations out the window, I had no idea what to expect.  It would be difficult to live up to the near perfection that was Metridium Fields, but regardless, I was pretty excited to give this new album a go.

As I began to dive into the album, I was initially very pleased.  The first two songs in particular are excellent, showcasing Giant Squid's talent for weaving heavy, climactic riffs around slower, plodding, mellower passages.  The potential of adding Perez-Gratz' cello is immediately realized on "La Brea Tar Pits", creating a kind of heaviness while retaining a warm, haunting quality.  Perez-Gratz is a fairly significant improvement in the vocals department, as well.  She handles the lighter, more soft-spoken vocals in a manner similar to how Aurielle Gregory had, but she doesn't have the pitch issues and seems more confident than her predecessor in stepping up and belting out a line or two when necessary.  Anyway, these first two are definitely my favorite two songs on the album.  After the two openers, the album progresses through a lazy lounger in "Sutterville", another excellent eerie-and-mellow-turned-slow-cruncher in "Dead Man Slough", and the energetic and somewhat uncharacteristically slap-happy "Throwing A Donner Party At Sea" (which is a re-tread from 2005's Monster In The Creek).

Whether the band intended it or not, I felt like the further into the album I got, the more the style seemed to be transitioning away from that of Metridium Fields.  While much of the first half of the album seems to simply infuse the new elements into their already established style (1 & 2, and partly 4), an increased focus on using more minimal atmospheric passages to create mood and space is hinted at and then begins to take firmer root through the latter half.  "Sevengill" begins this shift as a bit of a hybrid, remaining delicate and minimal for much of the song before reverting back to a heavy crunchy rhythm towards the end.  Its a very effective song, and another one of my favorites.  After this point in the album, however, the minimal atmospheric approach tends to dominate a bit more than the heavy material.  "Mormon Island" is easily the lightest track on the album, featuring only some light strings and an eerie banjo, with spooky higher female vocals floating through.  "Blue Linckia" is a decent track, using the cello to give it a bit more of a heavy feel without going to a full blown crunch.  "Emerald Bay" consists of little more than Aaron Gregory wallowing quietly over a slow bassline with some minimal drums.   The closer "Rubicon Wall" adds a little bit more of a crunch, but still maintains more of an overall mellow and minimal feel, with the strings making nice transitions between the passages.

Overall, I'd have to say that I do like the album quite a bit, although even after repeated listens I still find myself heavily favoring the beginning of the album.  The more minimal, ambient nature of the latter half is fairly well done, but it does not grab me like their heavier stuff does.  For times when I choose to listen to this album because I'm feeling like some Giant Squid, I'll probably hit songs 1-6 (possibly skipping 3) and 8, and skip the rest.  But for times when I'm in more of a diverse mood, where I've got the time to sit and relax and just take in the whole album as it comes, I'll enjoy listening to The Ichthyologist in its entirety.  Its not as incredible as Metridium Fields, but its a solid effort displaying some nice progression.  I'll still be very interested to see what Giant Squid comes up with in the future.

The Albums Of 2008

Its that time of year again, time to look back and reflect on the year's musical offerings.  Looking back through my 2008 acquisitions, I was astounded to find that I only purchased 14 studio LP releases.  A slow year for good music?  Perhaps my intake of music was hindered a bit by the arrival of my daughter in April?  Who knows.  Whatever the reason, the light load was nicely rounded out by a larger than normal haul of live albums and EP's.  And while there were a few misses with my studio LP purchases, the EP's and live material were all stellar.

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Studio LP's:

1. Opeth - Watershed:  To be fair, this year it was extremely difficult to pick a clear #1.  I actually toyed with numbering these first 4 albums as 1a-1d, since each one is utterly astounding.  But after shirking that idea and forcing myself to really choose, Watershed clearly rose from the pack.  I am at a loss to explain how the hell these guys are so damn good.  Album after album, Mikael Akerfedt and co. churn out pure progressive death metal bliss, everytime setting an impossible standard, only to somehow crush it on the next go 'round.  This album is no different, despite half the line-up changing since the last.  Once again, Opeth take us through a world of new textures and structures, all with that classic Opeth combination of delicate beauty and thunderous roaring fury.  They've somehow managed to take their monstrous sound to another level of complexity, and indeed "The Lotus Eater" and "Hessian Peel" have got to be two of Opeth's best songs of all time.  The entire album is a masterpiece, thoroughly satisfying from start to finish.  There is no way they can top this one.  Is there? 
   
2. The Mars Volta - The Bedlam In Goliath:  Talk about an appropriately titled album, this album is relentless.  The first song "Aberinkula" comes flying out of the gates at full speed, and TMV takes it from there, keeping the high octane progressive rock coming almost non-stop for the full 75 minutes.  Practically every song is full of unexpected twists and turns, sudden stops and just as sudden leaps back into frenzy.  Seriously, you need to take a nap after listening to this album, its insane.  With such an emphasis on energy, its easy to overlook the depth to this album, as I will admit I was guilty of at first.  It took me several listens to really get into it, but the more I listened the more I could hear the jaw-dropping brilliance amongst the chaos.  I was particularly glad to see this, after their somewhat disappointing last album, 2006's Amputechture.  Its tough to ascertain whether or not this album is as good as the utter perfection that was their first two albums, Deloused In The Comatorium and Frances The Mute, but I would be hard pressed to put my finger on a concrete reason why it shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath with those two.
3. The Sword - Gods Of The Earth:  Since their flawless monolithic cruncher of a debut, 2006's Age Of Winters, I've been eagerly awaiting The Sword's sophomore effort.  This album definitely delivers the goods, and takes a nice step forward.  The thick, heavy riffs are still in full force, but they've been intertwined with some really nice progressions and smooth time signature changes.  The songs feel a little bit faster and more complex.  The only slight downside is that I think the production value could have been a tad better, the mix is a little off.  The highs are bit too far up in the mix, everytime there is a flurry of cymbals, its kinda right up in your face.  But no matter, its one juggernaut of an album.
4. Meshuggah - obZen:  After being blasted for programming the drums instead of playing them live in the studio on their last two releases, 2003's EP I and 2005's Catch Thirty-three (both dubbed by the band as "experiments"), Tomas Haake and crew return with a vengeance on obZen.  This is, in my opinion, Meshuggah's best album to date, the uncompromising raw power and drive of Chaosphere infused with the textures and subtle finesse of their recent experimentation.  The slick delivery yet undeniable punishing force of such tracks as "Combustion", "Bleed", and "Pravus" showcase what could possibly be the pinnacle of Meshuggah's brand of progressive math metal.  If they ever find a way of putting out an album that tops this, it'll probably kill me.
   
5. Supercontinent - Vaalbara:  I have to give a shout out to Soundweave for introducing me to these guys, hailing from the great city of Ann Arbor, MI.  This album delivers some brutal post-metal fantasticness, akin to early Isis or Pelican.  Also like early Isis, its mostly instrumental, although not entirely, as rough shouty vocal snippets work their way in here and there on about half of the songs.  Its not a perfect album by any means, but for a debut release its incredible.  I would say its better than Pelican's Australasia and not quite as good as Isis' Celestial.  That's some pretty heavy company, I expect good things from these guys.
   
6. Russian Circles - Station:  RC's previous release Enter, was a monumental feat of instrumental metal perfection.  And while that kind of debut sets impossibly high expectations, this sophomore effort holds up reasonably well.  It has some slightly longer mellow passages than what they featured in the first album, which balance out nicely with the heavy winding riffage.  Its not the classic album that Enter is, but its still an admirable effort.
   
7. Cranium - Phantasmagoria:  OK, now this is a FUN band.  Instrumental, heavy, fast, progressive, jazzy, and executed with a total disregard for time signatures.  I challenge anyone to find one single measure of 4/4 anywhere in this album (or in their previous album Pragmatics, for that matter).  These guys are sometimes hard to keep up with, but you gotta love that kind of energy.
   
8. Metallica - Death Magnetic:  As I detailed in fairly thorough fashion with my review of the album, a lot of emotional baggage came with this one.  The album most certainly has its flaws, but for me it signified enough of a positive turnaround for the band that I felt it deserved to crack the top 8.  Ah, the eternal hate-yourself-for-still-hoping type of optimism that only a true Metallica fan can appreciate.
9. Steven Wilson - Insurgentes:  I am a HUGE fan of Porcupine Tree, for which Wilson is the front man and main song writer, but I have never been much into any of his side projects.  This album, however, did pique my interest a bit.  There are a couple standout tracks that could easily have fit in on a Porcupine Tree album, but much of the album is a bit more mellow and ambient.  Its definitely a mood album, and its pretty rich with texture.  Its not anything that I will probably put on often, but its an interesting effort worth hanging onto.
10. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Calibration:  Omar's solo stuff does tend to be a bit more bizarre than his work with The Mars Volta, but this one is essentially a TMV album on electronic acid.  Its a pretty fun listen if you can sit through the passages of electronic weirdness, although I would say that its still not as good as his previous solo effort, Se Dice Bisonte, No Bufalo.
11. This Will Destroy You - This Will Destroy You:  This is their second album, and, like their first, its not a bad effort but its nothing amazing either.  While I like their style, which is in a similar vein as bands like Explosions In The Sky and Mono, I find that their execution still falls short of the standard set by the likes of those two bands.  But its solid enough effort to hold onto and throw into the mix
12. Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV:  While I have not been a fan of Reznor's material in a long time (see The Slip below), I will give him credit for this project, a double-disc consisting of 36 short minimalistic instrumental tracks.  Its a bit repetitive and won't get a ton of play, but it does show Reznor's long-lost ability to create some eerily haunting yet soft and spacious tones.  Interesting enough.
13. Autechre - Quaristice:  Slipping this album down to 13 is not intended as a slight, I'm just naturally not that into electronic music, particularly recently.  Autechre has typically been an exception in this regard, and this album is definitely interesting.  After several albums of long, mind-bending, obtusely evolving songs, this one is a bit simpler and more organic, with a greater number of shorter songs showcasing a variety of styles.
14. Nine Inch Nails - The Slip:  Also winner of the "Biggest Completely Predictable Disappointment" Award.  I don't know why I keep giving Reznor's albums the time of day.  I haven't loved anything by him in over a decade, but something in me keeps on hoping.

========================

Studio EP's:

1. Agalloch - The White:  As with the studio LP's, this was a tough choice.  Either of these first two could have been #1, but I decided to go with the Agalloch EP simply because its a bit more of an impressive endeavor.  Agalloch is no stranger to haunting, natural textures, but they really nail it here.  Most of the album is fairly minimal, mostly accoustic and instrumental, with well-placed eerie tones and audio clips.  There are no thunderous drums or heavy passages, like what Agalloch typically tends to build up to.  Overall, its mellower, with more of a focus on conveying a feel, a mood.  It all has a bit of an experimental feel, and in my opinion the experiment is a resounding success.
   
2. Red Sparowes - Aphorisms:  This easily could have been my #1 pick, and its possible that brevity, if nothing else, is what relegated this one to the second spot.  This EP consists of 3 songs, all in the 5 to 6-minute range.  And while I would not exactly call this a departure from the typical Red Sparowes style, it does have an increased sense of maturity.  The band showed great promise on their first album At The Soundless Dawn, and displayed impressive growth on their second full lenth, Every Red Heart Shines Toward The Red Sun.  This EP continues that trend, showing the band's ability to flow from melody to melody in an organic fashion, transitioning between highs and lows smoothly and with purpose.  If this is any indication, their next full length could be a monster.
   
3. The Company Band - Sign Here, Here, And Here:  Featuring Clutch's Neil Fallon on vocals, this 4-song debut EP indeed could be easily mistaken for Clutch at first.  These songs are fairly straightforward rockers, similar to Clutch's slightly earlier work, before incorporating a heavy dose of Hammond-driven bluesiness into their style.  Its a slightly simpler sound, but refreshing and fun all the same, its just good solid rock.  I will definitely be interested if this side project carries on in the future.
   
4. Tides/Giant - Tides/Giant Split:  Mainly, I bought this because I really like Tides.  The material here is nothing groundbreaking for them, but its well executed.  The 2 Tides songs are typical of their style, one 10-minute'ish slowly developing work of heavy instrumental post-metal goodness paired with a shorter, lighter track.  As a bonus, the 1 song by Giant is fairly good too, I may check them out in more depth someday.
   

========================

Live Albums:

1. Between The Buried And Me - Colors Live:  This might be the most impressive live album I've ever heard, simply because I never would have expected a band to replicate such a punishing and dynamic style as well as BTBAM does here.  Everything is in perfect balance, the heavy high-tempo parts, the lighter passages with keys, clean vocals, growling death metal vocals, the incredibly dynamic drumming, the fast-pace guitar solos.  Honestly, if you were to blindly jump into the middle of one of the tracks, you'd have to listen for a bit before you could tell whether it was the original studio album or this live recording.  The DVD footage is stellar, truly capturing the high-octane energy of a live BTBAM set.  In addition to covering the entire work of perfection that is Colors, the band plays a second set of 6 songs chosen by the fans, all performed with the same gusto.
   
2. Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Live In Japan:  This accoustic duo completely blows me away, I can barely keep up.  In this set, they roll through much of their debut album, as well as a couple covers, solos, and other songs.  Its impressive to hear them replicate their intricate yet extremely fast style live, especially all the percussive elements they create by wacking on the body of the guitar while playing.  The sound quality is astounding, and the playful interaction between the pair and the audience is nicely captured.  The package also includes a DVD, which contains an interesting short documentary, as well as some video footage of a couple songs from the performance.
   
3. Clutch - Full Fathom Five:  This is a pretty solid set, available in both CD and DVD form, with just a couple track differences between the two.  As always, the performances are high-energy and flawlessly executed.  Happily, the mix is a bit better than the last two live albums they released from a couple shows in Australia last year.  I would say this set still is not as good as my favorite live Clutch album, Live In Flint, Michigan, but its still more than satisfying for any Clutch fan.
   
4. Porcupine Tree - We Lost The Skyline:  A gorgeous in-store performance performed mostly solo by Steven Wilson.  The 8-song set covers a fairly wide span, reaching all the way back to The Sky Moves Sideways.  Unfortunately, he had to go and throw in "Lazarus", but that is more than made up for by awesome renditions of "Stars Die", "Trains", and "Normal".  "Normal" is a shortened version of the original, but the performance is mind-blowing, and it features a pretty funny anecdotal lead-in.  Its easily my favorite track on the album.

Tool Info For Ali, And Others...

Well, I haven't posted in a while.  But just today I was responding to an email in which my bro-in-law Ali had listed what Tool-related albums he had checked out.  If you know me, then you know Tool is one of my all-time favorite bands, and that I also have a tendency to ramble.  In keeping with my recent decision that "anything that I spend more than an hour on writing, automatically becomes a blog post", I'm going ahead and chunking the thing up here.

Enjoy, and be enlightened!  Or just have a Pop-Tart, whatever.  I don't think anyone reads this thing anyway, heh....

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OK, lets sort this out.  As far as official "normal" releases, Tool has 4 studio albums, 1 EP, and 1 live/covers/miscellaneous album.  They are as follows:

Opiate (1992):  EP

• Opiate is pretty raw and straightforward, with pretty typical song structure and length.  The band's power and ability to rock is immediately evident, the songs mainly driven by anger and adrenaline.  The one deviation from this is the closing title track, which is a little more complex and restrained, and nicely foreshadows what was to come on their next album.  Overall, its a fun album to rock along to, its fast and angry and thrashy.  Not bad for their first effort, but definitely pales in comparison with the body of work that followed.
  

Undertow (1993):  Studio LP

• Undertow holds a special place in my heart simply because it was the first Tool album I heard.  (I went out and picked up Opiate immediately after I got this album).  I clearly remember my first time listening to it, loving the way it was different from anything else I had ever heard.  It was the first album I ever owned that really exposed me to music of a more progressive nature, where song structure and time signature were elements to be experimented with as opposed to being a safe and generic template.  Undertow is still a bit raw by Tool's current standards, but definitely took that first step in their evolution.  The songs still rock but in general are little slowed down, not as thrashy as on the EP.  As a result, they are a bit longer, averaging more like 6 minutes or so, and are a bit more complex in their shifts.  Its still an angry album, for sure, but the anger is channeled and controlled more.  The last track is a bit bizarre, ending with like 10 minutes of crickets chirping which I usually skip, and there is a song or two in the middle of the album that I find to be OK but sometimes will skip.  But aside from that, I love the entire album.  It was a great debut LP.
  

Aenima (1996):  Studio LP

• Aenima is the album that permanently secured Tool's spot forever as being one of my top 2 or 3 bands.  The overall consensus is that Lateralus is Tool's masterpiece, and I won't necessarily argue against that, but this one is still my favorite.  On Aenima, they really hit their stride with the musical complexity, but they still retain the dark and eerie tones of their early material.  The album does contain 3 or 4 bizarre segues between songs that I generally skip, but aside from that every song on this album is phenomenal.  Its a challenging album, I remember having to listen to it several times before it really sunk in, there is a lot to digest.  In addition to the musical complexity, the album is much more complex from a lyrical content perspective as well, delving into topics like Jungian psychology, theories on chromosomal and spiritual human evolution, subconscious struggles within the psyche, etc.  All of these are laid out in nice balance, the lyrics specific enough that you can determine on the surface what he's talking about, but poetic and vague enough to allow for a lot of metaphorical interpretation.  Its incredible, even after 12 years it still impresses me how much lyrical and musical creativity they packed into this album.  There are only handful of albums that I consider to be "perfect", and this one is right there at the top of the list.  (BTW, this album on vinyl is very hard to find, sealed copies typically going for $300-600 on eBay.  If you ever happen to run across a copy in good condition that's reasonably priced, like $100 or less, BUY IT.  I will reimburse you!  Will probably never happen though.)
  

Salival (2000):  Live/Covers/Misc. (+ DVD of their pre-Lateralus videos)

• This was an interesting release, which came out just about 6 months before Lateralus.  It contains 5 live tracks, a Led Zeppelin cover/reinterpretation, and a couple random weird tracks that I don't really ever listen to.  The opening track is a live version of the closing track from Aenima, called "Third Eye".  The sound quality is amazing, I actually prefer this version over the original.  The third track, called "Pushit", is also from Aenima, but for the first 7 or 8 minutes (yeah its long) they completely re-invent the song.  Its slowed down and fragile, its really well done, I love this version.  Also worth mentioning is track 5, "You Lied", which is actually a live cover of a song by a band called Peach, that Tool's bassist used to be in before he was in Tool.  Its a pretty cool song, slow and methodical with some cool harmonizing guitar.  This album also came with a DVD of all of Tool's videos up to that point, which was one video from Opiate, two from Undertow, and two from Aenima.
  

Lateralus (2001):  Studio LP

• As I said before, Lateralus is generally considered to be Tool's masterpiece, and while Aenima may be my emotional favorite, I cannot argue with this assessment.  In a word, this album is brilliant.  BRILLIANT.  The musical complexity is unparalleled, the time signatures are all over the place, and every song unfolds with a different structure.  What's most impressive about this album is that the music and lyrical content are pulled together into a common cohesive theme, and even more impressive, a positive theme.  The anger of previous albums has been transformed into aspiration, hope, and positive guidance, a vibrant depiction of our potential as a species.  The theme of "spiraling out" is prevalent both in the lyrical context of the album as well as the musical structure.  The title track even features the Fibonacci sequence as the time signature of its verses (the Fibonacci sequence is at the core of the mathematical concepts of the "golden spiral" and the "golden ratio").  As perfect as the execution is on this album, there are just a couple small inconsistencies.  One is a song called "Ticks & Leeches", which on its own is a good solid rocking track.  But it is a bit negative and angry, unlike the rest of the album.  I like the song, but it does seem kind of out of place.  The other is the closing track, which is a bit bizarre and I usually skip it.  This one does have an extended amount of silence before it though, so its as if the band did go out of their way to imply that this track is separate from the theme of the rest of the album.  Anyway, apart from those two tracks, this album is musically and conceptually a work of genius.  It would be difficult for anyone, even Tool themselves, to match this level of cohesion again.
  

10,000 Days (2006):  Studio LP

• 10,000 Days is another really good album, although its kind of odd in that while I like the individual songs, I do not find it as overall satisfying as the previous couple albums.  First, there are 11 tracks, but really its only like 6 songs.  Tracks 3 and 4 are essentially one long song, the final track is some ambient sound that certainly does not count as a song, and there are 3 other tracks that are essentially segues.  But, the songs that are there are very good.  Musically, the songs generally have more of an upbeat, rocking feel to them.  They are still heavy and display the complexity of previous albums, but feature less of the eerie tones and distortion of earlier stuff, particularly Aenima and before.  Lyrically, its the most straightforward album, the concepts are laid out without much interpretation needed.  In general, its easy to see why many have labelled this as Tool's "sell-out" album, but I really disagree with that statement.  The music is just as fresh and inventive as always, its just continually shifting and evolving as their lives are.  One thing worth noting is that Tool did achieve two of their best song climaxes ever on this album, on the title track and also on the trippy "Rosetta Stoned".  Both of those songs build-up, albeit very differently, to a point and then just utterly explode.  Good stuff.
  

OK, so as for the other releases you mentioned.

Tales From The Darkside (1994):  CD Single/Live

• Tales From The Darkside is a somewhat rare single for the song "Sober", from Undertow.  It contains the album version of the song, along with 8 live recordings of other Opiate/Undertow material.  The sound quality is not so great, so I really don't listen to it much.  It was printed in fairly low quantities, but not so low that its impossible to find.  I think I found my copy on eBay for like $20 or so, to give you an idea.  Not an essential addition to the collection by any means, but interesting enough for a fan.
  

String Tribute To Tool (2000-2005?):  Cover LP

• There are a couple of these floating around, and I'm pretty sure they are from the early 2000's, after Lateralus came out.  Amongst the Tool fan community, the opinions are pretty mixed.  But I can't really say, they've never piqued my interest enough to check them out.
  

Ultra Rare Trax (2001):  Miscellaneous

• I actually had no idea what this was, I had to Google it.  Once I found a description, I understood.  There have been various bootleg recordings and random Tool related tracks floating around the web for years.  For example, Maynard popped in on a Tori Amos performance (sweater and all), and sang one of her songs with her.  I've heard most of these tracks before, just never in one place.  Apparently someone gathered that stuff together and put it on a CD without the band's permission.
  

Rockabye Baby!  Lullaby Renditions Of Tool (2006):  Cover LP

• OK, this one wasn't on the list, but I've added it because its worth mentioning.  This is a collection of Tool songs performed very minimalistically using xylophones and other such mellow, chimy type instruments.  Most of the songs are from Lateralus, but they sneak a couple in there from Undertow and Opiate as well.  Some of the songs are fully interpreted from start to finish, others take a couple melodies from a song and just ride those, omitting other elements of the original.  Overall, its pretty well executed, I like it quite a bit.  And Leili seems interested when I play it in the car.
  

There you have it.  Hell, I might just make this my next blog entry  : - )

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And so I did....

Opeth @ The Monarch, Austin (10.16.2008)

Having recently broken my show-going drought with a steller The Sword/Clutch performance, I was definitely jonesing for some more live music. As fate would have it, just twelve days later Opeth was coming to town along with High On Fire and Baroness. Opeth is one of my favorite bands of all time, I had seen them four times before, and they have always put on a killer show.

Just as importantly, I was definitely looking forward to catching Baroness. They popped up on my radar a few years ago when I randomly caught them opening for either The Sword or Isis. They showed a lot of promise, so I picked up their two EP's. Really good progressive metal type stuff, longer songs with lots of shifts, I was impressed. Then they seemed to disappear, I heard nothing whatsoever about them for years. I figured they must have broken up, which bummed me out. Then, last year, they popped up out of nowhere with another EP and an excellent debut LP. They ended up coming to Emo's in Austin earlier this year, so I was pretty excited and went to catch that show. Unfortunately, while the energy and set were good, the show was held in the small inside area and the sound was absolutely terrible. It was pretty disappointing, so hearing that they were coming to Austin again definitely had me pumped. This current show was to be held at The Monarch, a brand new venue in Austin, so I had my fingers crossed that the sound would be much better. Add that anticipation to the knowledge that Opeth would also be sharing the stage, and I was primed for a kick-ass night of progressive metal!

Last night came, and I was stoked! But then, tragedy struck.

I missed Baroness.

Ahem, let me state that again.

I FRIGGIN' MISSED BARONESS!!!! NO!!!!

The worst part is that, when it comes down to it, its my own fault, albeit there were two things working against me. First of all, the show was advertised as "doors at 7pm, show at 8pm", pretty standard. Typically, this means the show will actually start in the 8:15-8:30 range. Now, normally I still aim to get to shows by the advertised start time, just in case. But this night I happened to be running a little behind, and I ended up rolling in at 8:20. As I approached the venue, I could hear muffled bass and drums, the show had already started! When I actually got up to the place, I ran into my second problem: the slowest will call line I have ever experienced. My guess is that this venue holds about 1500 people, not exactly an arena. The line was long, I guess, maybe 50-75 people or so in front of me, but still that's nothing in the grand scheme of things, this should have taken 10 minutes max. As I was standing there, time slipping away, my only hope was that maybe Baroness had just started when I got there, and that I would only miss a couple songs if the line would hurry up. But 8:30 passed, and then 8:40, and just as I finally got to the box at 8:45, the music stopped. I looked at the sheet taped to the box window and sure enough, "Baroness: 8:00pm". DAMMIT!!! Who actually starts a show on time?? Gah, like I said though, ultimately it was my own fault for not getting there in time. I was bummed to say the least. I made my way inside and to the bar to get myself a beer to cry in.

[Interesting note: While I was in line, I briefly met one of the dudes from Made Out Of Babies. He saw my Red Sparowes shirt and mentioned that he played in a band with a guitarist who plays for Red Sparowes, and we talked for a couple minutes. Seemed like a decent guy, didn't catch his name.]

Anyway, I got into the auditorium, and just a couple minutes later High On Fire took the stage. The main guy came out yelling about "Yeah! Alright Austin! We're High On Fire! Woohoo!". He seemed so pumped, I figured I'd check it out for a bit just for the sheer hilarity. I made it through like their first 3 or 4 songs, and that was about all I could take. They were pretty bad, and not even in a funny entertaining way. Although, the bassist did remind me a bit of Nigel Tufnel (these go to eleven), which I did find hilarious. But overall they did nothing for me, so I ended up wandering out to the parking lot to call a friend from Dallas who had left me a message earlier. Catching up with him was a far better use of my time.

OK, after a supremely disappointing night so far, I was damn sure ready when Opeth took the stage. They came out without a word, launched into their set, and two hours of pure ass-kicking redemption ensued.

The setlist:

01. Heir Apparent
02. The Grand Conjuration
03. Serenity Painted Death
04. Hope Leaves
05. The Lotus Eater
06. Bleak
(A Fair Judgment teaser)
07. Face Of Melinda (first half)
08. The Night And The Silent Water
09. Deliverance
10. Demon Of The Fall
11. The Drapery Falls

Talk about turning a frown upside down, that set absolutely destroys! The new material from Watershed was excellent. "The Lotus Eater" was particularly well done, every odd twist and turn of that song was perfectly replicated. And I must say, "Serenity Painted Death"? Are you kidding me? I never thought I'd see that one live, I was really blown away. The old standbys "Bleak", "Deliverance", and "Demon Of The Fall" were all as crushing as ever, and the pace of the show was nicely tempered with "Hope Leaves" thrown in early, and then later the combination of "Face Of Melinda" (mellow first half only, no rocking ending) and the heavy'ish but slow "The Night And The Silent Water". They also managed to throw a teaser of "A Fair Judgment" in there, playing only the part that starts with "Leave it be..." and ends with "A fair judgment deserved". Although I thought it was pretty cruel of the band to give us that lead-in and NOT bless us with the soaring guitar solo that would normally follow.

Overall, the sound was pretty darn good. It was not perfect, the first couple songs in particular were a little muddled. It sounded as if the guitars were just a little too quiet and the bass was not quite as clean as it should be, so it all got slightly drowned out in a wash of lower frequency stuff. They seemed to get this sorted out fairly quickly though. "Serenity Painted Death" sounded pretty good, the mellow accoustics of "Hope Leaves" were perfect, and when they returned to heavy form on "The Lotus Eater", everything sounded fantastic.

Akerfeldt's mic was perfect from the start, and his vocals were really on. I'm always impressed with how effortlessly he can switch from the rumbling death metal growl to his excellent clean singing voice. He literally makes this shift from one lyric to the next, always staying in tune, never missing a note or stuttering to make it all work. His vocal power and smooth transition are utterly astonishing, as many times as I've seen Opeth, this never ceases to amaze me.

Performance wise, all the guys seemed pretty into it. Strangely enough, I think Per Wiberg was the most insane of all the guys, he was in back thrashing his head around the entire time. Not to diminish his role in the band, the textures he lends to the songs have a profound impact, but I guess when you're only playing about half the time it lends more opportunity to headbang. Mendez seemed like he was in the zone for most of the show, getting into the grooves and keeping time perfectly with Axe. Axe was great, he was an absolute flurry of arms and hair, and never missed a beat. Akesson, even though he felt a bit more like a role player than a core figure in the band, was still pretty active and ripping things up, and even lent some vocals on "The Lotus Eater".

And Akerfeldt, what do you say about this guy. He truly IS Opeth. He gets into every song as if its fresh and new, even the older tunes he still plays with such passion and seems to really enjoy himself. His commentary between songs was hilarious, as always. There was a funny little accoustic ditty about "Welcome to the concert....with Opeth....from Sweden" that he played really quick after "The Grand Conjuration". He spent a couple minutes explaining this t-shirt that the band were all wearing. It was a face apparently created by combining the facial attributes of the five band members. "This is not an ugly dude, this is five ugly dudes". His lead-in to "The Lotus Eater": "we really like this song, because its f****d up". Heh, his dry sense of humor was at its usual best. In his typical Akerfeldt fashion, he always seemed very confident in himself, almost borderline full of himself, but somehow avoided ever falling completely into that pit. He always seems truly gracious and sincere when thanking the crowd, and he clearly loves coming out and busting his butt to put on a good show for the fans. He's just one of those guys that walks the line between cocky and confident, and by putting his energy into showing everyone how great the music can be as opposed to simply how great HE can be, he always seems to fall just on the right side of that line.

However, I must admit, even in the midst of such a gloriously executed show, a twinge of sadness would still periodically hit me. This was not the same Opeth I was used to seeing, faces had changed, it felt a little different. The last two times I had seen them, Lopez had been out for health reasons, the first time replaced by Gene Hoglan and the second time by the now-permanent Axenrot. It didn't bother me at the time, it was "temporary". Seeing him on the drums this time, knowing that Lopez was gone, it just felt weird at first. It took some getting used to. Throughout the course of the show, though, it all kind of sunk in and settled. And when it did, it felt just fine. Lopez may have been a madman, but no one should underestimate Axenrot. This guy is good, really good.

Fredrik Akesson, on the other hand, still feels a bit strange to me, in some undefinable way. Technically he is good, he can play, and he seems to enjoy it, I guess. There is just something a little weird about it, he doesn't seem connected to the music like Peter Lindgren did. Maybe its just because most of the material is Lindgren's, or at least from a time when Akerfeldt's writing was influenced by Lindgren, and not by him. I will say, I was really bummed when I heard that Lindgren was leaving the band, much more so than when they lost Lopez. I felt that Lindgren was a bit of a counter balance to Akerfeldt, that his influence on the sound was always more than what it was made to be. I always thought he was more than just some stooge who would play what Akerfeldt told him to play, that he had ideas and influences of his own, and that Akerfeldt respected him enough to work with him and listen to him. I sort of get the impression that Akesson is simply a talented guitarist who does what he is told. I hope I'm wrong, its just the feeling I have. Only time will tell, I guess.

Despite that occasional odd feeling that would creep in here and there, it was an absolutely stellar show through and through. The last thing I'll talk about is my personal highlight of the show, which to me perfectly illustrates why Opeth is so great, and it involves the manner in which they closed the show. It never would have occurred to me on my own, but "The Drapery Falls" is an absolutely amazing song to close on. When the song culminates in the very restrained mellow verse "spiralling to the ground below...", where the intensely built up potential energy is held and held and held, and then furiously unleashed in an explosion of guitar and drum roll, only to be just as quickly reeled back in to repeat the restraint/furious release dynamic, that is exactly what the pinnacle of a live show should be. It makes you hold your breath with the anticipation of the climax you known is about to come, and you somehow seem to linger there in total awareness and clarity for an immeasurable moment, and then it knocks the breath from you with full force. The soaring sustained note and the flowing lead-out that follows perfectly rides the residual adrenaline rush, gradually transitioning the song from the power of the climax to its final logical conclusion. Its long enough to bring you down gracefully, but not so long as to drag. When the song finishes, and you know the show is over, its not a letdown. It feels good, it feels like everything has been taken care of. Its satisfying.

Ah, another amazing Opeth show in the books. They haven't failed me yet.

Clutch + The Sword @ Stubb's, Austin (10.04.2008)

Good god I needed this show. In the six months since my daughter's arrival robbed me of catching Ministry and Meshuggah in Austin (on Ministry's last tour ever, no less!), I've hit the worst concert-going dry spell I've had in years. The last band I caught was The Mars Volta on April 10th, five days before the aforementioned robbery, so to say that I was in need of a show would be a bit of an understatement. Luckily for me, Clutch was coming to my rescue, and as if to ensure that the live music resuscitation was complete, they were bringing hometown favorites The Sword along with them. I couldn't wait!

This past Saturday, the two bands rolled into Stubb's on a perfect early-Autumn Texas night. The temperature was in the high 60's, a nice breeze was flowing through the place, the High Life was nicely chilled....it was the makings for a great night. And oh my did they light the place up!

The Sword went on about 8:15pm, after Graveyard had done an opening set (I know nothing of Graveyard, and did not catch their set). J.D. Conrise greeted the crowd with "We're The Sword, and we're from HERE!", to which the crowd went nuts. They then wasted no time launching into a steller set:

01. Celestial Crown/Barael's Blade
02. The Frost Giant's Daughter
03. How Heavy This Axe
04. Iron Swan
05. Fire Lances Of The Ancient Hyperzephyrians
06. Maiden, Mother & Crone
07. To Take The Black
08. ? (Some Kiss cover)
09. Freya
10. The Horned Goddess
11. The Black River
12. Winter's Wolves

Clearly, this was no warm-up band routine, this was double-bill material. I've literally seen The Sword more times than I can remember, and I'm almost positive that this is the longest set I've seen them play. Nicely rounded off with five songs from Age Of Winters, six from Gods Of The Earth, and a random cover thrown in there. I would have rather seen another of their own songs instead of the cover, but hey whatever, it was still rocking.

It was so great to see The Sword playing a venue like Stubb's, the sound was spectacular! Every other time I've seen them (save one) its been in a small packed venue, where the sound can be very hit or miss. The last couple times were mostly miss, with the guitars cranked so loud and distorted that everything pretty much just got lost in a wall of noise. Not so on this night, the sound was immaculate. The drums and bass were clean and rumbling, and both guitars were nicely balanced, with the higher lead stuff coming through clearly over the monolithic crunchy rhythm. Conrise's vocals were a little off here and there, as usual, but were within the mix enough that they weren't a distraction. Visually, for the first time that I've ever seen, they actually had a light show going on. Nothing too extravagant, mind you, but some basic swirling and strobing lights appropriately placed to lend a bit more texture to the medieval metal ass-kicking. I thought it was well done. And as far as energy goes, it seemed like the guys in the band were really excited to be playing back in Austin again. Their rise over the past couple years has been nothing short of meteoric, traveling all over the world with some pretty big bands, so seeing them reconnect with such an obviously appreciative Austin crowd was great to see. Overall, a mighty fine performance.

Next up, Clutch! Fallon et al came on a little after 10pm, and played until 11:45pm. Here is the setlist:

01. Small Upsetters
02. Ship Of Gold
03. The Elephant Riders
04. You Can't Stop Progress
05. Power Player
06. The Devil & Me
07. The Great Outdoors
08. Smoke Banshee
09. ? (Something instrumental I didn't recognize)
10. Basket Of Eggs
11. Eight Times Over Miss October
12. Burning Beard
13. Child Of The City
14. ? (Another instrumental number I didn't recognize)
15. The Swollen Goat
16. White's Ferry
17. La Curandera
(break)
18. Texan Book Of The Dead
19. Cypress Grove

Definitely a short set, by Clutch's standards. The two other times I've seen them were of the "An Evening With Clutch" ilk, where they play two full sets in one night for a total of 25-30 songs. Being that this was a three band night, it made sense that they would have to cut it back to a more earthly set. Aside from the length, I will also mention that it would have been nice to have more material from Robot Hive/Exodus, which is my favorite Clutch album. But I knew that they had kicked out their apparent drunkard of a organist, and aside from a couple dates where they borrowed Per Wiberg from Opeth (!), I hadn't heard of any replacement yet, so I figured the RH/E material may be limited a bit.

But no matter, those minor details aside, I thought the set they put together was fantastic. They definitely hit my personal favorites from the latest album (From Beale Street To Oblivion), particularly with the fun rocking of "Power Player" and some awesome jamming on "White's Ferry". From their back catalog it was a great mixture of solid standby's ("Texan Book Of The Dead", "The Elephant Riders", "Burning Beard") and nice surprises ("La Curandera", "Smoke Banshee", and "Basket Of Eggs", hell yeah!). The pace of the set was great, excellent energy paced by a nice constant groove. They jammed out on a few tracks, in true Clutch fashion, but never wandered too far out into the weeds.

Fallon was his typical preaching self, continually walking back and forth across the front of the stage as if giving a sermon, stopping regularly to properly punctuate his points. I gotta say the first time I saw him with the beard I thought it looked pretty nappy, but it definitely lends some kind of undefinable awesome character to his stage presence. Not that he needs it, but it somehow lends some additional credibility to his wit. Sult, as usual, was an immovable object at the side of the stage, even while continually tearing the entire Stubb's audience a new one with his guitar. Gaster was pretty animated on the drums, granted in a very controlled fashion for the most part. He did get a couple short drum solo opportunities, which were just long enough to be cool but not so long that it got boring. As with The Sword, the sound was tip-top, with every instrument and the mic perfectly balanced. I couldn't find one fault with the sound, gotta love Stubb's!!

The crowd was loving it, the vibe was electric all night. Seeing as there is a definite stylistic difference between The Sword and Clutch, I kind of expected that there would be some people only interested in one band, who would go nuts for one half of the show but be fairly unenthusiastic for the other half. Nope, no way, not even close. The entire audience, which was at least as large as any I've ever seen at Stubb's, was rocking the whole time. Everywhere I looked, people were jumping and singing along, pumping their fists and beers in the air. Both bands clearly fed off that energy, kicking it up a notch every chance they got. As Fallon said at one point "Everybody havin' a good time? If not, its your own damn fault." Amen, brotherman.

Six months without a show. This was easily worth it....