Mastodon Album Ranking Symposium

[fps]

Yeah, him and Brann are probably the most irreplaceable members as far as the "Mastodon sound" goes.

I've seen interviews with the band and stuff that alludes to a lot of the polishing of stuff into good songs is Bill though.

It's a shame that the person who seems to want to be in the band the least now is Brent.



Yeah, agreed. His vocals were great in small doses, and yeah he's got a great voice, but it's definitely changing the dynamics a bit too much now. To me at least.

New album next year apparently. I’d definitely take Hushed and Grim and Emperor of Sand over The Hunter and OMRTS so I’m hopeful it’s gonna be great.

 

[MFB]

New album next year apparently. I’d definitely take Hushed and Grim and Emperor of Sand over The Hunter and OMRTS so I’m hopeful it’s gonna be great.

OMRTS is definitely overlooked in their library, I'd put my rankings as:

1. Crack the Skye
2. Blood Mountain
3. Emperor of Sand
4. Leviathan
5. Once More Round The Sun
6. Remission
7. The Hunter
8. Hushed and Grim
9. Call of the Mastodon

Nothing before Leviathan tickles my ivories so to speak, so for those who think this ranking is "wild" I don't care, and honestly, I might even swap Leviathan and OMRTS as the last few track on Leviathan are a little meandering, especially after seeing them performed live and thinking like, "was there supposed to be more to these?"

 

[BlackMastodon]

OMRTS is definitely overlooked in their library, I'd put my rankings as:

1. Crack the Skye
2. Blood Mountain
3. Emperor of Sand
4. Leviathan
5. Once More Round The Sun
6. Remission
7. The Hunter
8. Hushed and Grim
9. Call of the Mastodon

Nothing before Leviathan tickles my ivories so to speak, so for those who think this ranking is "wild" I don't care, and honestly, I might even swap Leviathan and OMRTS as the last few track on Leviathan are a little meandering, especially after seeing them performed live and thinking like, "was there supposed to be more to these?"

My man

 

[fps]

OMRTS is definitely overlooked in their library, I'd put my rankings as:

1. Crack the Skye
2. Blood Mountain
3. Emperor of Sand
4. Leviathan
5. Once More Round The Sun
6. Remission
7. The Hunter
8. Hushed and Grim
9. Call of the Mastodon

Nothing before Leviathan tickles my ivories so to speak, so for those who think this ranking is "wild" I don't care, and honestly, I might even swap Leviathan and OMRTS as the last few track on Leviathan are a little meandering, especially after seeing them performed live and thinking like, "was there supposed to be more to these?"

Relistened Once More this morning. The poppier more stadium elements blinded me to some magic stuff later on, Asleep In The Deep and Halloween especially. Bit of a weird tracklisting and vibe but really way stronger than I remembered. And Emperor of Sand is way up there for me too, though Leviathan is my number one.

 

[Shawn]

Totally missed this thread…..I did download Hushed and Grim the month it came out and listen to it from time to time. I think it’s a good album.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

For shits and giggles:

1) Crack The Skye
2) Leviathan
3) Remission
4) Blood Mountain
5) Cold Dark Place
6) Once More Around The Sun
7) Hushed And Grim
8) Emperor Of Sand
9) Pretty much all the remaining random Demo and EP material.
10) The Hunter

But really, everything can be separated into "1 to 5" and "6 to 10", the first four LPs were just magic, and at least CDP was different and sort of it's own thing. After that, releases got a lot spottier, for me at least. The Hunter is just so forgettable, and as I've said, H&G should have been half as long.

 

[RevDrucifer]

For me there’s 2 Mastodons; pre-CTS and post-CTS Mastodon and I’m alllllllll for post-CTS Mastodon. I love the older stuff, these guys are easily my favorite band of the last decade+, but I REALLY love everything after CTS to the point I’d be hard pressed to put them in a ranking order.

And as much as I love all their vocals, I’m partial to Echo singing for them-

 

[gabito]

I gave a (re) listen to their last few albums because of this thread, but my list hasn't changed:

1- Leviathan, because I like this one the most.
2- Crack The Skye is their best album, but I still like Leviathan the most.
3- Blood Mountain, because it's good but Leviathan and Crack The Skye exist.
4- Once More Around The Sun, because I thought they lost it after The Hunter but they still had a few good songs in them it seems. Also I like the album's cover.

Albums prior to Leviathan don't sound "like Mastodon" to me (whatever that means) and everything else is a blur and starts to sound all the same to me. I don't think they had anything interesting to say after Crack The Skye. Maybe they should wait 100 hundred years until they REAAAALLY have something worth recording to release new albums, like Tool does / did.

Also The Hunter is a piece of shit and it shows they used everything they had in Crack The Skye. I like the album's cover (and maybe two songs) though.

Also their videos are cool, no matter the album.

 

[fps]

There’s a cool interview up with Brent and Marzi Montazeri from a few months back. Brent seems in good spirits, and apparently he’s getting a Gretsch signature. He also said Epiphone “filed for bankruptcy” on him so he made no money on his Epiphone sig. Sounds like a bad situation.

 

[SalsaWood]

1. Remission
2. Crack the Skye
3. Whatever

 

[gunch]

Remission, Leviathan and Blood Mountain clear the rest

 

[Big Dumb Bitch]

My Mastodon album ranking cuz everyone else is doing that

1. Remission
2. Leviathan
3. Crack the Skye
4. Blood Mountain
5. Cold Dark Place
6. Emperor of the Sand
7. Call of the
8. Hushed and Grim
9. The Hunter
10 Once More Around the Sun

 

[JSKrev]

Not a big fan, but I agree that The Hunter sucked.

 

[Ordacleaphobia]

Thinking about doing a deep dive on these guys because I've heard them here and there over the years but never really gave them the attention they deserved since I did like pretty much everything I heard from them.

For someone with limited exposure to the band in general, where would you start? Sounds like CTS probably?

 

[Smoked Porter]

Thinking about doing a deep dive on these guys because I've heard them here and there over the years but never really gave them the attention they deserved since I did like pretty much everything I heard from them.

For someone with limited exposure to the band in general, where would you start? Sounds like CTS probably?

I’d say just go on the journey of the first four albums in chronological order, then keep going if you want. Almost everything after Crack the Skye is hit or miss, but Hushed and Grim and Cold Dark Place are pretty strong as a whole.

 

[RevelGTR]

Thinking about doing a deep dive on these guys because I've heard them here and there over the years but never really gave them the attention they deserved since I did like pretty much everything I heard from them.

For someone with limited exposure to the band in general, where would you start? Sounds like CTS probably?

Start with Crack the Sky IMO, they somehow were at the full prog ability of their earlier stuff and also full melodic ability that became the foundation of their later stuff.

 

[BlackMastodon]

For shits and giggles:

1) Crack The Skye
2) Leviathan
3) Remission
4) Blood Mountain
5) Cold Dark Place
6) Once More Around The Sun
7) Hushed And Grim
8) Emperor Of Sand
9) Pretty much all the remaining random Demo and EP material.
10) The Hunter

But really, everything can be separated into "1 to 5" and "6 to 10", the first four LPs were just magic, and at least CDP was different and sort of it's own thing. After that, releases got a lot spottier, for me at least. The Hunter is just so forgettable, and as I've said, H&G should have been half as long.

My Mastodon album ranking cuz everyone else is doing that

1. Remission
2. Leviathan
3. Crack the Skye
4. Blood Mountain
5. Cold Dark Place
6. Emperor of the Sand
7. Call of the
8. Hushed and Grim
9. The Hunter
10 Once More Around the Sun

I think y'all are the only ones I've seen ranking Blood Mountain at the bottom of their Big 4 albums, I'll throw my rankings up tomorrow at work when I'm bored but BM is a close 2nd for me after CtS.

I also listened to Hushed and Grim about a month ago because I forgot about it and I agree with Max, it should've been half as long. When the riffs hit, they fucking hit, but the majority of songs have filler verses, choruses, or bridges.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

For someone with limited exposure to the band in general, where would you start?

For heavies: Remission or Leviathan, the former being more raw the latter a smidge more melodi.

For more "proggy" arrangements: Crack The Skye is pretty much the apex, and Blood Mountain is kinda how they got there.

The best advice is probably what @Smoked Porter recommended.

 

[JSKrev]

Anyone else surprised at the lack of an appearance from Scott Kelly? It was always a nice treat on Mastodon albums to see where he pops up.

I'm sure they wish they could retroactively delete that asshole's parts now.

 

[neurosis]

For shits and giggles:

1) Crack The Skye
2) Leviathan
3) Remission
4) Blood Mountain
5) Cold Dark Place
6) Once More Around The Sun
7) Hushed And Grim
8) Emperor Of Sand
9) Pretty much all the remaining random Demo and EP material.
10) The Hunter
The Hunter is just so forgettable, and as I've said, H&G should have been half as long.

I also think the first four are the best they have done but also think that the albums after turn into one big blur that could have been condensed into a few better albums. I think with time they have become weaker at self editing. Luckily they are one of those bands that can still be incredible live on a good day. They work hard and seem to squeeze every opportunity but sometimes I've felt their music might have suffered from it. Add to that all the f-ed up experiences they've channeled into the music. When you make conceptual albums about the death of your loved ones music is hardly and escape anymore and I feel that is palpable in some of the work they have released. Emperor being the darkest in that sense. It is less hopeful than Skye. Between albums there's also a big shift in the main contributors to the writing so there are 'eras' of Mastodon and not all of them are as captivating.

My list is:

1 Crack the Sky
2 Blood Mountain (I have a special connection to this album, particularly Sleeping Giant–I love how this record sounds... and the send off with Pendulous Skin almost makes you remember it as a band in a room record)
3 Leviathan
4 Remission
5 A compilation of Hunter, OMRTS, Emperor of Sand:
- Tread Lightly
- The Motherload
- High Road
- Chimes
- Feast Your Eyes
- Stargasm
- The Hunter
- Creature Lives
- The Sparrow
- Show Yourself
- Steambreather
- Roots Remain
- Andromeda
- Jaguar God (this such a strange song... sometimes I love it and sometimes the sudden switches throw me off)
6 Hushed and Grim (this one actually grew on me and I still play it a lot)

I am not particularly attached to anything else they have done. I think they have a really good range that often gets overshadowed by the prevalence of certain patterns that have kind of become their signature sound. There is some gold sprinkled across all these records though.