New Mastodon out today...

Well, really old Mastodon, but in a different form. Mastodon released Live at The Aragon today which is an album from their tour supporting Crack The Skye. As with the rest of the tour they play the entire album from beginning to end (very neat to see live) and follow it up with a range of songs from prior albums (and some not released on regular albums). The visual effects displayed on a screen behind them during the show also makes for the whole experience, which is good since this album is in CD/DVD format. You can see the art work that Brent came up with as well as old video clips from things like Nosferatu and Rasputin's Penis (am I serious?).

Does it appease a real Mastodon fan to receive another hold-off album? Not really. I know bands will release live albums and the like in their lulls of production and sure hearing anything will satiate you to a degree, but after a few listens it just leaves you saying, "Fuck, release some new material." Between the movie score for Jonah Hex and this live album, Mastodon has now dropped TWO between album, albums. The vocal-less droning, atmospheric movie music of the Jonah Hex soundtrack was good for two or three rotations, but then fell into a category of "This is boring without the movie." Hopefully this live album will last me a little longer. Especially since Eric and I saw Brent at the High On Fire show about a year ago and when I said, "Are you guys working on new material?" His response was, "Yeah."

And there's a metal post to counter the Hip Hop post...both albums of which will most likely be played back to back while I'm at work today.