THINKING MAN'S METAL RETURNS

The new Mastodon disc, Blood Mountain, comes out today; I bought mine at lunchtime, along with the new Rapture disc. On first listen, BM is a definite step forward from the already awesome Leviathan. The vocals are cleaner, but the guitar riffs are just as ferocious and possibly even more intricate than before, as are the drums. The songs are all in the five-minute range, which actually works in their favor - some of those Leviathan tracks didn't know when to end. Of course, there'll be a tidal wave of hype, and this Ben Ratliff piece is part of it, but it's much better than the rest of the "metal - not just for dumbasses anymore" stuff the Times has been printing this year. (BTW, the Boris/Sunn album ain't much at all. Get the new Isis instead.)