HERITAGE HUNTER: MASTODON, OPETH, AND GHOST @ THE MASQUERADE, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Saturday was a rather wicked day that was full of a lot of random surprises, even if things got off to a frustrating start. I attended the show with Chrissa, a friend in Dalton, her fiance, and local musician Jonathan Shrum of Unspoken Triumph fame. We made it to the Masquerade literally five minutes before Ghost started playing. Admittedly, I don’t really care much for Ghost. Their music is good, but the theatrics kind of turn me off a little bit (I’m at a phase in my life where I just want musicians to be musicians and not actors). During this time I met up with my ATL homeboys Mark, Adam, Chase, and Will and Dan from Zoroaster.

Finally, Opeth took the stage for what felt like 45 minutes of magic. They played a lot of new songs off of Heritage, and much to my delight, also broke out “Demon of the Fall”. I had to chuckle a bit when Mikael teased the mostly Southern audience by playing a bit from “Dueling Banjos” between songs. One thing I really like about this Akerfelt fellow is that he doesn’t take himself that seriously and wants the audience to have fun right along with him. He even introduced himself as Lars Ulrich at one point! Opeth closed their set with “The Grand Conjuration” and the whole place went nuts. Overall, I was very impressed, and Mikael’s voice is just fifty shades of fucking gorgeous live. It’s a shame I didn’t get to meet him at some point during the night.

Lastly, Mastodon came out to give their hometown heathens something to chew on. It was so great to get to hear The Hunter in its entirety, even if the songs were out-of-order, plus there were a few old standards to drive the crowd into a frenzy. My favorite part of their set was when Brent’s mom jumped into the crowd and went surfing like the young whipper-snappers surrounding me! Nearly everyone in Mastodon’s immediate family was there, including Bill’s mom and Brent’s 88-year-old grandma. It was really a sight to behold.

The best part of the night came a few minutes after the show ended. I had brought an envelope with me that contained a letter for Brann and a card for his wife Susanne (whose band Tiger! Tiger! still kicks all kinds of ass if you haven’t checked them out). I was a bit annoyed that I couldn’t find Brann earlier in the night, but I decided to wait around the buses until he surfaced…and he eventually did. I didn’t get to talk to Brann long, considering the fact that there were a bunch of other rabid fans around, but I gave him the envelope and he congratulated me on graduating college, and we hugged.

I also talked to Troy for a minute or so. He was greeting fans and couldn’t stop talking about his family the whole time, which I thought was really sweet. I told him that I thought he did a great job on stage (and he did - his voice sounds a lot better now than it did a few months ago), and he held up his hand. I thought he wanted a high-five,  but when I put my hand up to his, our fingers laced. I held hands with Troy fucking Sanders *.*

Lastly, I saw Susanne before I left. Regular readers of this blog know that she has been very much like a kind auntie to me in the past year, so it was really great to catch up with her. We talked for what must have been about twenty minutes or so about different things. I was mostly grateful that she too had congratulated me on graduating college at FYM a week ago - she had gone as far as to mark the date on her calendar months ago. She and Brann were both so proud of me, and it just put a big, stupid grin on my face.

I’ll be back in Atlanta tomorrow with some friends, so I might run into some MastoDuders while there. If not, it was still cool to see my boys again, and it was definitely cool to finally get my chance to see Opeth live. I am thankful to Chrissa for taking me to the show and bringing me home safe and sound. She is a rad-as-fuck chick whose company I really enjoy. Until next time!

4 Notes   Comment

This is one of the few decent photos I was able to get of the Heritage Hunter show in Atlanta with Opeth and Mastodon. Mikael’s voice sounds 50x better live than on recordings, which is saying a lot. What a gorgeous man.

Got a review coming up here in a bit, along with more blurry/crappy photos :)

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A very happy 37th birthday to one of the sexiest and most talented men in metal, Mikael Akerfeldt. I really hope I get to meet you next month <3

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fuckyeahmastodon:

Brent and Mikael <3

Why can’t I be in this picture squeezed between them?

135 Notes   fuckyeahmastodonSource   fuckyeahmastodonReblogged   Comment

metalopolisnews:

Well this is complete bullshit.

What the fuck else are you going to write for your fans, dude? Please, for the love of the Gods, do not make another fucking Heritage. That one was fucking horrible as it is, and I’m only just getting over how Mikael could fucking do that to me.

When asked by…

Looking around this “news” site is amusing to say the least. I know several other people have reblogged this article with their opinions, most of which sounded as caveman in tone as the original author. Instead of yelling at this kid, I think I’ll try to use reason and logic to appeal to him. Novel idea? Perhaps, but here goes nothing:

Dear sir, I have taken the time to read around at some of your articles, and you seen content to cover everything and anything “brutal” or “epic”. This is why I feel that your post about Baroness’ “soft” music direction is fundamentally flawed. The brand of metal that you subscribe to is a foreign language from the brand of metal that I subscribe to. While you’re all bogged down in djent-mathcore-power-black-doom-death-grind or whatever it is that gets you kids off these days, I am bogged down in my own little swamp of sludge metal.

It seems that there are some fundamental elements of both sludge metal and prog metal in which you either fail or refuse to recognize. While seemingly different in sound and approach, the aesthetics behind sludge and prog are much the same in the regard that the music is considered a work of art. An aesthetically pleasing piece of music, usually in the form of a concept album, serves to convey a deeper message within the lyrics, the music, and the delivery of each individual song, so that the pieces fit together into one big, beautiful puzzle.

Albums like Blue Record and Heritage fall into these categories. They might be somewhat “softer” than what is considered the norm for metal bands, it’s hard to argue that each of these albums don’t feel like one complete package, like a mural of sorts. From “Bullhead’s Psalm” to “Bullhead’s Lament”, there are a range of emotions within each song and a lyrical narrative that speaks through the ghosts of Confederate soldiers. Likewise, Heritage is a straight-forward prog album built around the concept of origin, where we come from, where we belong, and where humanity is headed in a spiritual sense.

Albums should be look at as books in a bookstore. By saying that an album isn’t “brutal” enough to be considered metal is the equivalent of the scene from Beauty and the Beast where Gaston thumbs through Belle’s book and says “How can you read this? There are no pictures!”. Belle’s answer? “Well some people use their imagination”. My point is that by heavy metal only concerning itself with how “epic” or “brutal” the music sounds, it loses its imaginative spark and renders itself into a book peppered with pictures. The images are literally painted in front of your face, instead of letting the words paint a unique picture for you. Through the abstractness of the lyrical concepts and the ability to tell an intricate story, the sludge and prog sub-genres allow listeners to draw their own conclusion, to create their own interpretations of the piece, instead of having a stock image that has been captioned many times over.

It should also be noted that aside from fronting metal bands, John Dyer Baizley and Mikael Akerfeldt are both accomplished folk/acoustic guitarists. They draw from a wide array of influences and don’t consider themselves just metal-heads. They refuse to limit themselves to one genre and one sound for the sake of creating musical fluidity. All bands must evolve and change, and while I admit that some change for the worse, Baizley and Akerfelt have enough talent, wisdom, and tricks of their sleeves to evolve into a more sophisticated creature with every album. Metal could use a little more sophistication, after all. There’s only so long that it can continue shitting out the same formula, eating that shit, and then shitting it out over and over again. Familiarity does indeed breed contempt and kills the beast from within.

In short - if you don’t like the musical direction that Baroness or Opeth have headed in, that’s your own opinion and your own observations. However, in the future, you need to formulate a better, more methodical and well-planned argument as to why Baroness and Opeth’s music now “sucks”. Paint a picture of your words, don’t just give people a crayon drawing and tell them what to make of it. You will benefit both as a columnist and as a person by finding deeper meaning in what you write, what you hear, and what you feel.

Is that “brootal” enough for you?

19 Notes   metalopolisnewsSource   metalopolisnewsReblogged   Comment

My top 10 favorite lyricists of the past 20 years (in no particular order):

1. Pete Wentz (Fall Out Boy)
2. Brann Dailor (Mastodon)
3. Daron Malakian (System of a Down)
4. Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth)
5. Scott Kelly (Neurosis)
6. Amanda Palmer (Dresden Dolls)
7. Keith Buckley (Every Time I Die)
8. Courtney Love (Hole)
9. Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains)
10. Stefani Germanotta (Lady Gaga).

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