Durf's Töp 15 Albums of 2021

Yeesh, what a year.  Yeah, I know, I say that pretty much every year, but this year I mean it.  In the span of really ten short months, the Durfette and I welcomed the Durfling 2, I got a promotion at work, the Durfette got a new job, we both decided we wanted to get the fuck out of Idaho, I got a new job, we sold our house, bought a new house, moved to Tennessee, and that's just off the top of my head.  It's been a year.  Not to mention that until shit got real bonkers around August/September, I managed to actually write something nearly every week for this her blog, which was a lot of fun.  I'd love to be able to tell you that Durf's Weekly Workout will make a triumphant return sometime soon, but I can't commit to that, and I just can't lie to you terrific folks.  The new job takes a lot of my time and energy, and I'm still trying to figure out how to make sure my family doesn't get shortchanged, and until I do, I need to do other things than tell you how wicked lifting to Suffering Hour is (it's pretty fuckin' wicked though).  But hopefully it will be back at some point.  But for now, let's talk about sixteen albums from this year that were phenomenal.  I listened to more music this year than potentially any year previous, so you know these sixteen are the choicest of choice cuts.  As always, the amount written about any album does not speak to my thoughts or feelings about it; that's what the numbers are for.

Durf's Weekly Workout # 18: May 21st, 2021

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I've been dealing with another Crohn's flare up recently.  I wrote about my Crohn's disease in more detail a few years ago, and since that post nothing and everything has changed regarding my disease and my approach to treating it.  However, after getting out of the hospital eight weeks ago, I felt like I wasn't quite healing as fast as I had in the past, despite a pretty high dose of prednisone (and also tramadol, which I felt was highly unnecessary, and didn't really take).  So I thought about it, and did some research, and kept thinking, and kept reading, and then took some pretty drastic steps, all in the name of health. 

Exclusive Interview - Jonny Boucher (Hope For the Day)

In the time we've done Brutalitopia, we've had the opportunity to conduct some pretty cool interviews with some of our favorite musicians.  We've only ever wanted to do this site as a hobby, so it's been a real treat to have the privilege of these conversations, meeting and chatting with artists throughout genres, from different parts of the world, brought together by our love of music.  By and large, these conversations are pretty light, enjoyable ways for the three of us to get to know musicians we respect and admire, and to hopefully ask them questions they haven't been asked a thousand times before, in an effort to connect them with fans through our (admittedly small) platform.

This interview was different.

Last night, Mick and I had the opportunity to speak with Jonny Boucher, founder and CEO of Hope For The Day, a suicide prevention organization focusing on proactive prevention.  Jonny founded HFTD in 2011 after the suicide of his boss, and the organization's motto of "It's OK Not to Be OK" speaks to his desire to end the stigma around discussing suicide and mental health.  It's an incredibly important topic, especially considering the destructive attitudes of "suck it up!" that still surround suicide and mental illnesses.  Hope For The Day has worked with Warped Tour, Live Nation, and other musicians to get their message out there, and last night they were putting on a benefit show at Chicago's famous Metro, featuring Mastodon, Brain Tentacles, and Powermad.  All of the bands spoke to Hope For The Day during their sets, and it was a tremendous night of camaraderie, hope, and metal, but the absolute high point was getting to speak with Jonny.  Over the course of our conversation, we discussed the origin and goals of Hope For The Day, his views on death, and how having the same last name as The Waterboy has impacted his life.  We hope you enjoy this interview, and if you're dealing with any issues, please know that you aren't alone and there are people who will listen.

Mastodon - Emperor of Sand

Mastodon is a band that needs no introduction; they are on the shortlist of bands that have influenced and defined the genre thus far in the 21st Century.  Since their crushing debut Remission in 2002, the quartet has released five more albums, including back-to-back-to-back classics in Leviathan, Blood Mountain, and Crack the Skye, before falling back to earth and releasing two intermittently enjoyable, but really only ok to good albums in The Hunter and Once More 'Round the Sun.  Mastodon's rapid ascent to the top of Critical Reception Mountain early in their career has only made their two-album slide all the more questioned: Were they trying to be more accessible and get a radio hit?  Were they burnt out?  Does Brent Hinds really hate playing in a metal band?  Did they really just fluke their way into three All-Time albums?  Fair or not, their seventh album, Emperor of Sand, feels like a make or break album for the band, one that will either return them to metal prominence as a great band, or seal their fate as a good band that had a transcendent six years once.  So, you know, no pressure.

Ranking Scott Kelly's Mastodon Songs

You may have heard there's a new Mastodon album coming soon.  Emperor of Sand will be released March 31, and the three advance tracks have me excited for a 'Don album for the first time in what feels like forever.  In anticipation of the new record, I've been listening to a lot of Mastodon, which inevitably means I'm hearing some Scott Kelly.  The Neurosis co-frontman and guitarist has appeared on every Mastodon album since Leviathan (and has confirmed an appearance on Emperor of Sand), and his presence typically results in his track being one of the stand out songs on the album.  So I decided to rank Kelly's Mastodon collaborations and ruminate on each one, if only because March 31 seems like too long to wait to write anything about Mastodon.

New GIF: "Mastodon - Gif the Skye"

Be sure to check out more of our gifs on our gifs page!

- Mick

Where Stride the Behemoths: Into the Storm and Wet Teeth, The New Faces of Mastadonian Sludge

It's been long enough, so lets just say it: Mastodon are never, ever going to give us another Leviathan.  Or another Blood Mountain.  Crack the Skye 2 is also tremendously iffy.  The band that made those landmark albums has moved on, and you know what, that's ok.  Accept it.  Embrace it.  Be thankful that Brent, Troy, Brann, and Bill gave you those albums, and be happy for them for moving on, continuing to make the music they want, no matter what anyone else says.  It's not like you can't throw on "Hearts Alive" whenever you want anyway, so that's not why you're upset.  If you're honest with yourself, you'll probably agree that the biggest reason your soul pines for a "return to form" from the 'Don is because you miss that feeling of hearing a new, sludgy, guitar-driven adrenaline shot that is the aural equivalent of the swampy, humid, sweat-drenched dog days of summer.  You want something new that makes you want to crack open a cold one, sit  in a puddle of your own swamp ass on a lawn chair, and rock the day away in a blur, while still having enough moments that wow you out of your stupor.  Well guess what friends: you don't need Mastodon for that.  In fact, Into the Storm and Wet Teeth have all the sludgy filth you need to keep the party going all summer long.

Mastodon - Once More 'Round The Sun

In 2006, Mastodon released Blood Mountain, the first metal album I bought and one that was hugely instrumental in my becoming the metalhead I am today; two years prior the band had released Leviathan, an album that wound up not only on many an Album of the Year list, but also quite a few Album of the Decade lists as well. In 2009, the band released quite possibly my favorite album ever, the brilliant Crack the Skye, and then in 2011 the enjoyable-if-unspectacular The Hunter. This mini history lesson serves two purposes: First, it lays my Mastodon fandom right there on the table, in the open, before I go any further with this review. Second, it's there to point out that after a trio of albums most bands would kill for, Mastodon sort of took a step back with The Hunter. It's a fun album, one that's quite good at times, but it still stands as the weak link in what was one of the strongest discographies in 21st century metal, and for the first time, allowed just a sliver of doubt to approach the band. Their new album, Once More 'Round the Sun, represents the band at a crossroads: would they return to being one of the pioneers of American metal, seemlessly blending genres while creating classic albums? Or would they continue to drift toward fun yet forgettable records, made up of a hodge podge of rock-metal tracks?

Albums of the Year, Then and Now (2008-2012)

Welcome to Part II of my retrospective look at my top albums from past years, where I see if they still hold that lofty position or have fallen prey to the ravages of time.  If you missed Part I, where I looked at albums from 2003-2007, check it out here.  If you’re ready to continue and see the albums from 2008-2012, then onward to the Time Machine!

Howl - "Bloodlines"

One of my favorite things about being a metal fan in 2013 is that with the internet, you can literally find hundreds, if not thousands, of bands you’ve never heard of every year.  The rise of Bandcamp and embedded tracks means you can hear bands at a clip like never before, which is fantastic.  Of course the flip side of that is sometimes bands slip through the cracks, and when you finally hear them, you curse your stupidity and wish to Dio that you’d found them sooner.  That sums up my experience with Howl over the past month, because evidently they had a self-titled EP in 2008 and a debut full-length titled Full of Hell in 2010, even though I didn’t learn of their existence – not to mention their impending album Bloodlines – until a few weeks ago.

Skinny Jeans and Blast Beats

Let’s play a quick game.  It won’t take long, and it won’t be hard.  Here’s how it will work: I’m going to ask you a question, you think of the answer, and then we see if you’re right or not.  Sounds fun, right?  Let’s give it a whirl.  Who won the World Series in 1984? Did you say the Detroit Tigers?  If you did, you were right.  Here’s another one, just for kicks: Which came first, Blackwater Park or Leviathan?  Blackwater Park you say? My, you’re good at this.  Ok, enough practicing, let’s break out the real deal.  What’s a name for a sub sect of society that is pretentious, overbearing, and spiteful toward those who think differently about pop culture than they, dresses in a manner deemed to be “weird” to the mainstream, and often views music, movies, et al in terms of absolutes rather than subjectively?  Cue the “Jeopardy” theme… ok.  Got your answers?  Raise your hand if you said “hipsters.”  Well that’s cute, and somewhat accurate, but it’s not what I was going for.

New Mastodon Song + New Cynic EP Announced = New Reasons To Be Happy

While I've been extremely busy with things and thus have been on a little bit of a break from the blog as of late, it doesn't mean that I haven't been paying attention to what's been going on in the past couple weeks.  It seems that September is going to be Prog Metal Blowout month.  With releases coming from the likes of Opeth, Dream Theater, Mastodon, and Textures, I dare you to tell me otherwise.

But being my first post in a little while and also considering that my last post was about a Mastodon track dropping, it seems only fitting that part of what I'm posting today is another new badass Mastodon track.  Coming from their upcoming September 27 release of The Hunter, this new track is entitled "Spectrelight."



Another item of interest involves some prog that isn't being released in September but will be released relatively soon.  I found out, via Metalsucks, that Cynic has officially announced that they will be releasing a new EP on November 15.  The EP is entitled Carbon-Based Anatomy.  Below is the album artwork and tracklisting.

 





1.Amidst The Coals
2.Carbon-Based Anatomy
3.Bija!
4.Box Up My Bones
5.Elves Beam Out
6.Hieroglyph






- Mick

New Mastodon Song!

And so it is that another new Mastodon song has been released from their upcoming album, The Hunter.  This song, probably as no surprise to anyone, is pretty sweet.  I'm gonna paraphrase Axl from Metalsucks by saying I don't know what the hell "Curl Of The Burl" means but I do indeed know that "Curl Of The Burl" is a pretty awesome tune.  It just makes me that much more excited for the new album.  Be sure to check out The Hunter when it drops on September 27.

8/16/11 Update

I should've suspected that the song wouldn't last long without being a official release from Mastodon themselves (damn you copyright laws).  But thankfully, Mastodon did just that today.  Check out the official video for "Curl Of The Burl" below, which is really just trippy footage of a forest with Mastodon music behind it. 


 

-Mick

New Mastodon Track and Album Details....Yes, Yes, and More Yes

Well here we go everybody.  Here's our first taste of some brand spankin' new Mastodon.  And not are we only blessed with a full length track, entitled Black Tongue, but we also get the full album details!  Mastodon's new album, The Hunter, will be coming out on September 27 via Reprise Records.  If this track is any indication of what the new album will be delivering, count me as super happy.

-Mick  

Review: The Sword - Warp Riders

Needless to say, heavy music has seen a wide rash of changes to it's old guard over the last decade or so. Crusty, bearded grumpsters have become the norm, and gone are the days where nu-metal appeared ad nauseam on at least a handful of high profile hessian zines and sites' end of the year lists. Mastodon have become the poster children (or rednecks, depending on the way you look at it) for the metal genre as a whole whether you're privy to it or otherwise, and the style that the Mastodudes and their many compatriots in the progressive-sludge-post-core sub-genre (seriously, fuck modern categorization) has quickly become the go-to approach for younger metal musicians with quirky ideologies, prodigious musicality and talent to garner mass amounts of critical acclaim.

Enter Austin based retrograde D&D nerds The Sword. Since bell-bottom wearing frontman JD Cronise and The Sword found themselves on the heavy music map unexpectedly following the inclusion of their single "Freya" off of their debut album Age of Winters on the first installment of Guitar Hero, their brand of heavy, down driven riffage and smooth, melodious guitar work has been carefully cultivated and tweaked, resulting in this year's release Warp Riders. The biggest knock on The Sword heading into their junior effort was a lack of dynamism and an over reliance on a retro sound that closely mimicked past riff heavy greats like Sabbath and early Zeppelin. Simply giving Warp Riders a quick listen proves that those criticisms were taken to heart by Cronise and his cronies (come on, too easy), put in their collective pipe, and chiefed quite awhile back.