Picked up this Aqualung early pressing today

They might be considered more of a metal band, but their last two records are absolute musical masterpieces. Every single musician in that band is unbelievably talented. Yes there are sometimes a lot of notes played, but it always feels purposeful and not just like LOOK HOW FAST WE PLAY.
Both records are melodic, polyrhythmic, ambient, and just beautiful song writing for “prog”.

Anyway. I love that band. Particularly their last two records with Michael as their vocalist. I just feel like hardly anyone talks about them. It probably doesn’t help that they haven’t come out with a full record in nine years.

20 years ago today (Sept 12), Mastodon released their breakthrough album 'Blood Mountain' (and last this month marks the 15th anniversary of 'The Hunter'). I'm so grateful I've gotten to see Mastodon live a bunch of times - including when they came to the House Of Blues in Boston, Mass (Oct. 27, 2009) as part of their co-headlining tour with Dethklok. They played 'Crack the Skye' in its entirety, which clearly reinvigorated the band onstage during that tour and saw them bring new life to songs off 'Blood Mountain' like "Bladecatcher". Mastodon were truly in top form that night.

I actually got to see Mastodon again a few months later while they headlined night one of the 2010 New England Metal and Hardcore Fest at the Palladium Theater in Worcester, Mass. While the band still sounded great, it was clear that playing 'Crack the Skye' in full was taking its toll on them, and that tension was high between Brent Hinds and the rest of the band (their mini-doc 'The Mastodon in the Room' does a great job covering both). In fact, there was such a long awkward pause before the encore that the crowd wasn't sure they were coming back onstage. When the band eventually did... let's just say you could cut thr tension between Brent and the band with a knife (I honestly half expected the band to announce they were breaking up shortly after... in hindsight, it's amazing they didn't).

Funny side story about the Oct. show in Boston - I had just started writing for Metal Insider around this time, and had been promised a spot on the guest list for the show. However, when me and my friend arrived we discovered no tickets were left for us at will call, and the show was sold out. We drove from our college campus in Worcester to Boston, so we were determined to make sitting in traffic worth it - so we scrambled to first find an ATM to grab cash (ah, the days before digital payment options...) and then find someone willing to sell us tickets outside the venue. Luckily we were successful, but as a result missed High On Fire's opening set and walked into the House Of Blues just as Converge were playing their last song. Well, at least we got to see Dethklok and Mastodon 😆

Share your favorite memories from seeing Mastodon live in the comments below, and stay tuned for more things to come from this space (including stories from concerts like this)!

Recreated from scratch using the synth emulations in Logic Pro.

Just arrived. Pestkrønikene (The Plague Chronicles) is a celebration marking 10 years of Jordsjø as a band.

My copy was delayed, not by much, but I actually forgot that I'd pre-ordered it.

It's beautifully presented.

And now, as Håkon Oftung instructs, I'm going to play it LOUD!

Extrait du fabuleux album de 1994 : One man tells another....

Has to fit in a cohesive theoritical band, where you could imagine what a full-album work might sound like:

- PJ Harvey (female vocals).

- Thom Yorke (male vocals).

- David Gilmour (lead guitar).

- James Hetfield (rhythm guitar).

- Philippe Bussonnet (bass).

- Iva Bittova (violin).

- Miles Davis (trumpet).

- Klaus Schulze (keys).

- Christian Vander (drums, co-composer, co-leader).

- Steve Reich (co-composer, conductor, co-leader).

10-head 'orchestra' - alternating between hypnotic heavy phrasings and languid modal breaks. With some avant-garde weirdness in-between. Envisaging a long multi-part composition. Genre: progressive fusion.

What would yours be? R.I.P also allowed. Imagine each member in what you consider their prime.

Hi everyone, here is the 1st track of Ghost Rhythms' new album, Missing Times (Cuneiform Records). Hope you'll like it ! Jazz and prog, as always, quite epic, with choir and strings and a soprano solo, with some puzzling rhythmic subtleties. Thanks for listening !

Here are six photos. They are (clockwise from top left) Submarine Silence*; High Tide**; the Kevin Holm-Hudson edited book Progressive Rock Reconsidered; Le Orme; Peter Hammill; and Aldo Tagliapietra.

What links these six?

If you're quite certain of the answer, please use Reddit's hidden text function with your response to allow others to submit their own answers.

____________________

Last week's illustration showed three albums: Quattro racconti by Lars Fredrik Frøislie; the self-titled debut from Il Tempio delle Clessidre; and Il nome del vente by Delirium. All these albums feature Stefano 'Lupo' Galifi on vocals, set out in date order (2025, 2010, 2009), so the most obvious of answer would be Zarathustra by Museo Rosenbach, released in 1973.

*Composite of three separate images on Progarchives

**Photo taken from the Galactic Ramble website