In the age of rampant album leaks, there’s almost no reason to anticipate release dates anymore, much to the chagrin of artists worldwide. However, for certain releases, I, and I’m sure many other music fans, do make exceptions.
For example, up until exactly a week ago I was positively drooling over the upcoming release of Atlanta metal band Mastodon’s fourth album, “Crack the Skye.” Lo and behold, the day it came out I went out and actually bought a physical copy, a treatment I normally reserve for Kanye West albums.
In a strange turn of events, Mastodon has somehow become the metal band that it’s not unfashionable to like; they’re the metal band it’s OK for Animal Collective fans to like. In other words, you don’t have to be into metal to like Mastodon. This is convenient enough for most fans, because there’s a lot of assumed baggage that comes with being a metal fan. At least in the eyes of others.
For example, let’s lay out a hypothetical. Let’s say you meet a super-fine guy or girl at a Dan Deacon show. You get to talking, and he or she asks you your favorite band of all time. In your mind, Mastodon and Slayer are tied for first. Which one are you going to tell him or her? I double-dog dare you to tell him or her that it’s Slayer. They’ll think you’re joking. But for some reason Mastodon is perfectly legitimate, while Slayer is passe and outmoded.
Mastodon has become the thinking man’s metal band, and I have absolutely no problem with that. They deserve that title one hundred percent, especially when three out of their four albums are concept albums, with one of them based on “Moby Dick,” and with the most recent involving astral projection and Rasputin. This is to say nothing of the actual playing on their albums, which is not only intelligent, but completely face-melting. Each of the four members of Mastodon is incredibly talented, navigating tricky time signatures, interweaving guitar and bass parts, all while belting out guttural proclamations of doom.
But enough about Mastodon. They’ve earned all the accolades they’ve received, and I would give my left arm to play Dungeons and Dragons with them. It’s the subject of the technical proficiency of metal and its public perception that I want to draw attention to.
The main reason metal is seen as unfashionable, juvenile or uncool is because it is seen as “over the top” or “bombastic,” especially when placed in contrast with the popular independent music of the day. Aside from the obvious aesthetic differences between someone like Brent Hinds from Mastodon and Panda Bear from Animal Collective, there’s a fundamental difference in ethos that separates metal from indie that can be traced back to the birth of both genres in the ’70s.
At the onset of both metal and punk (for the sake of this argument, the father of indie music), both genres were a reaction to the popular music of the day, which was seen as bloated, over-orchestrated and antithetical to the original ethos of rock music. The only difference is the direction both genres took it. Both punk and metal bands sped their music up, metal placed an emphasis on technical excellence, rapid riffs and solos, while punk just placed emphasis on raw aggression. In other words, metal took a technical excellence approach, while early punk bands took an anti-intellectual caveman approach to the music.
Ever since this primary schism, metal has continued to differentiate itself from punk and then indie music, although grunge occasionally flirted with the metal playbook. This difference has colored the character of the music ever since. Along with the birth of punk came the DIY ethos, and the belief that anyone could be in a band and become a rock star. (See Sid Vicious, who could barely play.) This was revolutionary and opened the door for regular people into a field that had become increasingly rarefied for professional musicians, a stark contrast with the humble garage beginnings of rock music. You didn’t have to have an operatic voice or a virtuosic command of guitar to have a band.
While I appreciate this contribution, this also meant that the opposite approach was abhorred. There’s nary a guitar solo in a Ramones song, and I don’t think I’ve ever even heard an actual electric guitar in an Animal Collective song. In other words, metal became anathema to punk (until the advent of thrash metal, which is another argument).
Despite the fact that the central ethos of metal in technical excellence and balls-out mentality is increasingly becoming passe in the era of irony and purposefully primitive playing, metal may be the most honest form of music.
Hear me out here. In terms of instrumental playing, metal may be the most honest form of music, at least in the Spartan, Greco-Roman sense.
What I mean is that it’s honest music in the sense that it’s aligned with the concept of the ideal self. If there’s a level of guitar musicianship that you could be playing at, why aren’t you aspiring to that? The musicians in bands like Mastodon have clearly busted their asses practicing their instruments to be as good as they can possibly be, pushing the limits of playing in the rock idiom. And what is that if not honesty? What is more honest than wanting to be as good as you possibly can be, with no artifice or conceit to cover up the fact that you aren’t playing up to your potential.
However, what I’m terming artifice and conceit in this hyperbolic diatribe could also be termed “songwriting.”
Herein lies the rub.
I feel that technical skill in metal and other genres has been unfairly stigmatized, but that technical skill is still nothing without songwriting ability. That’s why I can’t listen to Yngwie Malmsteen or Joe Satriani without getting a pain in my groin. That’s skill for skill’s sake. The deft application of skill is where great music is made.
The point is, metal can still be great, when it isn’t all cookie monster growls, or alternatively, eight minutes of Guitar Center wankery, and there’s obviously still room for musicians that can’t wail up and down the Ionian mode on a Gibson Flying V. And no one, I repeat, no one should ever be ashamed to throw the horns and listen to Slayer in this great country of ours.
If you can’t stop air drumming when you listen to Mastodon too, then e-mail Ayres at jayres@media.ucla.edu.