Written by musicalkaratekid on 24.09.2011 at 20:59

Possibly their weakest album(due to the vocals-way too melodic for my liking) but this is still a great mastodon album.

Written by tea[m]ster on 17.02.2012 at 01:00

I feel like after this "The Hunter" is a huge letdown. I was hoping for more epic songs like The Czar and The Last Baron. I like the direction this album takes.

Written by Odinson on 04.11.2012 at 15:43

HAahah I don't even get why this has a higher rating than leviathan. Leviathan is miles away from this. This should be around 8.0 and leviathan 8.9 at least.

Written by musicalkaratekid on 28.02.2012 at 23:22

You probably haven't noticed that i recently changed my rating from a 9 to a 6-i gave it a deeper listen. And my last comment didn't necessarily say that this was definitvely their 'weakest', just 'possibly' their weakest, giving off the idea that it may or may not be. As for your last sentence, that's a bit over-the-top isn't it? I mean, i can take sarcasm as much as any other person, but basically saying that I'm stupid ('Quite a genius,aren't you?') for saying that one of mastodon's albums may or may not be their weakest is a bit,well...obscure. Apart from that, do have a good life. Try not to piss too many people off.

Written by Jaeryd17‍ on 03.04.2013 at 18:50

Written by musicalkaratekid on 28.02.2012 at 23:22

You probably haven't noticed that i recently changed my rating from a 9 to a 6-i gave it a deeper listen. And my last comment didn't necessarily say that this was definitvely their 'weakest', just 'possibly' their weakest, giving off the idea that it may or may not be. As for your last sentence, that's a bit over-the-top isn't it? I mean, i can take sarcasm as much as any other person, but basically saying that I'm stupid ('Quite a genius,aren't you?') for saying that one of mastodon's albums may or may not be their weakest is a bit,well...obscure. Apart from that, do have a good life. Try not to piss too many people off.

So... a deeper listen makes you drop it from a 9 to a 6? Really? Are you voting on first listens? 'Cause if you are, you might want to stop. If your rating can be wildly different than the rating you give it on your first listen, I don't think your first listen is accurate enough to give out ratings. You should probably re-listen to all the other hundreds of albums you've rated and change them by 3 or 4 points, too.

Really, you should stop being so influenced by the comments that people are giving you. If you liked the album enough on a first listen to give it a 9 (which is really damn good, something you should only give to great albums), I don't see how you can drop it to anything less than a 7 after a deeper listen.

A band having a weakest album doesn't mean much. If you rated the weakest a 9, that just means that a band has a lot strong material for their weakest album to still be really good. The weakest album of a band doesn't necessarily mean that it's a weak album when compared to other albums from other bands.

You can rate, say, four albums a 9 and have one be the weakest. For example: If I rate them like this, 8.6, 9.0, 9.1, and 9.4, they all round to a 9 rating, but the one with 8.6 is still technically the weakest.

I'm considering rating this down an 8 after more listens if my feelings change, but there's no way I can drop it down to 5 or 6 or anything like that. That's an extreme change to make, something that could only happen if my perception was drastically altered by the introduction of some vastly new information that totally rearranges my musical perspective--which is very unlikely to happen.

Written by musicalkaratekid on 04.04.2013 at 15:05

Why did you feel the need to type all of this out? I'll admit I haven't read all of what you've written because it seems to me like a waste of time.

Written by Jaeryd17‍ on 04.04.2013 at 17:50

Written by musicalkaratekid on 04.04.2013 at 15:05

Why did you feel the need to type all of this out? I'll admit I haven't read all of what you've written because it seems to me like a waste of time.

tl;dr version: You should stop voting on first listens, because obviously you don't vote accurately enough on a first listen if you're going to drop your rating from 9 to 6.

Written by musicalkaratekid on 04.04.2013 at 18:00

I've been dropping this rating gradually over time. OK, so there's no proof, but I don't feel like I have to justify my ratings to someone who cares so much about arguing over how to "rate" a Mastodon album properly.

It's Spring. Enjoy the sunshine.

Written by Jaeryd17‍ on 04.04.2013 at 18:11

Written by musicalkaratekid on 04.04.2013 at 18:00

I've been dropping this rating gradually over time. OK, so there's no proof, but I don't feel like I have to justify my ratings to someone who cares so much about arguing over how to "rate" a Mastodon album properly.

It's Spring. Enjoy the sunshine.

Hey, you can do whatever you want. I wasn't demanding that you do anything, I was just giving you some advice--even if it was unwanted.

And it's not about the Mastodon album. I just think it's strange that your vote changed so drastically... and the only reason why I think it's important is because I like to look at your votes (and other people with a similar taste to my own) because you've listened to a ton of albums. I like to see if other people with a like-mind have similar opinions on the albums I've listened to.

Written by musicalkaratekid on 04.04.2013 at 18:33

Well this is the only album page to my knowledge where a user has replied to my comment purely to give "advice" on how to rate albums properly. I first rated this a 9 back in 2011, and then after a few more weeks of listening to the album a few more times, it went down to an 8/7, then I finally gave it a 6 after making up my mind as to whether or not it deserves that rating. It's not like I said "actually this album isn't good at all. It deserves a 6". I just listened to it again a few more times and came to a definite rating. OK, I admit the 9 I first gave it was after one full listen, but I do that all the time! That doesn't mean I drop ratings just for other users' benefits.

Written by Jaeryd17‍ on 04.04.2013 at 18:50

Written by musicalkaratekid on 04.04.2013 at 18:33

Well this is the only album page to my knowledge where a user has replied to my comment purely to give "advice" on how to rate albums properly. I first rated this a 9 back in 2011, and then after a few more weeks of listening to the album a few more times, it went down to an 8/7, then I finally gave it a 6 after making up my mind as to whether or not it deserves that rating. It's not like I said "actually this album isn't good at all. It deserves a 6". I just listened to it again a few more times and came to a definite rating. OK, I admit the 9 I first gave it was after one full listen, but I do that all the time! That doesn't mean I drop ratings just for other users' benefits.

Well, everyone else likes to complain about other people's ratings, too. I'm not the first. Others like to say "So, you think there's a problem with this album but you rate it a 10?" or "So you think this album is amazing but you rate it a 5?"
...Usually they're talking about Bad English and his ratings, but you get the idea.

I'm not the first to give you advice anyway, as Boxcar Willy's comment was a subtle advisory statement about rating the album (to quote "Weakest album = 9") which seemed to affect you enough to make you want to reply to him--so that way he knew that the weakest album was actually 6. Seeing as how the comments seem to affect you so much, I thought I'd take a crack at it and see if I could get you to reconsider, or at least find out why you could change your mind to something so different.

Anyway, like I said, you do what you want. Honestly--and I do admit--it should really be none of my business, and I'm just making this a much bigger deal than it should be.