I don't think Remission or Blood Mountain are concepts.
Blood Mountain is totally a concept album; it's a tale of a failed Hero's Journey. It even references Joseph Campbell's
The Hero With A Thousand Faces in some of the lyrics, such as "The Wolf Is Loose."
Also, you kind of keep refuting points I'm not even making. My problem with The Hunter is I consider it a boring mess with not even one go-to song. I hate 8VM but can at least enjoy Panic Attack and, occasionally, TROAE. TH being a "fun" album is the quick excuse by its apologists.
Okay, that's fine. You're entitled to your opinion and I totally understand not wanting to waste money on an album that you end up regretting having ever purchased.
Having said that...
I always see people using that angle to incorrectly imply that TH dissentors only want Mastodon to make music specifically tailored to their tastes.
Dude. You yourself have made posts here about how you would rather Mastodon only making albums that follow in the path of Remission. I even have a quote ready from you.
If they made every future album in Remission's style, I'd die a happy man.
Sure, obviously that's not the case for everyone who was disappointed by The Hunter, but this kinda takes away some credibility on your personal stance.
IIRC Blood Mountain is a concept album.
There's nothing wrong with liking The Hunter because it's less serious than prior albums and nobody is an apologist for doing so. I wouldn't like it if all their albums were like it from now on. THAT would be disappointing.
Personally I think Remission is one big block of boring with maybe only a few songs that are at all memorable but I'm not going to say that anyone who likes it only does so because it's their most brutal album. That would be silly.
Yeah, Remission took quite a long time for me to get into, as did Crack the Skye. But ultimately, I found both albums to be very rewarding listens and made me appreciate Mastodon even more. As I said yesterday, the differences with each album is a big part of why I love Mastodon as a band.
I also have to agree that I'd be incredibly disappointed if every album Mastodon did from here on out were like The Hunter for that reason. It's totally a fun album. Reminds me a bit of certain Judas Priest albums in that the music is heavy and awesome, but thinking isn't really required too much for it either.