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Review |
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I do not think you could put a sole label on Mastodon’s
style of music, it draws of such a large range of
genre’s I don’t think it’s possible;
sludge, progressive, stoner, metal, alternative
rock, all combined together to produce some of the
finest unique blend of music in existence that is
only distinctive to Mastodon, it will never be confused
with any other artist. From the bands very first
full length studio album “Remission”
back in 2002, heavy metal fans worldwide knew they
were staring into the eyes of a growing beast with
its heart set on global domination, in fact I think
they’re very close to achieving that. Last
effort, 2009’s “Crack the Skye”
was received phenomenally by critics and was branded
album of the year by multiple publications and websites;
after this exceptional rise to stardom riding off
the success of that album, we are dealt latest effort
“The Hunter”.
The band’s first 3 albums were pretty heavy,
where as “Crack the Skye” toned it
back on focused on taking listeners through a
journey by using intricate guitar work and quite
mellow tones, which was absolutely freaking awesome
but it just means that the direction of “The
Hunter” is pretty open and could take near
enough any direction it wants. The first 3 tracks
of the album “Black Tongue”, “Curl
of the Burl” and “Blasteroid”
are on the surface extremely upbeat songs, the
underlining however is really dark natured and
evil which is an interesting change of pace but
really shows off the parameters that Mastodon’s
material can hit.
The title track; “The Hunter”, is
a sinister little devil that marks the half way
point of the album. A soft song that is deceivingly
sweet when really it’s quite evil layered
with ominous tones and sinister vocals all building
up to the tasty guitar solo at around the 4 minutes
mark which carries through to the end of the track.
The only other track on the album that matches
the same style as that and it happens to be the
only other song that surpasses the 5 minute marker
is the final track “The Sparrow”;
this song however takes the sinister vocal approach
one step further with some choir-esque gang vocals
which ring out alone for the songs conclusion.
Let’s not leave out the heavy side of the
album; “Octopus Has No Friends”, “All
The Heavy Lifting” and especially the albums
biggest bruiser “Spectrelight” which
features Scott Kelly from Neurosis providing guest
vocals. Starting with “Octopus Has No Friends”
which is my favourite song from the entire album,
it’s just less than 4 minutes of some really
trippy and fast technical guitar work alongside
with a really strange atmospheric tinge to it
which is surreal, “All The Heavy Lifting”
takes off from where the previous finishes with
the atmospheric edge but with a more distinctive
slower riff, beautiful couple of songs. The icing
on the cake would have to be “Spectrelight”
because it’s extremely damn fast, ridiculously
heavy and the vocal work Scott Kelly puts down
here compliments everything the band’s vocals
have managed to produce throughout the album.
There you have it, Mastodon has followed up and
album of the year, with what I think could be
another album of the year. How they keep producing
really fresh technical albums I will never logically
understand, all I can pray to God is that they
keep them coming and that I can get a ticket to
their UK tour next year!
5/5
Review by James Webb |
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| Band
Members |
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Troy Sanders
Brent Hinds
Bill Kelliher
Brann Dailor |
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| Track
Listing |
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1. Black Tongue
2. Curl of the Burl
3. Blasteroid
4. Stargasm
5. Octopus Has No Friends
6. All The Heavy Lifting
7. The Hunter
8. Dry Bone Valley
9. Thickening
10. Creature Lives
11. Spectrelight
12. Bedazzled Fingernails
13. The Sparrow |
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| Band
Related Links |
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| Review
Score Code |
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- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
-
What Was That? |
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