Review Summary: The workhorse chronicles
There are few things that get the metal masses burning with anticipation more than a new Mastodon release. After winning over basically every metal head in some way or another with either the crushing down tempo maelstrom of
Remission, the raging literature class by way of riffage of
Leviathan, or the nu-prog complexity of
Blood Mountain and
Crack the Skye, it's really no surprise that their latest album
The Hunter is one of the finest metal releases of 2011, but the real question here is how will their sound evolve this time? Their last two albums saw the tweaked out Georgians eschewing the monolithic slabs of southern sludge that they built their brand on in favor of greater emphasis on technicality and production techniques to thicken out their sound.
The Hunter takes the last few years of Mastodon's career and says to hell with it. While it still embraces their obvious progressive influences, it drops the studio wall of sound and the pretentious veil of mystical concepts making
The Hunter the first album since their debut that doesn't get lost in its own underlying concept. This leads it to be a much more cathartic affair for both the listener and the band themselves as its lyrical impetus can mainly be traced to the personal trials faced by the band members since the release of
Crack the Skye.
Furthermore,
The Hunter's more organic sounds are a welcome relief from the clustered soundscapes presented in
Crack the Skye. Yet,
The Hunter still manages to retain the same evil atmosphere even if it's now formulated a more “classic” metal vibe. Take for example “Dry Bone Valley" which is able to recapture all the mood of a track like “Oblivion” while injecting it with a new sense of groove and some of the biggest vocal hooks Mastodon have ever put on tape. It's a rather stunning reminder that even through all of the smoke and mirrors Mastodon are still the same band that released the mighty
Remission a decade ago. If anything,
The Hunter is the album that shows that as long as Mastodon stay true to their selves, they have the creative wherewithal to not only endure but keep themselves in the spotlight for years and years to come.
