Mastodon's latest, the hotly
anticipated “The Hunter” is out now and everybody is asking 'what
does Born Again Nihilist think of that?', well settle down people,
let gentle Edward relieve you.
Firstly, a few significant changes with
this record: this marks a departure with long-time cover artist Paul
Romano, who has been the incomparable talent behind all of Mastodon's
cover art with this exception, and at the producer on this one was
the surprising choice of pop and hip hop producer Mike Elizondo, who
most famously worked on peak era Eminem. Also, although I may be
proven wrong, this record doesn't seem to follow on with the elements
theme that the previous Mastodon records have used. What hasn't
changed? Scott Kelly makes an appearance.
The record opens with the furious
'Black Tongue', and already a new dimension to their sound is
apparent. Something akin to the sound that High on Fire are going for
on their latest, Snakes For The Divine. However, that's not
necessarily a good sign for me since I thought that Snakes was HOF's
weakest work. It clearly suits Mastodon better than HOF and we press
on with Curl of the Burl. This one is quite poppy, in its vocals more
than anything else and with a hip hop producer at the helm, an
emphasis on the vocals has to be expected. One thing that I love, and
may be down to Elizondo, is how high Troy Sanders' bass is in the
mix. All to often he was nearly buried under mountains of guitars on
earlier records, but his talent and gorgeous sound shine through on
this one wonderfully.
At this stage, it's already apparent
that the band's vocals are at the best they've ever been, Brent and
Troy and especially Brann, are just excellent. They've come a long
way since the half growled half spoken Life's Blood, although on
third track, Blasteroid, Brent brings out some old fashioned harsh
screams. Indeed there are a handful of harkings back to previous
sounds, including but not limited to the Sleeping Giant invoking
Stargasm, one of the stand-out tracks on here and the first to
indulge the sci-fi sounds that reoccur throughout the record.
Besides the lean towards the HOF style,
there is something entirely new that I can't quite put my finger
on... which is just what I fuckin' love about Mastodon really! The
oddly named Octopus Has No Friends is what provokes the feeling from
this blogger, another stand-out, particularly for those who agree
that what is best in Mastodon is the fact that they always keep you
guessing. When the grapevine first began buzzing about The Hunter, I
was expecting something like a return to Remission, due to the talk
from the band that this was to be a 'beer drinking album'.
Admittedly, it was stupid of me to expect a repeat of Remission; this
is something entirely new, and what less should I have expected from
the Atlanta heroes. One thing that it does share with Remission is
the lack of a definite concept.
Blood Mountain obsessives (like myself)
will dig All The Heavy Lifting at track 6, in my opinion, the
strongest track here contained. Troy's voice sores like an endangered
bird. Crack The Skye fans will dig the immediately following track,
The Hunter. It has all that luscious mystery that epitomised CTS, and
the first to feature Brent's free-flow soloing, which I think has
improved somewhat since it came to the fore on CTS.
All new sound scapes yet again on Dry
Bone Valley, a hard hitting all-metal number that opens with almost
Popol Vue style chord swells. Not far behind, Creature Lives, is one
of the little gems on the album. Entirely composed by drummer Brann
Dailor, it begins with one minute of synth sounds (think the old THX
trailer at the cinema) and Ming The Merciless evil chuckles. As we
get into the thick of it, we are presented with an English folk
influenced vocal epic that is totally unprecedented in the Mastodon
back catalogue. Not a million miles away from The Wildhearts'
'Geordie in Wonderland'. Things turn all Leviathan on the next track,
Spectrelight, with the unmistakable voice of evil genius Scott Kelly
rearing its sludgy head before long. To usher us out into the
disappointing real world again, The Sparrow closes this latest piece
of mastery from Mastodon. Although it's missing about 20 minutes
compared to haunting acoustic closing tracks from previous albums, it
retains all the dark charm and will probably go down as one of the
most beautiful songs they have ever committed to record.
While fans of Mastodon may at first be
sceptical, take it from me, this one is a grower! Like all the best
albums, it will leave you underwhelmed at the first listen, curious
by the second and hooked by the third. If there's one thing I wasn't
too impressed with, it was Brann's drumming. Much of the same old I
thought, but then being the most amateur of drummers, my opinion on
that is not terribly valid. Everything else is played at 11, no doubt
about that son!
Mastodon - The Hunter, Roadrunner
Records.
Rating – 9/10
Listen to – All The Heavy Lifting,
Stargasm, Dry Bone Valley, Spectrelight....or all of 'em!
Edward Gerard Brophy for Born Again
Nihilist, 2011.
bornagainnihilist@gmail(DOT)com
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