Send "Mastodon " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Sputnikmusic |
 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....full text |
| Guardian |
| Mastodon's fifth album is as near to punchy and concise as they're ever likely to come. Gone are the 13-minute multipart epics – the longest track here is just five and a half – yet there's a depth and darkness about The Hunter: not the darkness that drives Norwegian metallers to burn down churches, but the darkness of space. The titles of tracks such as Blasteroid and Stargasm capture the mood. The star of the show is drummer Brann Dailor, whose jazzy fills lend a fleet-flootedness to music that could easily get mired in sludge. Towards the end of standout All the Heavy Lifting, when he switches to double-time kick drums, it's as if all the sonic promises metal has made are being met. It's not all apocalypse-with-instruments, though: the title track deals in the fathomless sadness that ended up making crossover stars of Metallica with One. Thrilling stuff....full text |
| Sputnikmusic |
| I absolutely love Mastodon. And even though I only saw them live once -with quite some mechanical failures on stage, I feel like they've been a big part of my life. Leviathan was one of the first metal albums I listened to. Two years later, Blood Mountain became the holiday anthem for both me and my friends, when we went on vacation through Europe for the first time. And Crack the Skye, well... Crack the Skye is kind of an oddball in a whole lot of ways. The point is, Mastodon are back. NOT doing what made them so great since their debut, and I wouldn't want it any other way. Two songs into The Hunter, you'll notice that this isn't the same Mastodon we've come accustomed to in the past years. The second song, Curl of the Burl, was released a couple months prior to the album's release. And with it came skepticism and hesitance about the band's possible new direction, mostly because of its rather conservative structure. After hearing the album in full, it's safe to say that those early presumptions were misplaced. Mastodon have found a way to blend the progressive and technical aspects of Crack the Skye with the more experimental approach of Blood Mountain. Come to think of it, those two albums could be replaced by Leviathan and Remission respectively, which shows an interesting cycle within the band's discography. Anyway, while The Hunter lacks the 13-minute epics we've come to expect from the band, The Hunter makes up for it with variety. Songs like Creature Lives, Stargasm, Spectrelight and the previously mentioned Curl of the Burl all show a very different side of the band. It more than before reeks of Kyuss, Baroness and even Pink Floyd or The Sword. Mastodon took their time to look over the fence, discover what's on the other side and see if they can do it as well. And boy, they can. Surprisingly, the result is cohesive and rather straightforward. Which in this case is a good thing. It shows that the band have successfully managed to stray of the crazy experimental path that was set by Blood Mountain, while still retaining their signature style of playing heavy metal. In short, they've continued to challenge themselves, and doing so without losing any bit of consistency. So what does all that make this album? A compilation album? Another interesting experiment? A show-off? Or maybe even a magnum opus? You can call it whatever you want. I call it an amazing addition to one of the most impressive discographies of any band out there, both in number and quality....full text |
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