{"id":5629,"date":"2017-03-23T23:11:49","date_gmt":"2017-03-24T03:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/?p=5629"},"modified":"2017-04-17T14:09:36","modified_gmt":"2017-04-17T18:09:36","slug":"mastodon-emperor-of-sand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/mastodon-emperor-of-sand\/","title":{"rendered":"Mastodon
Emperor of Sand"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mastodon,<\/a>Mastodon is back with Emperor of Sand<\/i> (Reprise Records), and the lead-off single (and first track) \u201cSultan\u2019s Curse\u201d gets right to the point. Forty seconds in and you\u2019ve already heard a pair of sledgehammer riffs and two different fire-breathing vocalists. This is something of a concept album, and this first song describes a lone figure banished to the dessert (\u201ctired and lost, no one to trust\u201d) and haunted by his mortality. When the band\u2019s third vocalist, drummer Brann Dailor, joins the fray, he details the desperate situation, singing, \u201cYour feet have been tied and your tongue in your hand.\u201d This is Mastodon doing what we hope and expect they\u2019ll deliver every time: a gnarly narrative set over fierce, muscular, heavy metal chaos.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of songs here that exhibit the classic Mastodon modus operandi, but about half the album shows off other sides of the band\u2019s split-personalities. \u201cShow Yourself\u201d and \u201cSteambreather\u201d are short and sweet, with grooves borrowed from the Queens of the Stone Age. \u201cRoots Remain\u201d is a full-on epic. It begins with the band\u2019s heaviest bashing in a decade before transitioning into a soaring chorus. That\u2019s followed by double bass drums in 3\/4 time and one of Brent Hinds most melodic guitar solos ever. \u201cWord to the Wise\u201d is similarly heavy and, as if to prove he hasn\u2019t gone soft, Hinds rips out an absolutely sick screaming lead. Almost every song on the back half has some kind of shocker, some dramatic moment that\u2019s among the prettiest or ugliest in the Mastodon catalogue. The result is a record that keeps changing, keeps delivering, keeps offering more rewards with every deep listen.<\/p>\n

For this release, Mastodon have reunited with producer Brendan O\u2019Brien, who helmed 2009\u2019s Crack the Skye<\/i>, the band\u2019s commercial breakthrough and their last concept album. (Of course, most<\/i> of Mastodon\u2019s albums are concept albums.) With the way it blended the band\u2019s loose cannon ferocity with twisted, earworm melodies, Crack the Skye<\/i> was in many ways the band\u2019s peak. If, after two intentionally straightforward albums, Emperor of Sand<\/i> is an attempt to climb back to that earlier summit, consider it done. This album is just as vicious and exciting as Crack the Skye<\/i>, but even more than that one, this record conclusively demonstrates the incredible range of Mastodon\u2019s monstrous powers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mastodon is back with Emperor of Sand<\/i>, and the lead-off single (and first track) \u201cSultan\u2019s Curse\u201d gets right to the point. Forty seconds in and you\u2019ve<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[34,1931,1932],"class_list":["post-5629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-album-review","tag-mastodon","tag-reprise-records"],"yoast_head":"\nMastodon Emperor of Sand - The Agit Reader<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/agitreader.com\/wp2\/mastodon-emperor-of-sand\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mastodon Emperor of Sand - The Agit Reader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mastodon is back with Emperor of Sand, and the lead-off single (and first track) \u201cSultan\u2019s Curse\u201d gets right to the point. 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