Mastodon - The Hunter

Published October 06 2011

*=Staff's pick	Black Tongue Curl Of The Burl Blasteroid* Stargasm Octopus Has No Friends* All The Heavy Lifting* The Hunter Dry Bone Valley Thickening Creature Lives Spectrelight* Bedazzled Fingernails The Sparrow

Genre	Progressive Metal	Troy Sanders/Brent Hinds	Vocals
Tracks	13	Brent Hinds	Guitar
Running time	43 Min.	Bill Kelliher	Guitar
Label	Roadrunner Records	Troy Sanders	Bass
Release	27 September 2011	Brann Dailor	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboard
Producer	Mike Elizondo
Similar artists	Baroness

Mastodon is one of those bands that always seem to top themselves with every new album they put out. Since their big breakthrough with Leviathan in 2004 they have continued to grow with each album, steadily venturing into different concepts and musical landscapes while staying true to their core elements.

The Hunter is no exception to this rule and there is a lot of high-quality stuff, as usual. However, there are a handful of songs which I find quite boring, frankly: the title track, Thickening, Creature Lives, Bedazzled Fingernails and The Sparrow. Compared to the usual level of quality I feel they are all subpar songs that shouldn't have made the final cut.

Nevertheless, the great songs are indescribably great and Brann's drumming is out of this world. It's just a shame that the first half of the album is so much better than the second. The Hunter is definitely a really good album but following three masterpiece albums, "really good" is somewhat disappointing.

See also review of: Once More 'Round The Sun

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
9	7,5	8	7	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - Bjorn