Mastodon - Emperor of Sand

Since the early 00's Mastodon has been slowly prying open the mainstream hard rock/metal market with their idiosyncratic trade-off vocals, technical yet increasingly groovy riffs, and an ever-improving ear for the ever-important hook. They've created bizarre and ambitious concept albums loosely based around the elements of water, earth, fire and whatever "aether" is, as well as more literal tales like Moby Dick and other loose chronologies that flow through the course of their records. These albums all feature pretty universally  excellent artwork and the group's success at blending progressive rock's focus on ambition and craftsmanship with the songwriting and memorability of popular hard rock is second in my mind only to Tool. But whereas Tool's music was a deep pool that I enjoyed exploring, Mastodon has never really "clicked" for me. Not for lack of trying either! I've lost count of the number of times I've run through Leviathan, Blood Mountain, and especially Crack the Skye, earnestly trying to find and lock on to the supposedly amazing material contained within without much luck. After Once More 'Round the Sun seemed to cement the band's more radio-friendly approach as their immediate future direction I had checked out, more or less for good until I heard rumors of the impending follow-up release, titled Emperor of Sand. So I decided to check it out and see if this was finally going to be that fabled album at long last that moves all the pieces into position and allows me to really dig into this Atlanta quartet.

The first few songs are fairly light fare, with the radio friendly "Show Yourself" clocking in at a svelte 3 minutes while a generous helping of guitar hooks courtesy of the excellent team-up of Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher squarely dropped on top of the typical world-class drumming of Brann Dailor keep the front half of Emperor of Sand feeling fresh and inviting, as hooky tunes like "Precious Stones" and "Steambreather" provide a catchy cushion to the more taxing and overt sludge/prog of numbers like the excellent "Roots Remain" as the album moves into its 2nd half with more than just radio play on its mind. Rearguard tracks like "Andromeda" and "Scorpion Breath" do their best to hold up the record from the typical back-half slump as the full-figured closer "Jaguar God" shuts things down on a solid enough note.

If this review doesn't seem particularly insightful, that's probably because it isn't, for the reasons I gave at the top. Mastodon's music has always kind of just washed by me in the background of my head, even though I can recognize that they can write some damn good songs. Brann Dailor is frankly one of the greatest drummers alive right now and I will always be interested in whatever he is working on, but the rest of Mastodon's sound after giving Emperor of Sand several spins, for whatever number of reasons, just does not work for me. It's especially tragic because they are one of the few legitimately cool progressive bands to have ever existed and they remind of Blue Osyter Cult, but it looks I'll have to wait for another Mastodon record.