Mastodon - The Hunter

Thu 13th Oct, 2011 in Music Reviews

The Hunter is Atlanta metallers/stone golems/mad scientists Mastodon’s best release of their career. Given the quality of their previous releases, that’s a statement that borders not on hyperbole but flat out stupidity, but the results speak for themselves.

Whilst purists might argue the brutality and ferocity has been severely compromised in favour of melody, the reality is that the bone shattering riffs and sonic teeth gnashing they’ve perfected are still there (I challenge you not to clench your cheeks listening to them level forests with Blasteroid or Spectrelight ) but they’ve wholeheartedly embraced an emotional complexity not yet seen in their material. They’ve once again delivered on a mission statement they haven’t really changed since day one; they’ve just done it using a different set of rules.

They’ve mastered the concept album on various levels ever since their first release Remission, constructing elaborate narratives based on Moby Dick, demonic forest cults, and Rasputin trying to possess the time travelling astral body of a wheelchair-bound boy that’s slipped through a wormhole from our time (…yep). This time they’ve let go of the idea of a formal structure and allowed themselves to explore more immediate forms of mysticism, one song at a time.

Titanic single Curl of the Burl examines the bizarre culture of meth heads cutting out specific knots in West Virginian trees. They then head to town and sell them to furniture makers for cash they use for more meth. Stargasm is a swirling, synth-laden power anthem about cosmic sex in zero gravity. Ahem. White-hot nerve-shredder Blasteroid is pretty much a riff about the eponymous video game that was present during recording. Synth-driven prog number Creature Lives plays with sci-fi aesthetics to tell the tale of a damned creature seeking refuge from a hostile world in a swamp. The antithesis of cheerfully lowbrow thematic doodling like this would be album closer Sparrow, a touching tribute to the wife of an associate who lost her recent battle with cancer. It’s a song heavy on atmosphere but not on theatrics, with a surprisingly lovely melody that guides a simple repeated idiom favoured by their late friend: pursue happiness with diligence.

The band struggled with an inordinate amount of turmoil during lead up to recording. Guitarist Ben Hinds’ brother died of a heart attack during a hunting trip in 2010, and the subject of Sparrow lost her life soon after. Despite the heartache, the band has produced their most positive work so far. There’s a defiantly buoyant energy that permeates The Hunter, and while it’s not necessarily happy per se, it’s definitely not rooted in negativity and cynicism. The guitars aren’t coated in sludge anymore, the harmonies are sky high and the group is clearly proud of the polished vocal work they’ve produced, putting them right up front. Hip hop producer Mike Elizondo (Dr Dre, Eminem, Alanis Morissette) is a surprising choice for obvious reasons, but his mix is smart and unpretentious, capturing the guttural textures beautifully but also using his experience to capitalise on the band’s desire to explore more synthetic elements. His work on the vocals is inspired, and the record feels full and alive.

The musicality of the group is blindingly apparent for even a casual listener, and while The Hunter might not be galloping along at the breakneck speed of The Wolf Is Loose or Blood And Thunder, it still boasts impressive work from everyone. Classic riffs ripped straight from the Slayer handbook are deployed in opener Black Tongue and even their wild experiments on Octopus Has No Friends seem contained and controlled. Drummer Brann Dailor retains his title as Best Drummer in Modern Rock, visiting unchecked devastation onto his kit with diamond precision. Dailor can switch machine gun time signatures on a pin head and his voice has improved a lot.

The tempo has been taken down a bit but this has given them more room to flesh out their work. Hinds and second guitarist Bill Kelliher reach dizzying heights with their solo work and sync well, pushing the chord patterns around each song’s given perimeters without losing focus. They maintain an uplifting tone that they articulate with thunderous certainty. Their music has lost none of its power, but they don’t feel the need to tap into the same venomous animosity they so ruthlessly exploited in their past work. Metal traditionally feeds off blues and psychedelia (which in turn feed off visceral, emotional sensitivity) and amplifies it a thousand times.

The Hunter is a textbook case in metal; the emotions they convey in this are enormous and very, very real, but it never feels overcooked or melodramatic and the music is always king. The album stands as Mastodon’s best work to date and is the best hard rock/metal album (and absolutely one the best albums of any genre) released this year.