Since their sophomore release Remission, I’ve been following the evolution of Mastodon and I
actually enjoyed The Hunter more than
I would have thought after the first few listens.
With Once More ‘Round the Sun, they continue with the same hard Rock approach leaving behind their more experimental elements and the stoner sound. It doesn’t mean that it is a bad album. It is far from being bad, but it feels even more commercial and radiophonic than any release they did before. Their sound is still there with the guitars and Brann Dailor’s iconic drumming.
However, there are less showing of solos and technical demonstrations than their previous efforts. This is a matured album that might take many listens to get into completely and actually catch all the glimpse of genius it features.
As a fan, I’m always torn between the progression of a band to a cleaner sound with more melodies and clearer sound structures when one of the aspects I like the most was the excesses of experimentations and many transitions. We are not in Blood Mountain and certainly not in Crack the Skye.
Still, it took me more time to get into it and actually like it. This might be their lesser album but a lesser album by Mastodon is better than many of the better albums by other bands today. Especially this year that was not that generous with music lovers.
7.4With Once More ‘Round the Sun, they continue with the same hard Rock approach leaving behind their more experimental elements and the stoner sound. It doesn’t mean that it is a bad album. It is far from being bad, but it feels even more commercial and radiophonic than any release they did before. Their sound is still there with the guitars and Brann Dailor’s iconic drumming.
However, there are less showing of solos and technical demonstrations than their previous efforts. This is a matured album that might take many listens to get into completely and actually catch all the glimpse of genius it features.
As a fan, I’m always torn between the progression of a band to a cleaner sound with more melodies and clearer sound structures when one of the aspects I like the most was the excesses of experimentations and many transitions. We are not in Blood Mountain and certainly not in Crack the Skye.
Still, it took me more time to get into it and actually like it. This might be their lesser album but a lesser album by Mastodon is better than many of the better albums by other bands today. Especially this year that was not that generous with music lovers.
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| Alternate Vinyl Cover |
This is a great album. While I prefer Blood Mountain, Leviathan, and Crack the Skye. This is what a metal album should be.
ReplyDeleteI think The Hunter was their peak musically and commercially but it is hard to just pick out one album that I prefer.
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